Intersection Purpose Driven Marketing Accelerates with CEO Chris Grosso

Intersection, an urban digital out-of-home advertising company, is embarking on a bold purpose-driven marketing initiative to make cities more environmentally friendly. According to Chief Executive Officer, Chris Grosso, Intersection, “is focused on three things as it pertains to sustainability. The first is the core piece of our business to support public transit. The second is to reduce our own footprint and the third is increasing brands and advertisers who want to align with sustainable products.”

To meet each goal, Intersection has been solidifying relationships across the board. For goal one, “We work with government agencies that help people do public mobility in cities,” he noted. Grosso estimates that Intersection prevented 1.2 billion pounds of CO2 emissions, according to the American Public Transit Association fact book. This was achieved by “getting people to take mass transit and micro mobility things like bike share and the like. We support those businesses by providing real time transit information, way finding, transit shelters, as well as generating revenue through advertising.”

In addition, according to Grosso, “We've provided more than a billion dollars in payments to municipalities over the last 10 years, most of which to support public mobility. So, by supporting public mobility and public transit that's a great way to drive sustainability and making cities more sustainable and help the environment.”

For goal two, reducing Intersection’s environmental footprint, “We put together a cross functional sustainability team to look at ways to reduce our carbon emissions and that includes things like reducing or transitioning our electric usage to clean sources as well as starting to test electric vehicles for our own vehicle fleets to support all of our infrastructure.”

With goal three, to increase brands and advertisers who want to align themselves with sustainable products, “We've identified a broad set of sustainable products for advertisers to sponsor. That can be things like electric and hybrid buses and clean electric power trains that our transit partners have in the streets, solar powered bus shelters that we deployed, bike share stations and even EV charging stations. Taking products that are clearly sustainable and environmentally friendly and giving advertisers and brands the opportunity to sponsor them and be associated with them,” he stated.

The main objective is to support public transit in cities, “which is a core piece of our mandate, getting our own house in order, by reducing our own environmental footprint and also helping brands align with sustainable products,” he stated.

With advertisers, Intersection seeks the right fit for each company and, as more companies and agencies are interested in sustainability, the time is right for action. Grosso explained that, “I was on the phone with one agency head yesterday who said that sustainability is a huge priority and they need these kinds of products in front of them. So it's actually being driven by the advertisers. We think it's the right thing to do, but the market is driving this and they're telling us that they want this.”

For Intersection, “This is a long term initiative for us. We're always going to be focused on public transit and I think you're going to increasingly see brands wanting to be associated with green and sustainable products. That's going to be a big growth area for us. With regards to our own footprint, over the next three to five years I'd like to see us mostly using EV vehicles, using mostly sustainable materials for our static business and mostly using green power,” he stated.

For Grosso personally, “I'd like to see us get to a much more sustainable place. It's an important long term initiative for us to get right because it's something that our employees are demanding, our city partners are demanding, our advertisers are demanding and honestly it's just the right thing to do.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

 

Intersection’s Total Measurement. Interview with Bella Nguyen, Director, Media Data Solutions.

Digital Out of Home (DOOH) is fast becoming a vital part of a media plan and Intersection is leading the way in measurement and innovation. Beth Nguyen, Intersection’s Director of Media Data Solutions, oversees all of her company’s media data measurement and attribution efforts from brand awareness to foot traffic to digital events to moving media to a new initiative that involves the pharma vertical.

Intersection, which positions itself as a publisher, offers a range of engaging content such as weather, time, factoids, art, notices of local events etc. But they also leverage all aspects of DOOH measurement that include both established currencies, such as from Geopath, and strategic partnerships that add a range of audience demographics such as the types of people who have seen the ads and what they do after exposure.

When it comes to metrics, Nguyen noted that, “We can measure attribution, one being website visitation. We've done a lot in the last year with different types of brands. We're able to pixel the brand's pages and see, based on the exposure, did they go to the website? Did they go to a booking confirmation page? It depends on the KPI.” She added that, “We're also able to measure foot traffic. We had a case study with a financial bank that's pretty well known in the city of Chicago and we were able to measure people who were exposed to the ad if they actually went to those bank locations.”

