Call to Care Campaign with Chris Steenstra

Chris Steenstra, Chief Administration Officer at Mower, was faced with an important yet challenging task – find the best messaging to compel applicants to consider a career as a health care specialist, a career that even in the best of pre-Covid times, calls for immense compassion and patience for little pay.

“Our client, Iroquois Health Care Association, an Albany New York based association of upstate hospitals, was designated as a workforce investment organization and received funding from New York State Department of Health,” she explained.  Mower was the agency of choice to launch a campaign to both recruit and also train long term care providers. “We're one of the largest independent agencies in terms of Ad Age's ranking, a top B2B agency in terms of B2B marketing, a brand top brand experience agency chief marketer and we are a top PR agency,” she noted. The recruitment campaign, named Caring is Your Calling was for a brand titled the Caring Gene.

The funding for this campaign, launched well before the pandemic, was based on a grant from New York State. “The funding was allocated because of the severe shortage of long term care providers, especially at the entry caregiver level, so certified nursing assistants, home health aides and personal care assistants. There is a dire shortage with an aging population, not just in New York State but across the country, and, frankly, these jobs don't pay very much.”

Mower’s job was, as Steenstra explained, “To get more people across New York State to consider whether they were well suited for a career in long term care. We started by conducting some primary research among the audience. We talked to caregivers in long term care who are very successful very happy very good at what they do and teased out what their motivation was - what led them into this field, what gets them out of bed in the morning, why do they love it knowing how hard it is. It's such a demanding career. It's very physical. It's not very glamorous. It certainly doesn't pay very well, especially in the beginning, although there is a career ladder.”

She discovered a behavioral gem in the research. “What we discovered was there are some people that have this desire to care for others. They want to be helpful. They're nurturing. They just want to help people, and so for them, there's no other job that would be as fulfilling, money aside, difficulties aside. It's an area of healthcare where a caregiver can really build a relationship with the patient and the resident. It's not just like at the hospital where you're in and out or primary care where you're in and out. Caregivers really get to know the residents, or the people that they're caring for in their homes. So with that insight, that idea that some people have this innate desire to care, we developed this Caring Gene brand and that became the centerpiece for the campaign,” she noted.

The message from this insight was crafted into a statewide multimedia campaign that included, “Radio, television, out of home, digital - the full spectrum of media to target that audience of primarily 18 to 34 year olds and even more, 18 to 24s who were just starting their careers, maybe just coming out of high school.”

This initiative had three phases. Phase one was launched about a year before the pandemic. Once the pandemic hit, the message had to be re-crafted as a call-to-action. “We started out in the first phase of the campaign, as the Caring Gene and had several different iterations of TV spots and assets. But less than a year into the campaign, Covid hit and all of a sudden, the Caring Gene didn't feel as urgent,’ she explained and added, “There was this whole other reason to get involved in healthcare. We would have been tone deaf if we had just continued with the current campaign. That's when we pivoted and launched the Caring is Your Calling.”

The message was clear. “We took our cue from the World War Two Rosie the Riveter poster and other kinds of propaganda posters like those vintage posters that were meant to rally civilians into action. The whole look and feel of that second phase of the campaign was much more urgent. We had a new TV spot, all new creative which was really in the moment and talked about the urgency of becoming a healthcare hero,” she stated. This campaign performed very well.

According to Steenstra, at that point in the campaign, “We had two years and two different campaigns worth of data and insight on how it performed, especially on social channels like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit. We were able to see what was resonating.” Mower could see what platforms and ads were most engaging and what other online activities were taking place. “We could see that they were into culture. A lot of them were into hip hop. They were playing games online.”

So, in the third iteration of the campaign, Mower pivoted to take into account the online behavior of its target demographic. Their usage indicated that they needed a, “Very different from the campaign that we had initially launched and we knew that our sweet spot was even younger than the initial campaign so our third iteration was called the Dance Campaign. We created a series of eight different videos of groups of caregivers in different dance scenarios, almost like flash mob type, some of them were like flash mob type dances with a more spontaneous feeling. Others were more storytelling, someone dancing their way from a dull boring kind of retail job or fast food job into something so much more fulfilling in caregiving.”

