UK: Ford and Ocean Light Up Impressive IMAX Creative Capability

Ford has taken the spotlight by using Ocean’s customised Edison lighting techniques on the IMAX in London, the UK’s largest and most iconic advertising structure. This new campaign on the IMAX launched on February 1 with show-stopping creative which leveraged these new technical and creative capabilities using the IMAX as a bespoke branding platform. It was supported by a wider brand campaign across other Ocean sites.

Ford’s campaign, which spotlights three classic models, was created by Blue Hive and planned through Mindshare and Kinetic. It includes an installation of an LED ribbon around the headlights of the vehicles which is programmed to synchronise with the wider Edison lighting system.

Edison is a joint venture between Ocean and the BFI which aligns emerging technology with the latest in LED lighting and new software management, brought together to facilitate a real step in creativity for brands in a high impact media environment.

Catherine Morgan, Ocean head of creative solutions said: “It’s about taking the technical and back end capabilities of the IMAX and shifting them into what becomes an incredibly creative media theatre. There is nothing else like this in the world. This installation is bespoke for the IMAX and Ford’s launch campaign is a showstopper.”

Edison features on the IMAX include:

Lighting – an outdoor theatre which gives the impression of fluid and constant movement

Clarity of colour and the elimination of shadows

Every colour possible (except black)

Spotlights – different areas of the IMAX can be lit up

Aesthetically, the IMAX is designed to match and blend with other superior lighting schemes across the South Bank, including the London Eye. The technology deployed is designed to reduce light emissions/light pollution by 70 per cent.

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UK: JCDecaux wins the Bus Shelter advertising contract for Kensington and Chelsea

JCDecaux announced yesterday that it has been awarded the Bus Shelter advertising contract for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

This 15 year contract previously held by Clear Channel, was awarded following a competitive tender process and includes the provision, installation, maintenance and advertising operations for 80 new Bus Shelters including 16 sites already approved for 84” digital screens.

Jean-François Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said:

“Further to the recent award of the TfL Bus Shelter concession in London, this 15 year contract for Bus Shelter advertising in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is a significant win.

Securing these additional premium locations including Brompton Road, Kensington High Street and King’s Road strengthens our London advertising portfolio and will enable advertisers to reach audiences in some of the most affluent retail and tourist destinations in London, with 40% of the retailers in the area classified as “Premium”.”

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UK: Delivering creativity at scale in a digital out-of-home world

By Ben Putland, Chief Operating Officer, Grand Visual

The global digital out-of-home market is at a crossroads. The inventory is there, and its scale and ubiquity in cities around the world make it a valuable and exciting medium to work with. Programmatic trading and creative fulfilment systems are also now becoming a reality, and that means tactical, real-time, responsive campaigns are now possible and practical on a global scale.

The recent shift away from siloed systems and toward a more integrated future is paving the way for a new dynamic creative optimization, where the creative is agile, targeted and resonates with real-world events in real-world environments. That said, the number of well-executed dynamic, creatively optimized campaigns to come to fruition over the past few years have been light on the ground. I have pitched far more in the meantime, but, there seems to be a disconnect between media and creative that's not allowing these ideas to come to life.

So then the question has to be why are brands not capitalizing on the medium's full creative potential? As an industry, we need to foster better collaboration between creative and media agencies. Below I have outlined a few areas that we need to work on together in order to help move the medium on from its linear roots toward a more dynamic, interactive and experiential future.

Start with a data strategy and not a creative one

If your dynamically creatively optimized campaign, or your DCO campaign, is going to be relevant across multiple locations and change based on other conditions, then you have to start thinking about the data before you craft the copy. This can be a big challenge depending on where the brief may have originated from within agency land.

Once the datasets have been agreed to, an automated system needs to be created with well-defined rules to govern the playout of DCO content. This may need to be tweaked and adapted during the project lifecycle, but when it's done correctly a DCO campaign can be relevant for months compared to a traditional campaign that quickly becomes wallpaper.

DOOH is a medium that is perfect for DCO campaigns. Its large, bold, high-impact presence demands a fresh, evolving, and engaging creative approach that resonates with the audience mindset. Ultimately data and creative must work hand in hand.

Embrace the template — consider function before form

It's no longer a one-size-fits-all world. In order to deliver a successful DCO campaign, multiple sets of creative assets need to be produced — an ad system that works together as a unified whole. From a practical point of view, this means that campaigns must start with a template that allows for changes to be made on the fly according to predefined values. A well-considered template based on the design principles from the brand guidelines will match campaign art direction and allow the multiple permutations of copy to change and optimize the campaign throughout the flight.