Intersection is also expanding into a range of other ad categories. “We're starting to measure script lift for the pharma category and we've also tapped into CPG sales live,” she explained, which are currently available on other advertising avenues but not in out of home … until now. Nguyen’s efforts enable the ability to, “measure if someone was exposed to a pharma campaign. Did they actually go to a health care provider who prescribed that specific drug? If not that drug, did it still drive visitation to a health care provider? We're super excited to tap into that.”

Historically, out of home was only able to measure static media. “Anything that was a fixed location,” she noted, “but digital out of home has evolved. With moving media, we're able to actually track the GPS data from vehicles which are publicly available by the transit authorities. Our bus measurement vendor street metrics has device ids so they're able to create view sheds and actually see if there was a device ID that was exposed to that bus at that given time. I worked for major news networks and music streaming companies. They had all of this. But now we're doing this for out of home.”

She noted that, “When people think about large formats, they associate it with billboards, which are impactful and have large formats. Moving media, particularly bus, also has large formats and what's really special about that is that it's moving through our cities which expand reach.” She has calculated that moving media on buses travels, “23 million miles driven in our cities. When you think about that number, it is super impactful for reach. We also observed over a billion impressions just in our major DMAs and markets over a full year. That is a really strong outcome.”

The data Intersection culls from all of their platforms offers a variety of uses. Nguyen explained that, “From a baseline, we can measure impressions, miles driven, frequency, the amount of time someone is exposed to the ad. We also have demographic data based on household census blocks and then to layer on top of it is someone is looking to really measure the effectiveness and has a certain KPI we're also able to measure web visitation and behaviors and foot traffic,” through geo location.

An intriguing case study involved a teeth aligners brand. “Their KPI was to drive visitation. They wanted to see if people went to their website and then actually end up going to a booking page for an appointment or to purchase the aligners. Their secondary KPI was on digital platforms to test their creative. We were actually able to do that for our bus creative, so we had four and at the end of the campaign we broke it out into overall results. How many people actually went to their page and then we broke it up by creative ABC and D and actually saw which creative was the most effective. The client ended up swapping out their creative mid campaign taking our recommendations and included a bigger and larger call to action to go on the website. The results back from the second study was just as effective, if not more.”

For Nguyen DOOH, “is going to be inclusive of everything. We're going to get to a point where people are going to be able to measure their entire out of home media plan and tack in digital TV, radio and be part of that holistic effectiveness. This is not just going to be for people like me or data analysts. It's going to be for sales folks, it's going to be for client success teams, it could be for the creative teams.  It's definitely going to be a tool, where it's going to be beyond just measurement and attribution.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

 

The Value and Impact of Moving Media

The death of cities predicted during Covid has been greatly exaggerated. People are returning to urban centers in droves that not only revitalize city life but also create great opportunities for advertisers and consumers. 

For Michael Rosen, Chief Revenue Officer, Intersection, cities today reflect a, “revitalization and vibrancy. We have so many people out and about that it is an indication of the strength of cities.” This offers advertisers a unique opportunity. “Marketers are really struggling to reach audiences whether it's at scale or underserved audiences and I think the behaviors of consumers and cities have really helped,” he noted.

City Fluidity

According to Rosen, the urban landscape is more complex than one might think. “Only 8% of Americans moved from one U.S. home to another between March 2020 and March 2021 and that was based on the census bureau’s current population survey,” he said and added, “Certainly, there were some movement, but you have people who are either staying or moving back and then you have this hybrid work environment that has brought such amazing opportunities to both city centers and neighborhoods.” These consumers are seeking convenience in their goods and services which begs the question - “How do you extend those experiences when they get back into the office?”

How Moving Media Works

In order to better reach these consumers, Intersection offers advertisers the ability to connect via out of home in a variety of ways. Rosen’s company is focused on “street transit, airports and street level advertising in the major US cities. One of our transit assets is moving media which consists of location based display advertising on things like buses or subways,” he explained.