This proved to be very successful messaging. “It took off,” she added, “We never had so many comments, shares and likes and people posting things and really engage with a paid ad. That's what we saw with this campaign. It was just an incredible outpouring. We got the psychographic finely tuned in that third iteration. Also we were still in the height of Covid and people started to realize how critical these healthcare providers are.” The campaign garnered almost 2.1 million total website visits, 143,000 total job search tool interactions and resulted in almost 2,300 job applications.

The campaign was also recognized by the industry winning the prestigious Grand Prix award in an international competition in 2021, The Drum B2B Awards in 2022, two gold and six other awards during the 2021 Healthcare Advertising Awards and four gold and five other 2021 ANA B2 awards.

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

 

Canvas’ Kevin Stafford Offers Advice on Acing the Agency Audit

In this competitive media environment, merely passing an audit is not enough. Agencies need to demonstrate true excellence for their clients. 

For Kevin Stafford, Senior Vice President, Client Director,  McDonalds co-ops account, Canvas, the importance of acing the annual audit is pivotal to the reputation of the agency. “In a time where agencies have been dominated by the holding companies, the goal of Canvas was simple,” he explained, “Create a scaled independent, best-in-class agency.” 

This mission has paid off. Canvas has been recognized by AdWeek as Breakthrough Agency of the Year in 2020 and AdAge Creativity awards and Most Innovative Agency by Campaign US.

What Does an Audit Entail?

The frequency of an audit can vary by agency and by client. “With some of our clients, we actually get audited quarterly,” he noted. “They send the goals that were input by strategy and the exact times for the spots that ran for each of the audited markets to the audit company who uses that data, along with Kantar date to evaluate the buys vs. a panel of other similar clients, vs. ourselves in previous quarters and vs. the averages.”

But in unusual times, such as during the pandemic, there were other considerations involving the audit including different parameters for client success. “While the overall audit process did not change,” Stafford said, “there were some glaring changes in the media marketplace. But communication with our clients really allowed us to make the changes that continued to focus on the clients business objectives.”

Preparing the agency technologically also helped save the day for Canvas during Covid. “We had a very opportunistic transition just weeks before the pandemic that allowed us to go into Monday, March 16, 2020 with limited interruption in our communication,” and this helped solve for what would otherwise have been a hectic and error-prone pandemic adjustment.

Audit Preparation is Vital

Canvas, as with other agencies, has a standard protocol for preparing for an audit, Stafford explained. The agency calculates the post buy and sends the data to the audit company which then returns a preview of the analysis so the agency can respond with any additional commentary to the findings.  “At the end of the day, our audit score is a number on our report card for how well we performed,” he noted, “However, it is just one part of that, and to me, it’s actually come to be about pride and being able to show, in numbers, versus the competition how well we have done.”

Ultimately, audit success is based upon trust. “We are lucky enough to have support from all of those partners in the good times, and a willingness to take chances in the challenging times.  The trust our clients have in our work, both on the strategy and investment teams is something we are fortunate to have and I think it comes off in our work and the results we have seen over the last few years, with great media audit results,” he stated.

Preparing For a Future Audit

Stafford’s advice for future audits is to start early. “The reality is that the audit starts with our teams working together early. Even as we are finalizing our plans for 2022 now, our strategy teams are talking to our investment teams to make sure we have the right daypart mixes and what the market has seen changing over the last few weeks/months/year.  We are looking to ensure we have the right overall strategy and that is aligns with our clients goals and objectives for the coming year.” 

Building relationships both internally and externally is the key to ongoing success as is the ability to be strategic in an extremely fluid and transformative media ecosystem. “It’s the flexibility and willingness to challenge the status quo in each region, each market and with each client that has helped make Canvas so amazing.  You add that to the world-class group of people in every department who really do love working together and it’s pretty hard for this team to not succeed,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

 

 

Strategy in the Age of Earthquakes

The old saying, “May you live in interesting times,” holds special resonance today. Over the past 18 months we have experienced many “interesting” cultural shifts from a global pandemic that impacted how we work, study and play to a reckoning around social justice to a rise in global authoritarianism and even a Capitol insurrection. The relevant question for us is - How do all of these events impact our industry?

Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, Vice President of Marketing at DoorDash and The Martin Agency’s Chief Strategy Officer Elizabeth Paul sat down for a virtual fireside chat at the recent 4As Stratfest to discern our future as they delved into our past.

Sometimes, like in New Zealand in 1931, an earthquake of high magnitude can change the topography of the land to such a degree that new maps have to be drawn post-quake. “It is a story that we find ourselves in today,” Paul began, “We are in the midst of a cultural earthquake… In many ways it is an age of earthquakes and I believe that strategists, as students and shapers of culture, we have a unique role to play in what comes next. ” To that end, Paul and Amoo-Gottfriend discussed the three fault lines for agencies and marketers going forward.

Fault Line #1 - Fixed Versus Fluid

Taking the earthquake analogy one step further, Paul outlined three fault lines in our industry. “The first tension or fault line is Fixed versus Fluid,” she explained, requiring a decision of what to hold onto and what to change.  For Amoo-Gottfried, it is a careful consideration path. “When you look at businesses over time, in the midst of chaotic change, it’s really hard to figure out the things that you want to hold onto. The things that don’t change – your Northstar, your purpose as a business, why you exist and what problem you are trying to solve for people - that part of it won’t change but the ‘how’ of it will change,” he explained. It is vital to be clear about your purpose. “The playbooks over the past 18 months have changed. We had to pivot … A map is not as useful in an earthquake but a compass helps,” he noted. And clarity of mission is vital.

Fault Line #2 - Selling versus Serving

“The second fault line is Selling versus Serving,” stated Paul who added, “A lot of marketers now, because of the pressures that everyone is feeling to make sales in a shifting economy are shifting their sales down funnel to optimize conversion.” Amoo-Gottfried responded that his company, Doordash, looks at tensions not as impediments but as ways to work through a process to a company’s advantage. 

“My philosophy is that Brands matter only insofar that they solve problems for people. Ultimately, our job is to figure out what people need and how do we show up to meet that need and how do we serve that need. And if we do that consistently, the bottom line always, inevitably, takes care of itself,” he noted. These needs have changed over the past 18 months and continue to evolve. The challenge is to keep up with these changing needs and respond effectively.

Fault Line #3 – Speed Versus Craft

Paul’s third fault line, Speed versus Craft, concerns the need for speed in a vastly accelerating environmental pace. But does a fast pivot serve the company and the consumer? “There have been times when pressures have done amazing things for us as an industry. They forced us not to over think things. They forced us to do things that are right in the moment to be responsive to our audiences and to be responsive to culture,” she explained, “ But obviously from a crafts standpoint there are times when the threadbare nature of having to move quickly can really show.”

How can one balance speed and craft? “This is really hard. At some level this is a genuine tension,” Amoo-Gottfried admitted. “I can’t claim to have figured it out. I don’t think we have. I will say that some of the best work that Doordash did last year was done very fast,” where the campaign Open For Delivery was done in six days. “It wasn’t six days for the sake of it,” he stated, “It was six days because we all felt that it was of imperative importance to get that work out in the world as soon as possible so that businesses could continue to operate. It is important to figure out what is driving that speed.”

Future of Work

Arguably the one thing that the industry is not discussing, according to Amoo-Gottfriend, is burnout. In the past 18 months the pace of work has accelerated and the degree of change in how we approach work and personal commitments has never been greater. We are, “carrying a psychic cost of living in the pandemic, of living through a racial reckoning, living through Me Too. Whatever it is that is going on,” he noted, adding that, “There is a mental cost to our teams having to negotiate that tension. The challenge is to figure out how to get around that work-life balance.”

According to Paul, the future of work must not focus on structure – remote versus live in-office, for example. People are going through a trauma. She explained that, “People don’t process trauma in the trauma. They process later when they get to a safe place. As much as it is the natural question to ask, because we all want certainty, the real question is how you care for people in the midst of shaking and what do you need?” She then answered that question.  “They need a compass instead of a map, they need community, they need a connecting story and people need compassion,” she concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

 

 

How Can a Small Sales Org Make a BIG Splash? New York Interconnect Has the Answer

Can one place Amazon, Google and New York Interconnect in the same group? The answer is yes, according to Ed Renicker, CEO, NYI. New York Interconnect (NYI) was named the #3 Overall Sales Organization alongside these nationwide heavy hitters.