Full article here

Switzerland: DOOH from Clear Channel: successful launch of offering in Zurich

At the beginning of February, Clear Channel brought the ten new premium digital screens at top locations in the city of Zurich into action.

Clear Channel’s guests at a special event in the city of Zurich were able to experience the premium digital screens shortly after the launch. The Zurich Party Tram took them on a tour from Bellevue via Bahnhofquai to Escher-Wyss-Platz, to name but a few of the top locations of the new screens.

Speaking at the event, Jürg Rötheli, Vice-President Central Europe and CEO of Clear Channel Switzerland, expressed his delight:

“Clear Channel has set itself the clear target of giving its customers access to a premium digital offering which it is constantly extending. Our new top-class screens in Zurich are a statement of faith in the digital future of the outof- home market in Switzerland. I am particularly pleased that we can offer our customers exclusive access to this product in Zurich.”

Clear Channel is expanding its digital offering with these ten top advertising displays at nine highly frequented locations and key touch points in Zurich’s public domain.

At the same time, Clear Channel offers customers a broad range of digital out-of-home advertising media at points of sale in shopping centres, as well as a variety of digital products at Zurich Airport.

UK: Primesight Converts Digital Displays to BroadSign

BroadSign selected for delivery of dynamic content and proof of digital performance capabilities.

Primesight, one of the United Kingdom's largest suppliers of OOH solutions, is converting its portfolio of digital displays to the BroadSign International, LLC software platform as part of its on-going drive to offer clients a seamless DOOH experience with increased accountability.

The integration with BroadSign’s cloud-based platform will give advertising clients access to the richest industry-leading reporting. Primesight has already converted its full large format digital estate to BroadSign and will soon complete the transition with its small format screens located in cinemas and subway.

Primesight selected BroadSign due to its flexible and comprehensive offering with regards to the delivery of dynamic content and proof of digital performance.

“BroadSign has provided an effective solution to our key requirements for digital transmission and display, which include an integration with our inventory management system, full flexibility for scheduling and accountable play out reporting,” said Paul Daniels, Operations Director at Primesight.

Primesight’s purely ad-based network is composed of traditional and digital out-of-home formats, with the latter enabling advertisers to buy a percentage of time in any clock hour dependent on their needs. “In addition to being one of the most prestigious OOH networks in the United Kingdom, Primesight is a business driven by responsiveness, accountability and incredible performance,” said Skip Beloff, Vice President of Sales at BroadSign.

“These values coincide with BroadSign’s own and we look forward to a strong partnership in this highly innovative region.”

Switzerland: APG|SGA creates Switzerland's first ever "Full Station Branding" for MAC Cosmetics with a surprising make-up promotion

In collaboration with media agency Optimum Media Direction Switzerland Ltd., APG|SGA has created the first "Station FullBranding" in Switzerland for MAC Cosmetics by Estée Lauder GmbH. The campaign uses all the bookable spaces at Zurich's Stadelhofen station for an eye-catching display, surprising the target group with a make-up promotion in a specially constructed glass cube that brings the "Art of the Lip" to life. This clearly demonstrates the creative possibilities offered by APG|SGA's analogue and digital out-of-home advertising formats and promotional spaces.

At the beginning of February 2016, you won't be able to miss the bright «Art of the Lip» posters for MAC Cosmetics at Zurich's Stadelhofen station. Estée Lauder GmbH's Canadian cosmetics brand is advertising the launch of its new MAC store at Bellevue in the heart of Zurich for one week exclusively on the station's 80 or so digital and analogue poster spaces.

With their extremely striking design, 76 analogue posters and 14,000 screenings on the digital Rail ePanels and Rail eBoards will generate numerous long-term contact opportunities with the 85,000 or so commuters who use the station each day. From 4 to 6 February 2016, make-up fans can also immerse themselves in the "Art of the Lip" in a glass cube specially constructed for the campaign on the station forecourt. On request, they can also be accompanied to the MAC store, just 350 meters away, for a personal consultation.