Take bus transit, for example. “A bus campaign that starts in a neighborhood that has a certain audience, a certain number of impressions, a certain demographic and then depending on the bus route, depending on the city, that moving media can move from location to location,” he noted. This is proving to be even more effective than placed-based static media where a consumer must walk by it to be exposed to the messaging. In short, moving media, “hits people in different points in their daily journey, offering amazing impact,” for advertisers.

Measuring Moving Media

Measurement for moving media involves a variety of data sources. “Intersection uses data to help advertisers understand the behaviors that are happening as a result of their advertising and the outcomes that that we are trying to solve for, such as attribution,” Rosen stated. Data and other information is culled from the routes the moving media takes such as, “How many miles driven, which parts of the city, where was the most campaign traffic. Then, connecting to real time bus location data device-level behavioral insights to really understand the aggregated demographic information and secondary behaviors that are helping marketers not only prove out the efficacy of the actual campaign, but to find other ways to invest in those neighborhoods or cities,” he outlined.

With attribution, for example, Intersection uses foot traffic. According to Rosen, “We can say that a moving media bus campaign drove X number of incremental visits to this big box retailer or this this pharmacy chain, or this major event. We could also say that this bus campaign drove a major number of new App downloads for a digital campaign, or it drove to a shopping cart for ecommerce.”

At a time when ad avoidance has become an art, Rosen believes that moving media better captures consumer attention and involvement. “Marketing Science put out a study that said 30% of TV ad plays are being played to empty rooms,” he shared. “When you think about walking down the street and seeing 10 people, those are real people and not an empty room. The benefit to out of home is that there's an audience that marketers can activate now.”

Looking Forward

Between the resurgence of cities and a new-normal consumer behavior, the future for moving media will only get rosier. “The out of home industry has proven that we are in the real world, we have real people, they're going about their day, they are working, they're going to school, they’re shopping, they are aggregating, they are interacting in a way that makes them appreciate the marketing messages that they see every single day,” Rosen stated.

“I think what's wonderful about what Intersection and the overall out of home community has done over the past several years is bringing the best of digital to the moving media universe. It’s opening up opportunities that marketers have only dreamed of because it's the here and now,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 Artwork by Charlene Weisler

Programmatic and Digital Out-of-Home – An Unbeatable Combination

The ability of media to adopt valuable tools that better track and measure audiences continues to expand and evolve. For Barry Frey, President and CEO of the DPAA, it is the rollout of programmatic digital out-of-home (DOOH) that has served to catapult that advertising form to new heights. “As we have built and led the programmatic discussion and evolution in DOOH for many years now, it is invigorating to see that Programmatic DOOH has emerged as the ‘superpower of OOH advertising’.  From the first days of the pandemic, programmatic trading demonstrated the needed agility and flexibility of the DOOH medium,” he stated.

With Intersection, an out-of-home company with a footprint in 18 cities, the advancement of programmatic is proving to be a valuable asset to help advertisers reach and leverage target audiences as well as enable higher quality attribution. Sheri Ham, Intersection’s Vice President of Programmatic Partnerships and Sales, describes her street traffic company as being in the sweet spot of out-of-home and programmatic. “We compete with all of out-of-home,” noted Ham, “And our advantage is that we have the ability to reach audiences, help brands target their audience, provide data driven solutions and offer measurement tools to help them understand their business outcomes,” all within a programmatic framework that, “provides the brand the opportunity to reach their audiences at the right time in the right physical spaces,” across 6,000 screens.

Impact of the Pandemic on OOH Programmatic

As we have seen the pandemic greatly impacted human behavior and changing the landscape for much of media. “The industry was able to pause, push and easily move schedules to where desired audiences existed during Covid and now that people are coming back out of home again, the dynamic capabilities to target and indicate attribution are driving OOH advertising to larger portions of the Omnichannel media mix.  Programmatic is driving digital, mobile, video location and other budgets to OOH on a global basis,” Frey explained.

For Ham, even though consumers sheltered in place, the pandemic actually accelerated current programmatic trends in out-of-home. “Prior to the pandemic the foundation was really in place,” she began and then added, “but the pandemic accelerated programmatic largely in part to the flexibility that programmatic affords and the advancements across-the-board, campaign planning, execution and measurement.”