“This is the story of the little New York TV Media Buying Corporation that could - and did - not only land on a list that included national and global household names, but also managed to keep their clients happy and profitable in the middle of a tumultuous year in a market that was initially the epicenter of the pandemic,” explained Renicker. “This was all happening while placing #1 in categories like Proactive Impact, Innovation, and Communicate Value.”

MediaVillage sat down with Renicker, to find out exactly what NYI does to pull ahead of the pack and its future plans to insure they stay there.

New York Interconnect’s Audience One

“New York Interconnect (NYI) has been an industry leader for over three decades,” he began. In fact, the company is a joint venture between three impressive media firms - Altice USA, Charter Communications and Comcast. For Renicker, “NYI continues to pave the way for the future of TV media buying across all screens in the nation’s largest, most diverse, and most affluent market.”

It is a time of great transformation in the media space with more platforms and quality content than ever before. “In this revolutionary ecosystem, NYI continues to navigate the ever-evolving TV landscape through its ground-breaking Audience One platform,” Renicker explained and added, “Audience One is a multiscreen approach that integrates TV content into one holistic marketing platform that incorporates TV, digital, video on demand, live streaming, OTT, and exclusive network sponsorships, for an end-to-end media plan that connects advertisers to the right consumers.”

NYI Sales Organization Kudos

NYI was recently named #3 Overall Sales Organization in the Myers Report alongside corporations that include Google and Amazon. For Renicker, that success is no surprise. “NYI has that rare advantage of being a corporation that operates like a small business, as far as our ability to maintain close personal relationships with all our clients and first-hand knowledge of the brands they represent, yet NYI has the power, influence and reach of a large, powerful organization,” he shared.

“We’ve been at this for thirty years and NYI is always on the cutting edge of the next technology and at the forefront of the TV media evolution. So that combination has allowed us to be in the unique position of ranking up there with household names like Google and Amazon,” he added.

NYI also was the recognized leader in such attributes as Proactive Impact, Innovation, and Communicate Value. “Being proactive and innovative has always been part of the fabric with NYI,” he explained, “Whether finding the next great opportunity for our clients or recognizing an industry trend that we think our clients need to be aware of, the sales team at NYI never stops looking for the next great move for our clients.”

NYI makes it a point to communicate value across a range of messaging from trade publications and industry events. “We also pride ourselves for always moving the conversation forward when it comes to our industry. We’re always eager to share our latest research and findings with not only clients, but with colleagues because we believe that anything that advances our industry is good for everyone,” he noted.

Marketing During the Pandemic

The Myers Study client satisfaction study was fielded during the pandemic in 2020. In such an unusual and difficult year, the question is, how did NYI manage to steer their clients’ strategies to success, especially when New York, in particular, was initially the epicenter of the pandemic in the US?

Renicker and his team met the challenge. “When the pandemic hit New York, our teams were forced to chart a new course for each of our existing clients (as well as some new ones), all without ever even being able to step foot back in the office. Our sales and support teams all quickly recalibrated, reallocated, and rebounded from this setback in a way that not only left the company reaching its 2020 sales goals, but also helped to ensure the continued success of its clients, their brands, and their verticals.”

NYI’s Multi-Pronged Approach During the Pandemic

Renicker was quick to take the necessary actions during the pandemic to insure success for both his clients and his team. The areas of concentration were:

Messaging: The NYI sales team saw that the environment had changed and advised their clients of the new tonality. In fact, he noted, “Many business verticals had to pull their current creative to revise messaging to be more mindful of the current climate. In addition to pulling creative to protect their clients’ brands with acceptable tonality and re-allocating dollars because of pulled and revised programming, the team reconfigured schedules for the betterment of their clients and to accommodate the changes in programming.”

Following the Data: Data became especially important to guide the decision making process. “Our teams followed the data to find the desired audience of their clients now that so many cancellations were coming into play, especially when it came to live sports,” he said and added, “Audiences were migrating to news and entertainment programming; our data allowed brands to actually follow and continue to connect to their target consumers wherever and whenever they were watching.”

