FEPE Out of Home News 2nd April 2015

FEPE Out of Home News 2nd April 2015

EUROPE NEWS

FEPE NEWS: Tom Goddard joins the Board of FEPE International

FEPE International President Antonio Vincenti, is delighted to announce that Tom Goddard has agreed to join the Board of FEPE International.

His appointment as Vice President will be ratified at the annual General assembly to be held in Budapest in June.

Tom brings a wealth of experience in the Out of Home sector from his many years working with leading Media Owners including, Maiden Outdoor, TDI, CBS and currently through his Chairmanships of Amscreen, Ocean Outdoor and others.

Tom’s unrivalled experience, particularly in the Digital Out of Home Arena, where he has been a leading pioneer, will add new impetus to FEPE’s role and mission.

FEPE has grown over the recent years to become the OOH sector’s Global Trade Association.

The current Board comprises :-

President 

Antonio Vincenti, CEO Pikasso (Beirut)

Vice Presidents   

Eric Marotel, CEO Cemusa (Madrid)

Matthew Dearden, CEO Clear Channel (London)

Shaun Gregory, CEO Exterion (London)

Karl Javurek, CEO Gewista (JCDecaux) (Vienna)

Christian Scmalzl, CEO Stroer (Cologne) 

Stefano Gennari Litta, CEO SGL (Milan)

Tom Goddard said “I am honoured and delighted to have been invited to join the Board of FEPE, at an exceptionally exciting time for OOH and very much look forward to supporting its ambitious programme and mission”.

FEPE 56th Annual Congress in Budapest: Exhibition spaces filing up!

The exhibition spaces at the FEPE Budapest Congress are running out fast.

We already have three new exhibitors signed up as well as a few regular supporters, so if you are a supplier who wishes to get your product in front of an audience of global OOH decision makers please email us very soon so we can work out a package for you.

The cost for exhibition spaces is lower this year to offer best value to our industry suppliers, and each exhibition space comes with 2 free delegate passes.

Also included this year is the use of a meeting room exclusively for exhibitors so they can hold client meetings and presentations while in Budapest.

 Speakers already announced are Dave Trott, Nancy Fletcher, Annie Rickard and Margit Kittridge and we'll be announcing more next week.

The 56th FEPE congress, titled "Your Audience is Waiting", will be held between Wednesday June 10th and Friday June 12th at the Intercontinental Hotel, Budapest.

There will be 2 days of presentations and high calibre speakers from across the world, all of whom will be bringing their unique viewpoints on Out of Home and wider media and advertising industry insights.

The Thursday night Gala Dinner, in keeping with the FEPE tradition of finding special locations, will be at the Buda Castle, (see picture) one of Budapest's most iconic buildings, and the Friday night social evening will be at a dinner cruise down the river Danube, taking in all the sights of Budapest for 3 hours.

As usual we have negotiated a special delegate rate for the hotel rooms and delegates are able to pay by credit card or bank transfer, which we hope will make bookings easier for some overseas delegates.

Delegate fees are unchanged from last year (and several years before) at €1500 for members and €1600 for non members.

You can register by following the link on the FEPE homepage and FEPE members all receive an additional €500 discount so if you are considering attending with colleagues and are not a member, please get in touch so we can organise the most cost effective package for you.

We will announce further speakers next week.

UK: blowUP media launches breakthrough digital screen on Leicester Square

blowUP media is launching a breakthrough in digital Giant Posters - the first digital screen that can be placed on temporary building wraps.

Using the latest technology, the screen is light enough to be placed on scaffoldings or wraps, can be customised to any size and can also be adapted to fit any building or scaffolding structures.

The screen being unveiled is ‘The Stage,’ a 36 sqm digital screen on the Victory House building on the north side of London’s Leicester Square. This is the first time a digital screen has been placed on a building wrap in the UK and demonstrates blowUP media’s commitment to leading edge innovation and providing customized solutions for all of its individual sites.