There is also a new advertising mindset in programmatic. Ham noted that, “What we've seen most recently coming out of the pandemic and post Covid is that agencies have had shorter planning cycles so they are turning to the flexibility of programmatic to help them in their planning efforts and to get campaigns activated in a shorter timeframe than they've had in the past.” And now even the landscape is shifting. “We're coming to post pandemic and starting to see more people spend time in physical spaces,” she added.

Overcoming Obstacles

Out-of-home has had its share of skeptics. “There's a perception that there is a lack of ROI in the out-of-home channel,” she posited. “The reality is that there have been improvements across the board for measurement and attribution and that those tools and solutions are now available to brands to kind of measure their brand lift to look at the engagement from users across the channel to have the ability to really target those users on online. This has helped move out of home from the top of the funnel.”

Campaign Success

When asked to cite an example of a successful Intersection campaign, Ham shared a national campaign for a Pharma brand which leveraged audience targeting, retargeting and a brand lift study. “We used Neustar audience data to identify the clients target audience and the corresponding screens that over index against that audience. We deployed the campaign nationally and then retargeted the users who  were exposed to the brand messaging across Intersection screens nationwide and then retargeted those users online,” she explained. The result was that the campaign saw an increase in performance for both VCR (video completion rate) and CTR (click through rate) for users that were retargeted following the out-of-home exposure versus only those that were exposed online. In addition, “We also included a brand lift study for that campaign and 77% of the respondents said that they liked the Ad or had a better brand opinion following the exposure to the Ad,” she noted.

The Future of Programmatic Out-Of-Home

“eMarketer has been charting the aggressive programmatic DOOH growth in the US and projects 2021 at $435M almost doubling previous years,” noted Frey who added, “Many in the industry believe the figure will far surpass these estimates.   Programmatic DOOH was a huge part of our Summit this year with all of the major SSPs, DSPs and related platforms engaging in serious and productive dialogue.”

Ham, too, is very optimistic about the future of programmatic DOOH and Intersection. “We will continue to see expansion across the channel, there will be more tools available to the buyers for more attention on reaching target audiences. We make sure that they get the right user at the right time through the premium real estate that out-of-home provides,” she asserted.

She predicted that, for the industry, “The measurement tools will continue to advance over the next few years and we will also see continued expansion and collaboration between out-of-home and digital teams. There's an exciting opportunity for TV and video budgets to shift as the industry continues to build out mixed model attribution and measurement tools.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

 

Out of Home Will Reign Supreme in the Cookieless Future. An Interview with Chris Grosso, CEO of Intersection

Chris Grosso, the new Chief Executive Officer of Intersection, understands the role of urban OOH as an important component to an advertising campaign. 

His company, Intersection, “is an experience driven, out of home media technology company  focused on bringing programming, consumer amenities and advertising to cities,” he explained and added, “We are aiming to elevate the urban experience for consumers and advertisers.” His company, which reaches the 15 biggest cities in the U.S., offers a range of consumer services such as free internet access, such as through LinkNYC, real time information and way-finding products.

A Changing Media Ecosystem Based on Greater Privacy

In an emerging world of IDFA and the prospect of a cookieless future, there will be some media platforms that can easily pivot to this new reality. Out of Home is one of them. The shift from consumer opt out to consumer opt in creates an opportunity for a more passive form of collecting consumer data coupled with a platform the offers premium content. “If you advertise on a premium publisher you know the audience you're getting. You know that the audience is going to be high quality. I think that's got benefits for publishers, because the publishers get the full value of the audiences and they don't have these ad tech companies as middlemen,” he explained and added, “The notion of content and context becomes much, much more valuable and publishers that can deliver that kind of audience are going to be in a really good position.”

Privacy looms large as a challenge for many companies but Grosso is unconcerned because when it comes
to out of home, “You don't need to know who that person is you just need to know that people who were by your screen showed up at the store. You don't need to know anything about those people other than that and that's a very privacy friendly way.”