Business Verticals: During the pandemic there was a notable and not unexpected shift in advertiser categories. And NYI was ready. “For every vertical that pulled back on their TV media schedules in 2020, there were more that came to the forefront,” Renicker explained, “All matters of healthcare and hospitals found themselves wanting to get important information out. New verticals like online gaming and food delivery services found themselves in great demand. The sales team of NYI fought to keep their struggling verticals visible so they would be strongly positioned when the market rebounded. They also sought the right opportunities for the verticals that were now in high demand by creating effective media plans to maximize their exposure and profitability.”

News, Sponsorships and Political: Programming and advertising categories shifted in importance. He explained that, “All eyes were on the news in 2020. Daytime viewership skyrocketed and prime-time was now around-the-clock. Local cable news networks including News 12 and Spectrum NY1 found loyal viewers tuning in for hours at a time daily as their coverage spanned everything from updates on the pandemic, new healthcare protocols and news on protests taking place around their local neighborhoods. We placed important healthcare ads during peak viewership hours and created sponsorship opportunities that would align with the new programming being implemented by the cable networks.” He added that, “Political was also huge in 2020. A holistic advertising approach was the key to getting the word out in 2020 which is just want our teams did. The campaigns benefited from a more-targeted, audience-based approach in addition to their standard linear buys.”

Digital & Multiscreen: Through all of this, a multi-platform approach was pivotal to establish one-on-one connections with customers. “Brands need to reach them across devices at-home and beyond,” he shared, “Digital targeted advertising acts as a primary touchpoint for smaller brands and a bolster to video advertising across platforms for larger ones. The digital arm of a holistic marketing strategy is particularly crucial to attribution. Brands can see the conversion rate of households exposed to its commercial on multiple platforms, as well as metrics like website visitation, location data, or tune-in conversion after being exposed to an ad.”

The Beauty of the New York Market and NYI for Advertisers

When you are representing the biggest, most diverse global market as New York, you can’t help but see the great importance the market has for advertiser brand’s TV media strategy. It is a must-buy. “It all happens in New York!” Renicker exclaimed. “We are the #1 market in the country. We have the most affluent, diversified consumers and now, thanks to data and reporting, we have the ability to target like never before and prove a brand’s ROI.”

NYI should be the centerpiece of any marketing effort. In addition to the accolades NYI has received with the Myers Report rankings, their Marketing Team was recognized as Marketing Team of the year by the Faxies- and NYI was a runner up for Best Sales Organization. “NYI has always strived to maintain a great blend of talent that includes Sales personnel, Operational personnel, Marketing personnel, Business/Financial Planning personnel, HR personnel, and overall sales support personnel,” he explained, “We truly work as a team with the objective of servicing our clients at the very highest level. We do this by having homegrown talent combined with bringing in talented subject-matter experts when required.”

When asked to summarize what the secret sauce is to NYI’s success, Renicker didn’t hesitate in his answer.  “1. Client service, 2. Client service and 3. Client service. Our technology is always the most current, but our philosophy is always the most tried and true. Our clients come first in everything we do and keeping the best interest of our clients as our driving force has never steered us wrong.” The proof is in the Myers’ ranking.

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

 

Polling for Accuracy in the Census. An Interview with Steve Edgeller

As someone who is conducting genealogical research, I am aware of the discrepancies in past census records. Further, with the focus on the accuracy of recent political polls and the politicization of the recent census, especially during the pandemic, I was curious to know how challenging the data collection process was for a census taker.  

Steve Edgeller, who has worked with population data in his career, appreciates the importance of having a comprehensive and reliable census base for population/household demographics to inform his work in urban development. He was committed to working the census because, he explained, “Running my own business gave me the flexibility to work afternoons, evenings and weekends, which were the ideal times to catch people on their doorstep. The census period only lasted a couple of months, which gave me the opportunity to make some pocket money ($20 an hour).”

Charlene Weisler: Was this your first time working the census?

Steve Edgeller: This was my first time but a lot of my co-workers in the field were doing it for the second, third or fourth times, some well beyond their normal retirement age.

Weisler: Where did you work - what state, areas etc?