With 8mm pitch pixellation, this new generation of screens offers advertisers and agencies a far crisper image than has previously been possible.

Katrin Robertson, CEO of the blowUP media group, says: “We have always pioneered advances in Giant Posters and now we are bringing a new solution to the digital screen sector. The lightweight technology allows us to scale the screen to virtually any size, so the only limitations are the stability and strength of the building structure and, of course, the views of the local authority planners.”

The pedestrianised area of Leicester Square is heavily populated day and night and provides a constant stream of office workers, tourists and shoppers, with a weekly pedestrian footfall of 1,941,464 visitors.

Robertson says: “’The Stage’ will be a perfect site for a wide range of advertisers, delivering a diverse set of audiences throughout the day, and brands will be able to use the power of our innovative moving images to reach audiences with greater impact and emotion.”

‘The Stage’ is part of blowUP media’s Super Motion network, which offers some of the UK’s biggest digital screens including prime sites in Cardiff and Birmingham.

UK: Iconic Birmingham car park gets digital makeover with UK’s first projecting LED displays

Birmingham’s out-of-home leaders Signature Outdoor have continued expanding their CityVision portfolio with their latest digital location affixed to the Brunel Street Multi-storey car park locally known as the ‘red cage’ due to its red wire mesh exterior.

The iconic car park has a brand new look with the addition of two LED displays designed and manufactured by Dynamic Digital Displays Europe, which is a division of Concept Sign and Display Group; an organisation that specialise in large format turnkey LED display solutions.

D3 were commissioned by Signature Outdoor to design and install the two LED displays for the CityVision portfolio; the new additions are named CityVision WestEnd. A unique back-to-back arrangement has been manufactured for the displays, which are secured to either side of a new primary steelwork projecting from the car park.

This has been designed to allow for rear service access and to complement the unique profile of the car park, providing additional support and integrity to the existing steel framework. The portrait LED displays are 6m x 4m using D3 premium outdoor Black Package SMD technology. The Black Package development is a new robust LED display solution achieving higher contrast ratios, superior image quality and excellent viewing angles.

The installation was completed in two phases. The initial phase involved the installation of supporting and strengthening steelwork internally within the roof beams of the car park. The final phase included the erection of the LED displays into position during a series of overnight attendances that required traffic management measures on Suffolk Street and Queensway.

The impactful and interactive LED displays will launch with luxury designer TAG Heuer who are using the displays to showcase the brand’s ‘Don’t Crack Under Pressure’ campaign which features fashion model Cara Delevingne, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and the FIA Formula E championships. The LED displays are set to dominate the Mailbox approach capturing key retail and commuter traffic heading in and out of Birmingham. The Mailbox is the UK’s second biggest mixed used building and is currently undergoing a £50m revamp, creating a new 45,000 sq ft Harvey Nichols and a host of new retails stores including an Everyman cinema.

Steve George, Managing Partner Signature Outdoor "CityVision WestEnd was an intricate digital installation and as ever the D3 team delivered. We are delighted with the end result.”

Jason Jeynes Construction Director at D3 LED Europe said: 'CityVision WestEnd was a challenging construction process as we had to engineer a cantilevered LED display structure extending from the car park. Importantly we needed to consider many influential constraints such as maximum headroom, overall building integrity and sight lines. I am very pleased with the results and understand the CityVision WestEnd projecting displays are a UK DOOH industry first'

UK: Exterion Media appoints Product and Innovation Director as part of company transformation

Exterion Media has appointed Mike Wood as the company’s new Product and Innovation Director – a new position charged with driving Exterion’s product development strategy. His appointment is the latest in a series aimed at restructuring Exterion Media’s UK business to respond and adapt faster to the changing media landscape.

Mike joins from Home Advisor Europe, an online network for home repair and improvement projects. He served as the Chief Product Officer and launched the company’s revamped Travaux.com site, directly increasing revenue by 70 per cent. Mike will spearhead Exterion’s efforts to lead innovation in the industry and engage urban audiences.