Intersection’s Offering

Intersection positions itself as a publisher that can offer a range of compelling content such as that found on LinkNYC which offers weather, time, factoids, art, notices of local events, etc. In addition, the company can offer a point of purchase opportunity for advertisers. “Say you're a beer company and want to reach people who are going to bars. You could buy a digital out of home campaign on our screens on Friday nights, right around the bar. I don't need a cookie to be able to get that audience, I can just get that audience, where they are at a logical place in a logical time,” he noted.

And the sun-setting of cookies poses no problem and even offers a compelling point of difference for out of home, according to Grosso. “I can put ads in the drugstore, but I also can put ads on digital out of home screens or even static out of home screens right outside the drugstore and again that's a powerful context, so I think location and context become really important in a world where you can't try to use cookies to track that kind of audience,” he shared.

Intersection’s Measurement

Measurement deliverables for advertisers include both established currencies and strategic partnerships. “We rely on Geopath which is an audited set of metrics for the out of home industry,” for reach, frequency and impressions, Grosso explained. “Geopath is the currency that people buy and sell on. We found that it was a good baseline. But you have to enhance on top of it. So we’ve put together an ecosystem of partners that can build on top of what you get from Geopath,” which includes more demographics – the types of people who have seen the ads and what they do after exposure.

One example is StreetMetrics for exterior buses. “We sell advertising on 10,000 buses in the United States and using StreetMetrics provides digital style measurement in attribution based on the data they collect,” using the GPS from the bus to match to the data they collect to better understand the audience, he noted.

Looking Ahead for Out of Home and Intersection

For Grosso, the future is bright with possibilities. “Valuable premium audience with differentiated content is going to be really, really successful,” he began, “That's going to be true in the digital space and that's going to be true in the physical space.” He pointed out that the opportunities are there for both big and small companies. Big platforms like Facebook or Google, “will continue to be hugely successful because you have lots of data and big audiences that are highly engaged. If you're a specialized vertical publisher with good audience you're also going to be successful. The premium out of home companies that have assets that can reach hard to reach audiences with really good creative in contextual brand safe environments are also going to be hugely successful because so much advertising is targeted by location and without a cookie trying to find those people on a mobile phone, is going to be very hard, I can guarantee you.”

He sees that, “People are coming back to cities and going out frequently. Advertisers want to reach those folks at critical points throughout the day, so high quality out of home publishers are going to really thrive. Out of home will become a great way to add highly localized reach for any of these marketers because if they want to target locations or consumers who congregate and specific neighborhoods, the best way to do it has always been out of home, but now it'll be the only way to do it. Out of home will continue to be the most cost effective, privacy friendly and brand safe way, if you want to target a geography,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

Measuring Post-COVID Revitalization Using DOOH Traffic

How can we best predict the timing of a post-COVID recovery? One metric in particular may hold the key. A recent study by mfour and VistarMedia examining Digital Out of Home (DOOH) traffic (as defined by the number of unique devices observed surrounding DOOH venues) reveal an increase in consumer confidence and activity as we enter the post COVID era.

The Study Reveals a Return to ‘Normal’

From every indication, consumers are ready to resume their lives and are becoming more comfortable going to places they had stopped visiting during COVID. While this varies by market, the overall indicators show greater traffic and visitation to once shunned venues and businesses.

Consumers are getting out and about. Comparing March 2020 to March 2021, foot fall traffic is significantly up with +70% growth year to year. Notably, this is even greater traffic than pre-pandemic levels, demonstrating a great pent up demand by consumers to return to and even exceed pre-COVID activity and spending levels.

“Three quarters of Americans admitted spending too much time online this past year, according to a Harris Poll and OAAA survey. Digital fatigue is real and people are tired of staring at their screens,” said Michael Rosen, chief revenue officer with Intersection. “As vaccinations increase and newly issued guidelines are welcomed with warmer weather, a newfound appreciation for being outside will arise. This is where the inherent advantages of OOH vastly outweigh other advertising mediums, especially for those whose ads can be skipped.”