Interdisciplinary collaboration enables integrated design process The impressive, unmissable 360° out-of-home advertising was made possible thanks to a close partnership between the customer Estée Lauder GmbH, media agency Optimum Media Direction Switzerland Ltd. and APG|SGA's specialist internal and external service units. APG|SGA Mega Poster was responsible for the conceptual project work. The segment brand implemented Switzerland's first ever "Station FullBranding" for MAC Cosmetics. This plays exclusively and effectively with the full spectrum of out-of-home advertising and increases the level of attention through its element of surprise. The concentration of multiple posters in one location means that contacts are perceived more consciously, with the promotional activity bringing them to life. This not only raises the profile of the new MAC store, it also helps increase brand awareness.

With its innovative "Station FullBranding" APG|SGA is addressing a growing customer need and is already involving the newly established strategic business unit APG|SGA Promotion in the offering. No longer a vision of the future, 360° out-of-home concepts from a single source have now become reality.

UK: The Future of Outdoor Advertising

Nadja Lossgott is a Creative Director at AMV BBDO in London. In 2010 she was part of the team that won a Black Pencil for the Trillion Dollar Flyer campaign, and followed up in 2015 with seven Pencils for Guinness’ Sapeurs. Nadja will be a judge on the 2016 D&AD Outdoor Advertising Jury.

In the article below, Nadja explores the past, present and future of Out Of Home Advertising. Whether it’s digital billboards, branded experiences or traditional posters, Outdoor Advertising is here to stay. What’s more, Nadja argues, it will outlast other forms of media which are currently under threat.

‘Outdoor’ often feels like both advertising’s past and its future.

You can’t accuse outdoor of being reluctant to change. A quick look at the Outdoor award categories gives you a clue. There’s ambient, ambient digital screens, interactive outdoor experiences, live events, non-formatted digital outdoor, special builds. The list goes on. Buskers have been used to release albums. Billboards have been turned into benches. Pepsi turned Uber Taxis into Back to the Future Deloreans. And the incredibly poignant New York Gun Store campaign was a pop-up store.

A recent piece I loved was BA’s brilliant ‘Magic of Flying’ billboard. The idea is like a roll-call of adland’s favourite buzzwords: real-time data, interactivity, some digital, and lots of collaboration. And it all comes together in a beautifully evocative ode to our childlike wonder for flight. It’s the kind of idea you just know is routinely invoked by CDs in every creative department, “give me some of that.”

They’re the kind of ideas creatives love to make.

But the gift of new technology can also be a curse; we all know about adblockers. Here again, outdoor looks like the future.

Another one of my favourite pieces from last year (I’m not really going out on a limb here) was the ‘Nazis Against Nazis’ rally. A simple stunt, this piece of outdoor transcended its medium, slipped past the adblockers and found it’s way into the news and popular culture. Just like Security Moms did. Just like Gaytms. And just like the Marathon Walker for Water for Africa. It’s just a woman entered into a race carrying a bucket of water and a message that this is how far women walk for water. So Simple.

Full article here

AMERICAS NEWS

USA: Placed Launches Out-of-Home Attribution

Placed, a location-based in-store attribution company, announced a new tool that will allow marketers to measure the viewability of their out-of-home advertisements, and attribute subsequent foot traffic to those ads.

Placed measures about 600 million latitude/longitude pairs from consumers who have opted into Placed’s location tracking. Since it can measure lat/longs directly from the device, the company can also measure sensor values from the gyroscope and compass to determine which direction a user is traveling or facing. By combining those readings with the direction, size and placement data of out of home advertisements, Placed CEO David Shim says he’s able to apply tactics commonly used for measuring the viewability of digital advertisements to out of home.

“We’re bringing the fundamentals of digital advertising and applying them to out-of-home,” says Shim.

As location targeting and OOH advertising converge, Shim says the billboards they measure, “almost act like retargeting for the physical world.” Launch partners include agencies Rapport, Horizon, Posterscope and Kinetic, as well as media providers Clear Channel Outdoor and National CineMedia (NCM).

Shim says that their partners have taken advantage of the product for a little while now, but this is the first time it’s been made available to the public. “Location is almost like the cookie,” says Shim, referring to the trouble that mobile advertisers often have with the attribution of consumers.

Now he says, attribution can extend from desktop to mobile to out-of-home with little friction.

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USA: New Study Highlights Local Economic Impact of OOH

Nearly three in four ads (74 percent) in three major US markets promote small local business, according to a new study conducted by iMapData, a provider of economic and political impact analyses.

The study, commissioned by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), found that each billboard advertiser in these test markets support 46 to 48 jobs, on average. In this study, iMapData looked at businesses using billboards in the Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Tampa markets, analyzing locations and advertisers.