He will focus on building the next generation of products and advertising technology across Exterion’s European markets, and in particular, the London Underground estate. Mike will report into Brendon Kortekaas, Exterion Media’s Programme Director for London Rail. “Mike is a world class product marketing professional who will add significant expertise to our business and further strengthen our management team as Exterion Media continues to experience and drive accelerated growth,” says Brendon.

“Mike’s experience in successful product line launches, managing partnerships with some of the world’s largest brands, and track record of generating millions in new service revenues speaks for itself. As a seasoned product strategist, Mike will embrace technical innovation and creativity to move Exterion Media towards new business opportunities, partnerships and advertising solutions. This includes the much anticipated launch of the next generation Cross Track technology”.

Previously, Mike has worked for companies such as Hibu (formerly Yell) and Vodafone – where he led the telecom giant’s mobile business applications department generating new service revenues, while improving retention among business customers.

Mike said: “Exterion Media is at the heart of innovation in the out-of-home media market. Its nationwide portfolio and strength in some of Europe’s largest and wealthiest urban areas, makes it a top player in the industry. I’m looking forward to playing a part in the company’s transformation, and setting new industry benchmarks.”

Mike starts with Exterion Media on Tuesday 7th April.

UK: Neuroscience proves the influence of digital out of home on other media and the wider digital universe

A new study using neuroscience demonstrates for the first time how digital out of home positively influences responses to other media, exerting a clear impact on the wider digital universe.

The pioneering research, conducted by Neuro-Insight for Ocean, used brain imaging to explore the neurological impact of digital out of home on other screen and mobile devices.

The results of the Beyond Out Of Home study were released today (Friday, March 27) at BAFTA in London before an invited audience of 100 advertising executives, media buyers and industry specialists.

Heather Andrew, CEO of Neuro-Insight (UK) which conducted the study, said: “A previous study had demonstrated that premium outdoor sites positively primed responses to standard outdoor sites. In this new study, we set out to discover whether this priming effect worked beyond outdoor and could apply to other screen based media that is consumed out of home.

“The results were unequivocal in demonstrating strong priming impacts, but we actually found even more than we expected. First of all, we discovered that, regardless of the creative, mere exposure to the priming medium had an impact.

“People who’d seen digital out of home first responded more strongly to advertising on mobile devices, even when not linked to the campaign they had seen on DOOH, than those who’d been exposed to television.

“We call this the congruence effect because it demonstrates for the first time the importance of environment and the power of “brainstate” on people’s responses to advertising.”

Tim Bleakley, Ocean CEO, said: “The findings have clear implications for maximising the impact of cross-media screen campaigns by harnessing the specific priming impact of digital out of home.

“We already knew that iconic, large format advertising delivers heightened emotional response and strong memory encoding, and that this impact is heightened by full motion screens. We also knew going into this study, that large, iconic sites had a positive priming effect on other OOH advertising. This new study takes the learnings further, to show that the priming impact of DOOH extends beyond the OOH world and into the wider all screen media universe. “We’ve now established that there is a clear congruence between screen experiences out of home, and the combination of large and small screens, accessed on the go, is a particularly powerful one.”

Background Notes

Methodology

Neuro-research was chosen as the way of exploring impact, because it provides a means of looking at people’s emotional, sub-conscious responses, which are difficult to assess through traditional, questions-based research.

The sample consisted of 192 people, made up of equal numbers of men and women, with an age range from 18 to 65. People were convened in groups of eight in London and Birmingham.

To ensure the study was robust, the neuroscientists set up a control; whilst some people were exposed to DOOH ads, others were exposed to ads from the same campaigns on television. Two advertising campaigns for Peugeot and Lynx were deployed and the sample split further so that half the people from both the DOOH and TV groups saw each campaign at the priming media stage.