Edgeller: Most of my casework was located within half an hour drive from home in northern New Jersey, some in my own street!  I did need a car to get to the locations, and in most cases, to drive to the next address - which weren’t always next to each other. Some of my co-workers in city centers managed to do theirs on foot or by bus, especially when they were surveying whole apartment blocks at once.

As the census deadline approached however we were offered the chance to work out of state, and I joined a group of around 30 people who were flown from New York to Columbus, Georgia where there was a massive undercount that they needed to resolve. We spent three weeks in a hotel with rental cars, taking it from around 20% response up to nearly 80% response.

Weisler: What were you asked to do and how difficult was it to achieve at this time?

Edgeller: The job entailed knocking at predetermined addresses, where there had been no response received to date, and asking a household member to complete the full survey with me. I asked the questions and entered the answers straight into a smartphone app. They equipped me with an iPhone and language identification cards to use if English was not the first language. A simple survey could be completed in a couple of minutes, but it took a lot longer if there were more occupiers, children, relatives etc. Sometimes 15 minutes or more.

Weisler:  What data did you need to collect?            

Edgeller: The data collection was straightforward - name, date of birth, origin/race and relationship to other members of the household. There was a follow-up survey in some cases which went into employment, income, disability etc., although I wasn’t involved with that stage.

Weisler:  How did covid impact your work ... or not?

Edgeller: The Covid pandemic delayed the start of enumeration while new protocols were developed. It was a 100% no contact process though, and we were required to wear a mask at all times. We certainly couldn’t let respondents enter their names/data into the smartphone app, and it often took some time to ensure correct spelling. They did trial the option of enumerating by telephone, but this didn’t work as the numbers we were given were never accurate or up-to-date.

Weisler:  Did you see a pattern as to who cooperates and who doesn't? If so, what is the pattern?

Edgeller: I found on average that 50% of respondents were open and willing, or even insistent to ensure the survey was completed. The other 50% either didn’t answer (when you knew someone was home) or would refuse, often forcefully or with prejudice. The patterns weren’t related to age, gender, race or income, and I had some heartwarming interviews with busy single parents, people with very limited English and the elderly.  In others, there was deep distrust of the process, the government or just peoples' civil liberty.  Some people were polite and said they had already completed the survey (when I suspected they hadn’t) but others were extraordinarily rude or confrontational. We were encouraged to mark these respondents as dangerous to avoid repeated encounters by future enumerators.  Some of my co-workers were threatened with guns.

Weisler:  Do you think you were able to get truthful responses from people?

Edgeller: There were some people who were clearly reluctant to explain how many household members were staying there, particularly if they might not have been lawful residents. On the whole if someone was going to submit to the questions, they seemed to give truthful responses usually without hesitation.

Weisler:  Do you think your experiences were the same or different from other census workers?

Edgeller: We did sometimes meet our co-workers, and we were encouraged to participate in text based chat rooms to share (non-PII) information, experience and hints/tips.  In Georgia, we were staying in the same hotel and had team meetings several times a week, during which it was clear that everybody had very similar experiences, particularly with refusals to respond.

Weisler:  Do you think that you were able to achieve the most accurate information for an accurate census?

Edgeller: It wasn’t always easy to ensure information was 100% accurate, as people sometimes skipped family members if they thought there were too many to list. We were encouraged to at least record the total number of occupiers, even if someone refused to give names and ages etc.  Sometimes it could be difficult to complete the survey if somebody had moved since the census date (1st April 2020).

Fortunately, I had a lot of single family addresses which were easy to enumerate however some of my co-workers had multi-family apartment blocks or even areas with a significant homeless population.

It was very difficult to get into gated communities or secure apartment blocks without speaking to a superintendent or building manager.

Weisler: Did you get any feedback as to how the data looks?

Edgeller: As an enumerator our job was simply to obtain the data, which was very, very carefully controlled and treated as personally identifiable information (PII).  Retaining or writing down PII was a dismissible offence, and the smartphone app would transmit the data as soon as the interview had ended, it couldn’t be re-read, altered or amended. I enjoyed my time as an enumerator although it could involve long hours, and intense work on hot days. Despite all the knockbacks, I met some wonderful people who willingly shared their time, their stories and their information which made it all worthwhile. Roll on 2031!

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com