Where is out of home (OOH) headed in a world of media fragmentation
and greater competition for consumer attention?
The ARF
helped to answer these questions at their Maximizing
OOH Impact event this week. A roster of participants including Andy
Stevens, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, Clear Channel Outdoor,
Christian DeBonville, Director, ESPN Advertising and Marketing Intelligence and
Emma Carrasco Chief Marketing and Engagement Officer, Senior Vice President of
Global Strategy, National Geographic Society weighed in on how data, technology
and creative can all be leveraged to raise awareness, improve branding and
efficiently capture the consumer journey.
OOH at a Measurement Inflection Point
According to
Barry Frey, Chief Executive Officer, DPAA, “OOH is one of the hottest media
today.” He cited three pivotal societal and technological changes have been a
boon for OOH. First, we are spending more and more time out of the home. “We
are increasingly an active mobile society,” he asserted, “and we are becoming a
more urban society.” As mobile phones become ubiquitous, this fuels the ability
to track people wherever they go. Second, Frey sees advertising inside the home
as “fragmenting at best and declining at worst.” Third, with the addition of
digital data capabilities, OOH is now able to count, measure the impact and
attribute usage just like the rest of the media industry. This improvement in
measurement coupled with a safe, viewable, closed system that has no ad
blocking, places OOH on an equal footing with other establish media options.
Data and Technology
The advent
of improved technology that results in more valuable data is pivotal to OOH’s
growth. The ability of marketers to track the consumer journey with mobile geo
location data, for example, has created opportunities and greater confidence in
OOH. Nielsen
has been very active in expanding its OOH measurement offerings as are companies
such as iQ Media which offers visual detection data that includes mood and engagement
metrics.
“There are
three reasons why mobile is so important,” Andy Stevens, Senior Vice President,
Research and Insights, Clear
Channel Outdoor noted, “Everyone has a phone and we carry it with us all
the time. In fact, 85% of adults have their phone within arm’s reach all the
time.” The full consumer journey becomes evident because the data tells us
where people are, their routes throughout the day and their possible exposures
to billboards. The methodological road has been long one but now refinements in
the methodology, such as radius assessments and direction of travel, give the
advertiser greater confidence that ads have actually been viewed.
Clear
Channel’s case study “not only used mobile data in the planning and measurement
of OOH, we also used it to amplify the impact of OOH by retargeting people who
have seen OOH ads with mobile ads,” Stevens explained. This has a priming
effect where the lift in store visits with and without the additional mobile ads
could be compared. “There is a higher lift from people who have seen both the
OOH ad and the mobile ad,” he continued, “It is a one plus one equals three
effect going on. There is a natural synergy between mobile and OOH.” Stevens is finding that these results are
valuable sales tools for advertisers who may be using mobile but currently do
not have an OOH strategy. “An integrated media strategy can yield better
results overall,” he concluded.
Powerful Creative Is a Must-Have
Powerful
creative also plays an important role in OOH effectiveness. Emma Carrasco, Chief
Marketing and Engagement Officer, Senior Vice President of Global Strategy,
National Geographic Society, has developed a Photo Ark Campaign to help raise
awareness of the last 12,000 species in captivity before they disappear. “Our partnership
with the Outdoor Advertising Association of America enabled us to take this
campaign to a whole new level,” she explained, where association members can
get more involved in spreading the message. She shared with me that the
feedback has “been tremendous,” with support across traditional out of home,
digital, transportation, for example. Social
engagement, and its resulting data, has offered a huge, measureable boost in awareness.
Carrasco
sees the next five years as a continuation of National
Geographic Society’s efforts to build a complete documentation of all of
the species in captivity. Currently 7,000 animals have been photographed, but
there are still 5,000 left to do. “We want to bring awareness to what happens
to society when these species disappear. We might actually have a chance to
save some of them.” Strong creative in
conjunction with OOH ad placement and measurement will help propel this worthy
cause.
Data Debunks OOH Myths
OOH
exposures are surprisingly pervasive. Christian DeBonnville, Director
Advertising and Marketing, ESPN,
found that “the OOH audience is seen throughout the year, throughout the day and
not just the biggest events in bar locations. It is programming that is on in
the morning, during mid-day when we presume people are at work or at the gym or
other out of home locations where we are seeing significant lifts.”
He noted
that agencies and clients are more receptive to giving credit for audiences
that are seeing programming and ads outside of the primary residences. The
ability to credit the full consumer journey is great news for both advertisers
and content creators.
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