Prior to brain readings taking place, people were exposed to advertising for one of the two brands, either on a DOOH site or on television. People only saw the digital site by walking past it on the way to the study location from a pre-arranged meeting point, and saw the TV ad in a programme that was aired "in the background" in a holding room prior to the research session starting. In neither case was people’s attention explicitly drawn to the medium or the advertising messages.

Respondents were then were exposed to branded messages for the two featured brands in magazines and on iPads. Using this approach, neuroscientists were able to compare:

• Responses to magazine and mobile online ads amongst those who had previously been exposed to DOOH advertising

• Responses to magazine and mobile online ads amongst those who had previously been exposed to TV advertising.

In each case, they could examine responses to unlinked advertising and responses to ads from the same campaign.

Results

Prior exposure to a creative campaign on television led to higher levels of response when another execution from that campaign was subsequently seen in a magazine.

Prior exposure to a creative campaign on a full motion digital OOH site led to higher levels of response when another execution from that campaign was subsequently seen on a mobile screen.

But the reverse is not true; television does not prime responses to mobile screens and OOH does not prime responses to magazines; demonstrating an important role played by the congruence between priming medium and primed experience.

This effect is statistically significant and reflects what is called the congruence effect – the impact of environment and “brainstate” on responses. TV is immersive and involves a sedentary state in the home, just like magazine reading. DOOH involves a heightened response to communication seen out of home whilst on the go, just like mobile devices.

The brain is very receptive to the power of context and congruence plays a role in how we respond to things, as this study shows.

UK: OMC welcomes Ocean Outdoor and Outdoor Plus to council

The Outdoor Media Centre (OMC), the marketing body for the out-of-home media sector, has today announced the arrival of its new council members, Ocean Outdoor and Outdoor plus, who will join existing members Primesight, Clear Channel and Exterion Media.

The news follows a difficult period for the OMC, which saw former CEO Mike Baker step down last October, and JCDecaux pull out of the OMC earlier this year; however, the latest additions to the council reflect the strong growth that the outdoor industry continues to see.

In the final quarter of 2014 the OOH sector reported its strongest quarter ever, with 6.1% growth bringing revenue close to £300 million for the first time. The expansion to the OMC's council follows the recent appointments of Mark Craze as chairman and Alan Brydon as chief executive, who will be taking up his post in May.

"Out-of-home advertising has arrived at one of the most exciting stages in its history and we're incredibly privileged to welcome two new council members who are passionate about the medium," said Craze.

"With a strong and supportive council in place we can now work together to further illustrate how incredibly effective and powerful the Out Of Home medium is and strengthen our relationships with agencies, specialists and advertisers across the industry."

Source

UK: 82% of UK marketers unaware of NFC OOH advertising

Only 18% of marketers are aware that out-of-home advertising campaigns can make use of NFC and QR codes, survey data from Clear Channel UK reveals, despite them citing ‘innovation’ as one of their top buying considerations when under pressure to find new ways to reach mass audiences.

The ‘Look Again’ report, based on the responses of 200 marketing professionals, also found a low level of awareness of the application in OOH advertising of technologies including contactless payments (27%), motion detection technology (27%) and facial recognition (13%). Touchscreen technology saw the highest awareness (42%), followed by environmentally friendly technology (40%) and video projection technology (40%). Some 6% of those surveyed were unaware of any of the technologies.

“We are at the point where many marketing professionals’ perceptions are at odds with the new levels of digital sophistication across the OOH medium,” says Clear Channel UK CMO Sarah Speake.

“In the UK, millions of pounds worth of investment in digital over the last few years has created a medium that is capable of delivering broadcast reach, measurability and brand fame at a national and regional level.”

Clear Channel first showed its interest in NFC for OOH advertising in 2011 and after trials in many international markets went on to launch its Connect interactive advertising platform in the US and Canada in July 2014 as a way for brands to add NFC, QR code and SMS-based mobile interactivity to their ads. The system is now deployed in 23 countries around the world.