Consumers Are Returning to Activities

Activity is surging at recreational locations, gas stations, billboards, grocery and liquor stores, malls, bars, QSR and casual dining and office buildings where people are venturing out, shopping, dining and returning to the office. An encouraging 98% of those surveyed visited a DOOH venue type in the past month, leaving their homes and in view of digital out-of-home screens.

Venues such as gyms, subways, sports entertainment centers and bus shelters are on the verge of rebounding while airports, hotels, train stations, salons and educational centers will take a little longer to return to normal. But consumer optimism is high for even these categories. When asked, consumers say that they intend to visit airports after the pandemic (increasing +98% from November to April), transit stations (+82%) and taxis (+81%).

Consumers Are On the Move

After months of sheltering in place, consumers indicate that they are ready to travel. The majority of them are walking and driving more or the same amount as they were at this time last year (85% and 80% respectively). And while public transportation is down, about half of consumers are still using it as much as, if not more, than they were last year (52% and 51% respectively).

“Bus exteriors in particular have been able to connect brands with local audiences throughout the pandemic,” said Rosen. “With expansive transportation networks ranging from city centers to residential neighborhoods and highways in between, buses can be turned into massive media networks that reach enormous audiences - in some cases up to 98% of a metro area population - that other forms of local media just can’t. And as transit ridership continues to increase by the week, there’s a real opportunity for brands to capitalize on the attention of target audiences, both above and below ground, before inventory, especially big station dominations and street furniture takeovers, begin selling out as brands shift OOH strategies.”

For brands, this means that they can effectively get their message out by using urban panels, billboards, taxi tops, gas stations and other place-based and point-of-purchase inventory that capitalize on these transportation patterns. Focusing on context and place captures consumer attention, awareness and retention with a population starved for entertainment and experiences.

Consumers are Spending More

An indication of economic resurgence is when consumers feel comfortable spending again. According to mfour, almost 75% of those polled indicated that they are spending more or the same as they did last year at this time on both essentials and non-essentials. This includes Groceries (+86%), Gas (+71%), Restaurants/Dining Out (+64%), Clothing and Accessories (+57%) and Personal Care and Beauty (+52%). There is also increased spending on Entertainment (+40%), Over-the-Counter Medications (+37%) and Home Improvement Products (+36%).

Reaching Consumers Today

Being in the right place at the right time is important for brands. The study revealed that 98% of consumers have visited at least one DOOH venue in the past month with 84% recalled seeing a digital OOH ad. Advertisers can leverage this by using DOOH screens in bars, restaurants (casual dining and QSR), malls, convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores and more to reach consumers on the path to purchase.

And people are ready to resume normalcy by traveling, visiting stores and going to an office. The study found that +43% are not hesitant to resume any of their normal routines (up from 35% in January). Only 5% indicate that they are hesitant to return to all of their normal routines.

Starved for stimuli outside the home, consumers say that they have a very positive attitude towards DOOH advertising. A majority (+61%) feels that it is appropriate for brands to be advertising on indoor and/or outdoor screens during COVID-19. In fact, sentiment was higher for DOOH among consumers than for other forms of advertising.

When comparing DOOH to non-DOOH ads side by side, DOOH ads ranked higher in preference, environment and relate-ability. And 58% of consumers say out-of-home ads are the most trustworthy compared to TV (55%), Mobile (43%, Social (39% and Desktop (34%). For brands, all of this positivity this means that they can capitalize on this effective association to deliver their messages.

Next Steps for Brands

mfour advises that advertisers craft their message to the moment of consumer contact by enhancing moments of relief and helping consumers return to normalcy with a message of positivity and hope.

 

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

Saying "I do!" The Marriage of Creative and Data in Out of Home

Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising has reached an important crossroad between creative and data.  Impactful, engaging creative has always been a given. But now, advancements of technology enable OOH advertisers to access a range of data sets that map and measure the impact of creative on the consumer experience through the sales funnel. A lively discussion at the recent Advertising Club Out Of Home Now conference highlighted the importance of both creative and data in advancing the business.