Findings tracked the outcomes of similar research in other markets: most billboard ads promote local commerce. In these three major markets, thousands of local businesses using billboard advertising employ hundreds of thousands of people.

“There is no question billboards support local economies, and this study yet again proves it,” said OAAA President & CEO Nancy Fletcher.

“Small businesses rely on this cost effective advertising medium to reach consumers and generate sales, thereby supporting jobs and the community.”

Study Findings:

Full article here

AUSTRALIA NEWS

Australia: Adshel: mobile and OOH are a match made in heaven

Adshel CEO Rob Atkinson says 2016 will be the year mobile becomes more prevalent in the industry, and the outdoor business is eyeing its role in screen strategy.

Atkinson, was speaking to AdNews about the key drivers he sees for 2016, with mobile being the front-runner.

While the idea of “the year of mobile” has been thrown around for the last decade, Atkinson says he sees 2016 as the year mobile becomes more of a fixture in the landscape. For this reason, he says Adshel is having conversations with mobile players about how it can partner up.

“Mobile is definitely turning OOH into a transactional medium. Today's consumer can buy at speed, and it's becoming easier through data to find just the right time and place to influence that behaviour,” Atkinson says. “That's great for us because I think mobile and OOH is a marriage made in heaven.”

“You only need to see that in the agency world. They often have segmentation by things like mobile and automation and we're having more conversations with that part of the agency.”

The other area Atkinson eyes for growth this year is data, telling AdNews: “we're talking to quite a few data providers and looking at partnership arrangements”.

Last year, Adshel made a heavy investment in data, launching the largest network of beacons in the country, with more than 3000 rolled out across Australia. It also partnered with Roy Morgan's targeting tool, Helix Personas to boost its ability to target.

“We're looking at how we can use data in a constructive way, in a relevant way, and then just where we go in the programmatic and automation space,” Atkinson says.

“Real-time measurement is helping us – we've got Helix Personas and beacon data – but there will be more opportunities to link with data providers to get real-time data. “It's something that has been lacking in OOH for many years and now is at the forefront of what we do.”

But going forward Atkinson says continuing the momentum of the industry is the most important thing. He says the UK outdoor market is at 10 or 11% of total ad spend, in comparison to Australia at 5%. “We're still undercooked when it comes to the amount of ad dollars spent,” he says.

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Australia: Traditional firms accused of lacking outdoors vision

Chief executive of oOh! Media Brendon Cook says traditional media companies showed a lack of vision and understanding of the buoyant outdoor advertising busi­ness after passing on the ­opportunity to buy in to the sector cheaply a year ago.

CHAMP Private Equity floated oOh! Media in December 2014 and the company is now trading 140 per cent above its issue price, leaving it with a $685 million ­market value.

Quadrant Private Equity listed APN Outdoor the month before and it is now worth $936m, after a 120 per cent share price jump, while QMS Media Group has doubled in value to $392.5m since listing in June last year.

“It’s a missed opportunity for them in reality,” Mr Cook said. “It was a private equity-owned ­market. What it showed was a lack of thinking about where the world was really headed and maybe there wasn’t a lot of research done at the time.

“Successful media companies have always looked at where the future was going and made decisions about how they can engage with audiences and therefore ­clients differently.”

Media companies including Nine Entertainment Co, News Corporation, publisher of The Australian, and private equity firm The Carlyle Group all kicked the tyres on oOh! Media and APN Outdoor but could not meet the vendors’ prices, which were considered lofty at the time.

Since then, APN Outdoor and oOh! Media have beaten their prospectus earnings forecasts, with growth driven by the digitisation of billboards and signs, and the fragmentation of alternative mediums.

Digitised signs can carry more ad inventory and are more reactive to advertiser needs, given they can be updated multiple times a day, compared with the fortnightly or monthly rotations typical with static billboards.

“We’re not a traditional media company and we’re not a new media company. We’re somewhere in between,” Mr Cook told The Australian. “I don’t think the in-between was understood and we’re probably closer to a new media company than an old one.”

As traditional media fragments, outdoor audiences are ­increasing because of population growth and urbanisation.

APN Outdoor chief Richard Herring said advertisers that need to reach mass audiences were increasingly turning to the out-of-home industry. “The content of most media is being pretty aggressively ­attacked, diversified and fragmented, and that’s absolutely pushing into TV land with the Netflixes of the world,” he said. “While you’ve got those ­deteriorating audiences, it’s quite refreshing to see a medium that is in fact increasing its audience every day.”