Source

AMERICAS NEWS

USA: Out of home Advertising Companies are Creating Win-Win Situations for Cities and Setting an Example for the Advertising Industry

Advertising has long been a source of controversy in our society, with some arguing that advertising pressures people to buy things they don’t need, lessens competition, and raises prices. Others see advertising as playing an informative role that spurs competition, increases, selection, and lowers prices. While academic research shows stronger support for this latter more positive view of advertising (see Taylor 2014), the former view combined with bad practices on the part of a limited number of advertisers creates an image problem for the industry. Indeed, in Gallup’s annual poll of the most admired professions, advertising normally ranks near the bottom, above only salespeople, politicians, and lawyers.

When consumers are confronted with situations such as viewing a deceptive ad, seeing paid commercials not being identifiable due to its format, or being targeted by an advertiser using database information the individual did not know would be used in such a way, concerns and problems arise. It is notable that these types of issues, along with other proactive approaches such as developing nutritional labeling programs based on research showing how to maximize the benefit to consumers, or making it clear that a program contains ads or product placements, are all addressable by responsible advertisers. A good future for advertisers would be aided by cooperation between advertisers and those who make reasonable critiques of the industry.

It is in this light that I have been impressed by recent developments in out of home media that are allowing the industry to work with cities on mutually beneficial goals. For many years, the former “outdoor” industry has been subject to criticism from those who find it aesthetically displeasing or argue that billboards served no positive economic role. While my own research on public opinion polls conducted with my colleague George Franke of University of Alabama suggests that a solid majority of the American public sees billboards playing positive roles such as informing consumers, increasing economic activity and helping small businesses, the public has been somewhat split on the aesthetics of billboards. However, with the advent of digital billboards and new out of home formats, more members of the public report liking the appearance of billboards.

In recent public opinion polls, a majority of the public recognizes that in addition to the traditional advertising function, digital billboards are now capable of serving other functions beyond just advertising. From crime prevention to conservationism, local community building to emergency management, in many cases the once stodgy, traditional out of home industry is swiftly becoming a trusted, highly valued partner of cities.

For many years, young urban and regional planners have come out of leading graduate programs at schools like Berkeley, MIT, and Harvard viewing “cityscapes” in an artistic sense and sometimes downplaying the role billboards played in helping businesses in the community, especially many small, local businesses who do not have cost efficient alternative to advertising. Often these planners would feel a need to eradicate traditional outdoor advertising structures from cities and towns in the interest of keeping landscapes beautiful. Much of this thinking caught fire around 2006, after São Paulo’s Mayor, Gilberto Kassab, passed a law banning the use of all outdoor advertisements in the world’s fourth largest city. The move came after Brazil saw back-to-back years of heavy ad growth, about quadruple the world advertising growth rate, and really represents short-term thinking. Today, out of home advertising is back in São Paulo.

Similarly, many conservationists—whom we have to thank for creating breathtaking urban parks like New York City’s High Line—tend to push for billboard elimination, charging that cities need ad-free, energy-renewing green spaces that reinvigorate urban dwellers and keep those of us who reside in bustling, non-stop environments connected with nature, each other, and ourselves. But what’s missing from “the elimination debate” is the acknowledgment that cities and out of home advertising are currently experiencing significant transformation and growth, creating new challenges and opportunities that can greatly benefit the public interest. Indeed, it is fascinating to read about how new technologies are creating opportunities to meet mutually beneficial goals of industry and cities alike.

Full article here

USA: Out-of-Home Media and the Internet of Things

By Stephen Freitas

The constant connectivity of the digital world is changing people's habits, and out-of-home advertising is uniquely poised to become a cornerstone of this new way of life.

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to an evolving ecosystem of everyday products that sync with each other. For example, lightbulbs and garden sprinklers can work in concert.

The magic is currently controlled by a growing number of apps that connect "dumb" objects to the web to automate processes or manage them remotely. Individual devices work within custom-built protocols to deliver unrelated services. But by building all of these devices across a shared and standardized framework, open-source controls will enable machine-to-machine (M2M) interaction. Once these devices can bypass human control, they will communicate autonomously using a shared language. This will allow your car to notify your home upon approach to adjust the thermostat, turn on the lights, and warm the oven.