Dave Yacullo, President & CEO of Outdoor Media Group, opened the meeting by saying that "OOH is the perfect marriage between art and science. We now have contextually relevant content in many formats and we are going digital. "

Creative
The creative keynote speaker, Mark Tutssel, Global Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett Worldwide, waxed poetic about how outdoor, one of the oldest advertising mediums, is also one of the most compelling to change hearts and minds. He said, "Outdoor, for me, is one of the great canvases. When I first got into the industry I was told that when you have an idea, first create an outdoor poster because this form of advertising distills an idea to its essence. It can transform business and impact society. It can stop people in their tracks. The poster is the oldest form of outdoor information exchange and is also the medium of the future."

So with that in mind, Mark demonstrated the impact that outdoor can have when creative is merged with technology. This merging can go beyond the mere commerce impact of advertising. It can enable social good and health. Examples included Samsung which rolled out Smart trucks, enabled with cameras and back screens showing on-coming traffic that helped lower car accident deaths on Brazil's one lane roads. Another example was Coca Cola which used location based screens in Lahore Pakistan and in Delhi India to bring people together and share a positive, friendly moment between two nations that sometimes view each other with suspicion and hostility. These initiatives, in my opinion, are brilliant, brand effective and socially beneficial, bringing "the poster" with its historical impact to change hearts and minds, into the 21st century.

Mark concluded, "Great brands have unmistakable brand identity. They capture the human spirit. They are delightfully simple. They grab people by the eyeballs and reward them for their time and intelligence. People are looking for ways for brands to reward them and enrich their lives. The message must open up inside our minds."

Data
One can have great creative and an amazing initiative but without the ability to measure its impact, we may never know how much it helped reach the campaigns goals. That is where all this new data, made available via the digitization of media, can make an impact. Plus, the sophistication of blending location based technology with digital data enables OOH to more effectively target consumers at a time when they are most receptive to those ads. Stacy Deriso, Group Director PHD Google, explained, "We are using data to identify an elusive target. We are very scientific as to how to reach them and are targeting more specifically where they work and play in order to create contextual messages."

Andy Stevens, SVP Research and Insights, Clear Channel Outdoor, has recently moved to OOH from digital. What drew him to OOH was that, "In digital we can get diverse audience insights. We can optimize in real time. But in OOH we have high impact. There is no ad skipping. There is no ‘below the fold’. Traditionally, in OOH it is hard to measure who is actually seeing that ad but we know there is a huge opportunity in data to change the industry."

Hard data alone may not tell the entire story. How do we know that the consumers’ mindset is receptive to receiving and processing the message? Enter neuromarketing into OOH. Alan Smith, Chief Digital Officer at Assembly, explained, "We use the emotional mindset to decide when to serve ads going beyond surface metrics to emotions." Alan realized that we get an emotional high after going to the gym rather than on a stressful commute and that may make us more open to ads from a company like Timberland. He confided that, "We shifted media towards gym type locations and inside gyms and maximized the mix." The combination of emotional behavioral insight coupled with location technology helps feed an ad at the right time in the right place when the consumer has the right mindset to receive it.

Where there is data, programmatic cannot be far behind. When asked if OOH programmatic is in the near future, Stacy said, "Yes. Programmatic allows us to be more elegant. We can create messages or bodies of messages that are more powerful and engaging." Alan added, "We embrace programmatic. It has daunting complexity but automation is a good thing. The more you are embedded in technology the more buyers you have."

Conclusion
The final panel, moderated by Media Village’s Stuart Elliott, put all of the OOH pieces together – the creative and the quantitative - with a discussion of connected cities that are essentially partnerships between municipalities and marketers. “Smart Cities is a very nascent field,” Stuart began, “It is fast moving but still early.” Programs like Citi Bikes, the Highline and now Sidewalk Labs in NYC are, according to Dave Etherington, EVP, Chief Strategy Officer at Intersection, “focused on improving the urban experience.” This is done with creative, seamless partnership integration that can be quantified.

The future looks bright for OOH. As Elyssa Gray, Director, Head of Brand and Advertising NA Cards at Citi, noted, the range of OOH is expansive because we are “not confirmed to ad format. If you can think it up you can probably execute it.”

And now you can even measure it.





This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com