These factors saw the outdoor advertising market grow by 17.3 per cent last year and by 10 per cent in 2014, according to the Outdoor Media Association.

Full article here

MIDDLE EAST NEWS

Lebanon: Advertising spending in Lebanon unchanged at $190m in 2015

The annual survey of the advertising market in the Arab world by ArabAd magazine and research firm Ipsos shows that real advertising expenditures in Lebanon totaled $190m in 2015, nearly unchanged from $189m in 2014, reported Byblos Bank's Lebanon This Week.

In comparison, advertising expenditures grew by 1.9% in each of 2013 and 2014, rose by 4.5% in 2012, contracted by 3% in 2011, and posted increases of 15.4% in 2010 and 18.5% in 2009.

Television attracted $83m or 43.7% of advertising expenditures, followed by outdoor billboards with $43m (22.6%), newspapers with $25m (13.2%), radio with $16m (8.4%), magazines with $11m (5.8%), online with $10m (5.3%) and cinemas with $2m (1.1%).

Spending on online advertising rose by 43% last year, radio ads grew by 6.7% and TV ads improved by 3.8%; while advertising expenditures on magazine ads regressed by 15.4%, newspaper ads contracted by 10.7% and outdoor billboards declined by 2.3% year-on-year.

Spending on ads at cinemas was unchanged from 2014.

Procter & Gamble was the biggest corporate spender on advertising in Lebanon, followed by Solvid, Nestlé, BankMed, Banque Libano-Française, Mondelez International, Jane Nassar, Lebanese Arab Credit, Salameh Co. and Zain.

Procter & Gamble was the largest spender on TV ads last year, Majid Al Futaim was the biggest client of outdoor billboard ads, BankMed spent the most on press ads, Yokohama was the biggest spender on radio ads, and Coca-Cola Company was the largest spender on cinema ads.

Further, BankMed was the top advertised brand in all media, followed by Banque Libano-Française, Pampers, Jane Nassar, Lebanese Arab Credit, Salameh Co., Buzz, Touch, Arial and Moukarzel. BankMed was the top advertised brand on television and in the printed press in 2015, Touch was the most frequently promoted brand on out-of-home advertising, Yokohama was the top advertised brand on radio, and Coca-Cola was the most frequently promoted brand in cinemas.

According to Ipsos, monitored advertising expenditures in Lebanon rose by 4% to $1.65bn in 2015. The survey indicated that the discrepancy between monitored rates and actual figures continues, as monitored rates are 8.7 times larger than real advertising expenditures.

It attributed this trend to big client discounts, inflated rate cards, big barter deals, as well as to a lack of transparency in the industry in reporting earnings. It noted that monitored ad spending on TV is 16 times larger than actual spending, followed by outdoor billboards with a 4.1 ratio, magazines with a 3.6 ratio, radio with a 3.4 ratio, newspapers at two times and cinemas with a ratio of 1.5 times.

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ASIA NEWS

India: Global Advertisers creates OOH campaign for ‘Make in India Week’ in Mumbai

Taking Prime Minister Naredra Modi’s dream project forward, the Government of India is organising the ‘Make in India Week’ in Mumbai and has associated with Global Advertisers to craft out this massive campaign.

As part of the project, Global Advertisers has designed an extensively thought-through out-of-home campaign that showcases large-scale hoardings and billboards pertaining to the event in highly strategic locations of the city. It is pertinent to note here that the event is being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry across the country.

Speaking on the campaign, Global Advertisers managing director Sanjeev Gupta said,

“I am extremely honoured to be associated with this project. India is home to a massive domestic market and we are just beginning to recognize this potential. I am humbled that CII has chosen Global Advertisers to contribute towards this project and we have created a very strategic plan to make this campaign humungously popular. I firmly believe in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make In India” theory and we shall do our every bit to take this project forward.”

The ‘Make in India Week’ will showcase the people, policies and partnerships that are driving India’s new manufacturing revolution. Set against the vibrant backdrop of India’s commercial capital – Mumbai, this week long calendar will offer unprecedented access, insights and opportunities to connect and collaborate with India and global Industry leaders/ visionaries, academicians, central and state administrations.

‘Make in India Week’ will be conducted from 13-18 February in BKC ground.

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