Simplifying the routines of life is the promise of the IoT. But that's just the beginning. A connected planet will not only change the way people live their lives, it will change the way they understand brands.

Mobile's Impact

With more than 65 percent of the U.S. population carrying smartphones, mobile technology has become the easy way for people to interact with the world around them. Mobile devices also impact the way brands engage with consumers who are on the go, impatient and get bored easily if content isn't relevant or entertaining.

An extension of smartphones is wearables. The early versions of these items may have been considered an eyesore, but they now resemble statement pieces of status. Current devices generally serve a single function, while wirelessly and automatically syncing with mobile devices and computers. Functions include a pedometer or a heart rate monitor, but these items will evolve into multifunctional devices that can receive and transmit information complementing other technologies. Ultimately, the information gleaned from the wearable devices could provide behavioral details to inform advertising messaging.

This constant connection is changing people's habits, and out-of-home (OOH) advertising is uniquely poised to become a cornerstone of this new way of life. As a ubiquitous conduit that surrounds and immerses people away from home, OOH is viewed by many as the backbone of the Smart Cities movement.

Municipalities are beginning to see more dimensions to the traditionally linear role of the medium with new amenities and revenue streams. New York City recently announced plans to convert outdated payphones into a municipal Wi-Fi network funded by OOH advertising. The network would be the fastest and largest free municipal Wi-Fi network in the world, and the project will be fully funded by OOH ads. New York will undoubtedly become a model for future urban Wi-Fi expansion across the nation and abroad. When the intelligent and intuitive nature of a connected web is linked to the physical world, it will allow people to positively impact cities and make them better places to live.

This connectivity has also created more data, generating zettabytes of information each day. When paired with the precise latitudes and longitudes of OOH inventory, whether digital or traditional, this data can be used to augment OOH planning, allowing advertisers to tap into real-time and hugely scaled data sources, and react instantly to the smallest changes in consumer behavior to deliver increased value for every campaign.

Full article here

AFRICA NEWS

South Africa: The Out of Home Measurement Council (OMC) is now a formality!

The OMC (Out of Home Measurement Council), the Out of Home JIC representing OOH media owners in South Africa, is now a formal entity, and was registered as a non-profit company on 23 March 2015. The OMC will be run and controlled by the majority shareholders, supported by technical expertise from Kuper Research, who will also co-ordinate the media buyer advisory panel contributions.

The innovative methodology includes the combination of traffic flows, satellite images, and travel patterns to create a comprehensive traffic model, which when combined with the location of all media owner billboard panels, creates an accurate representation of OOH audiences. These elements are modelled to create OOH ratings demonstrating reach, frequency, GRP’s, impacts, CPM and so on for Out of Home campaigns or single billboards. Elements such as direction of traffic flow and visibility are taken into account as part of the model.

It is expected that sample data for Johannesburg be tested in June, where after the audience for the top five cities will be released to the industry in August. It is envisaged that the full South African Static Roadside survey will be completed by December 2015!

The benefits of the new OOH currency are endless for media buyers who will now have a consolidated, single view to access and plan from all media owner OOH inventory. State-of-the art, geo-spatial, sophisticated Quantum software will be available to buyers through Telmar, and will allow for ease of planning and purchase, and generate standardised and measurable plans. At last OOH is truly in the hands of the buyers.

South Africa: Continental Outdoor celebrates outstanding Out of Home creativity from the past


 

Continental Outdoor, as the Loeries Out of Home sponsor for the second year, has taken a walk down memory lane to celebrate outstanding Out of Home creativity from the past. News Article Image for 'Continental Outdoor celebrates outstanding Out of Home creativity from the past' Not the immediate past, but way back to the 70s, 80s and 90s to the Rent A Sign and CorpCom days when the importance and value of creativity was well understood and equally celebrated.

In this turbulent, get-real economy, the advantage goes to those who can out-imagine and out-create their competitors. The Out of Home advertising structure, whatever size and however well placed, is merely the facilitator, or canvas, for advertising messages and communication.

In the words of the late advertising doyen himself, John Farquhar, "The strength of outdoor is the space it allows for the design idea and the way it dominates the landscape. The weakness, if one can call it that, is that the creative idea must crystallise the core idea of the brand in one simple design that can be grasped at a glance. To achieve this takes real talent."

Continental Outdoor looks forward to yet another year of outstanding, impactful and memorable Out of Home advertising and talent to be showcased at the Loeries in August in Durban this year.

Take a poignant walk down memory lane and view some of the best OOH creativity from the last century, here.

The deadline for entries is Friday, 15 May. People still have ample time to enter their best of the best OOH campaigns. Click here to enter.

AUSTRALIA NEWS

Australia: Out-of-Home rides wave of growth in first quarter 2015

The Out-of-Home (OOH) industry posted its most successful quarter to-date recording an increase of 22.4% on net revenue year on year with $149.4 million, up from $122.0 million[1] for the first quarter 2014.

This follows on from unprecedented growth at the end of 2014 when revenue increased by 10.0% over 2013. Monthly results have been positive with the industry posting an increase of 18.6% for January and 23.8% for February year on year. March figures show an increase of 24.2% year on year, with net revenue of $58.4 million. Increases are across all formats: billboards, street furniture, retail and transit; and, digital revenue is sitting at 21.0% of total net revenue, which is an increase over 18.8% recorded for 2014.

“As audiences continue to fragment for other advertising channels, the Outdoor audience grows when population increases. We attribute our revenue growth to the effectiveness of the medium: nine out of ten people leave home each day, which means that Outdoor reaches more people on a daily basis than any other media,” said Charmaine Moldrich, CEO of the Outdoor Media Association (OMA).

“We also have benefitted greatly from new technology: not only with sampling, customer engagement and mobile innovations but also with new digital billboards which shorten campaign lead-times and allow for more targeted messages,” Moldrich continued.

“We have just completed a software update for MOVE (Measurement and Outdoor Visibility and Exposure), which introduced geo-targeting as well as improvements to reporting. Simplifying the buying and reporting of Outdoor will help our industry continue its growth trajectory,” said Charmaine.

Category figures first quarter 2015

• Roadside Billboards (over and under 25 square metres) $53.9 million

• Roadside Other (street furniture, taxis, bus/tram externals, small format) $47.3 million

• Transport (including airports) $29.0 million

• Retail $19.2 million

Category figures first quarter 2014

• Roadside Billboards (over and under 25 square metres) $42.3 million

• Roadside Other (street furniture, taxis, bus/tram externals, small format) $45.3 million

• Transport (including airports) $19.5 million

• Retail $15.0 million

ASIA NEWS

India: Kinetic Worldwide's David Payne advocates ‘smart OOH for a smart world'

With a wealth of experience and expertise in OOH media planning and buying solutions behind him, David Payne’s keynote address was filled with insights and key examples from Kinetic’s own body of work in this field. In a world where the consumer was getting smarter by the minute and was connected to his smart devices, media consumption was happening all the time and on the go. Consumers were becoming media snackers and enjoyed content in short spurts, creating a huge opportunity for brands to build upon, he said. Payne said it was up to the brands to give them content that was sticky and stayed with them.

Expressing his vision for the OOH industry , Payne stressed on how OOH should be at the centre of every marketer’s media mix, “We are heading towards a smarter world where media silos are breaking down. The media mix is also changing . OOH should be at the centre of this mix. An eco-system will soon emerge where smart objects will start speaking to each other. That will bring about a revolution and that is the kind of world we are moving towards. The Internet of Things is fast becoming a reality.”

Although the stress was on creating smart solutions for the smart world, Payne insisted that audiences always came first. The medium was becoming dynamic and engaging and needed to address the needs of the consumer. He peppered his talk with examples of some key digital OOH campaigns executed by Kinetic. Citing the work done by its innovations department , Kinetic Active, Payne spoke about how Unilever and Kinetic partnered to create a one-day experiential campaign for Dove at London’s Waterloo station.

The campaign gave the ladies a chance to have their photos clicked professionally at the station. Images were then live-streamed to the digital screen at Waterloo. The photographs were also shared on Dove’s Facebook page. It was an experiential campaign to expose consumers to Dove’s dry invisible deodorant and celebrate ‘color confidence’. It was the perfect example of an experiential campaign that used technology to involve the consumer.

When asked about the next key steps the OOH industry needed to take to get to the next level, Payne replied, “The OOH media has always been very hard to quantify and measure. Therefore, investment in audience measurement is crucial. It is also important to invest in inventory and talent. There are new opportunities waiting to be explored in this medium. Integration of data, technology, media and content was necessary for the medium to be successful.”

WPP’s OOH network Kinetic Worldwide underwent major restructuring last year, as part of a plan to move OOH to the centre of strategic media planning. David Payne was speaking at exchange4media‘s OOH Conference 2015 presented by Posterscope in association with Laqshya Media Group.

Source

India: Is Digital OOH in India exciting marketers enough?

New media formats like Digital OOH are making rapid strides in the international markets but in India it’s a different story. The fifth edition of exchange4media’s OOH Conference saw veterans from the OOH industry come together to discuss what was holding back the medium in India and what kept marketers away from it.

The panel consisted of marketers like Kashyap Vadapalli, CMO, Pepperfry, Nitin Bahl, Country Marketing Manager at Motorola Solutions, Shashi Sinha, EVP and Business Head at Laqshya Media Group, Rohit Chopra, CEO, Times Innovative Media- Delhi Airport Advertising . The session, chaired by Amit Sarkar, COO, India, Kinetic Worldwide began with the obvious question about why this format was not picking up in India.

‘As a marketer I’m most concerned about my consumer and for today’s consumer , speed and interactivity play a huge role in their relationship with brands. These are intelligent people we are catering to. As a marketer, I’m not thinking of a channel but about my audience and how I can reach out to them in the best way possible. Any campaign I undertake has to tick all the checkboxes for it to be called successful,” explained Vadapalli when asked about a marketer’s take on this medium. The marketer, who heads a growing online furniture brand stated that it was important for him to interact with the audience and the medium had to match the consumer’s needs for it to be successful.

Taking the conversation forward was Nitin Bahl, who also stressed on the need for greater interactivity in the medium. For marketers it was all about providing the right experience to the customers. He also mentioned that the measurement of ROI was missing from this medium keeping marketers from embracing it wholeheartedly.

“To me, digitisation of OOH stems from desperation. While we are not undermining Digital OOH, we cannot completely overlook the positive side of static Out of Home media,” stated Shashi Sinha of Laqshya Media Group, expressing a surprisingly different point of view.

Rohit Chopra from Times Innovative Media, citing examples of Delhi Airport, described how the medium had evolved, “Digital at Delhi Airport has become significant in the way it offers interactivity. We just celebrated 210 clients on digital. We do have several options available at speed. The qualitative difference is a big advantage. Technology is playing a huge role and is being used to micro-target. Technologies like facial recognition, geo tagging and augmented reality were being adopted by the medium,” he said but also added that the next leap was needed to catapult the medium into the big league. The panellists did agree on the potential of the medium. Kashyap said one could not overlook the big opportunity that Digital OOH presented but it had to seamlessly communicate with all devices for it to be successful. Sarkar of Kinetic Worldwide, summed up the discussion by reiterating the necessity to grow the eco-system. He also said that it was important to impart the right message in the right environment.

The panellists aired their views at exchange4media’s OOH Conference 2015 presented by Posterscope in association with Laqshya Media Group.

Source