Escape the cape roadside DOOH News
Welcome back to our DOOH News for September 2019. This month we’ve been exploring Gen Z’s feelings on OOH, we produced a fantastic dynamic campaign for jetBlue and we went behind the scenes of digital OOH production. Enjoy!
This month… we ‘Escaped the Cape’ with jetBlue! ✈️

jetBlue airlines targeted vacationers driving to Cape Cod with this roadside digital OOH campaign. The dynamic campaign encouraged vacationers to explore different vacation destinations with similar travel times.

In other news…

Gen Z Digital OOH Hyundai BTS DOOH News

Grand Visual’s very own Gen Z’er Charlotte, explores the power of Gen Z and digital OOH. 

 

Google Pixel 3 Retail DOOH News

The busiest quarter of the year is just getting started! Here are our top tips on how to prepare your digital OOH for the busiest period in retail.

DOOH News Adam Stephenson Production

Ever wanted to see behind the scenes at Grand Visual? Adam our producer gives us a peek into the life of digital OOH production.

With our latest promo for Google, we highlighted the data triggers used to ‘Make the Most of Summer!’

DOOH news OreoEclipse

For this month’s insights, we discussed how food & beverage brands can connect with consumers through digital OOH.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our DOOH News for September 2019. If you would like to start receiving our monthly DOOH Newsletters in your mailbox, then please sign up here.

Google Multi App Old Street digital OOH
Welcome to our DOOH News for August 2019. This month, we’ve been busy working hard on a brand new campaign for Google, exploring new technology for augmented & mixed reality and much more. Enjoy!
This month… Google owned British Summertime!

Google Multi App EC1

Google extended its “Make the Most of Summer” campaign with a responsive, data-driven digital OOH push, demonstrating how Google is there to help you enjoy the Summer.

In other news…

Want to find out how some of the world’s biggest entertainment brands are using digital OOH to bring their shows to life?

Entertainment Digital OOH

Our Creative Technologist shares a behind-the-scenes look at Mo-Sy’s StarTracker technology for Augmented & Mixed Reality.

Technology for Augmented and Mixed Reality

Here’s our latest showreel, showcasing the creative possibilities of dynamic for digital OOH. Enjoy!

Want to know what campaigns made our Top 5 Dynamic Digital OOH Campaigns?

Google Outside Dynamic DIgital OOH

It was amazing to see our key digital OOH moments highlighted in this piece from Campaign Mag.

Pepsi MAX Augmented Reality digital OOH

Our CCO Dan Dawson gave us a backstage view of Outdoor Cannes Lions 2019, plus a look at Digital’s progress within the category.

cannes outdoor lions

Here’s our tips for successfully rolling out global digital OOH campaigns.

Dufry Global DOOH

We hope you’ve enjoyed our DOOH News for August 2019. If you would like to start receiving our monthly DOOH Newsletters in your mailbox, then please sign up here.

Entertainment insights for Digital OOH. Spider Verse Times Square campaign
Charlotte Jones, Marketing Apprentice, shares how the biggest entertainment brands are using digital OOH to bring characters and storylines to life.

Did you know that US consumers spend almost as much time watching videos as they do working?¹  Or that over 60% of Millennials and Gen Z consumers stream videos daily?²  Whether you’re a film buff or a series binge-watcher, or maybe you got an account simply to see what all the fuss about Stranger Things is, streaming is a part of our everyday lives.

So it should come as no surprise that the world’s biggest entertainment clients are revelling in it – with epic digital OOH campaigns. We’ve worked closely with brands such as Amazon, Spotify, Disney and Netflix to craft memorable digital OOH experiences that bring characters and storylines from popular shows to life.

Let us show you a few examples…

Amazon Prime Good Omens

Amazon Prime brought Armageddon to Times Square with this awesome Augmented Reality experience for Good Omens.

Netflix The Haunting of Hill House

Netflix scared fans with this horrifying, Augmented Reality experience for the Haunting of Hill House at Comic-Con NY 2019.

Disney My Disney Side

Disney shared the magic at this unsuspecting mall, with an immersive Augmented Reality experience!

With the dawn of digital, it should come as no surprise that 46% of internet users say that they prefer to access music through online services than buy it offline.³  Considering there are over 7 billion internet users in the world… that is a lot of people!⁴

As well as “video on demand” brands, we have also worked closely with some of the biggest music entertainment brands, including Spotify and Google, to create awesome dynamic digital OOH campaigns. Both of these examples played important roles within the brand’s broader campaign strategy.

Spotify 2018 Wrapped


Spotify gave their premium users the chance to see their ‘wrapped’ playlist appear on iconic billboards in New York, London, Berlin & Melbourne.

Google Play Music

Google Play Music showcased the app’s ability to suggest the perfect soundtrack for the consumer’s mindset at that moment.

Want to discuss your upcoming digital OOH plans? Get in touch!

Google Data-Driven Digital OOH
Google extended its “Make the Most of Summer” campaign with a responsive, data-driven, nationwide, digital OOH push that demonstrates the little ways in which Google is there to help you enjoy the summer.

The campaign showcases Google’s Search functionality with popular city-wide summer search terms, such as ‘Best ice cream in Glasgow,’ or ‘Parks near me,’ for example.

Full motion sites across London, Manchester, and Birmingham, also list the results for search terms, including star ratings, opening times, and map directions with creative also reacting to time of day and local weather conditions, to provide the most relevant creative in the moment.

At Old Street EC1, Google’s long-term digital holding in London, creative features additional location-specific, weather, time, day, and temperature triggers, and also taps into cultural events such as The Ashes, to contextualise creative during the campaign.

Google Data-Driven Digital OOH

Created by 72andSunny Amsterdam, and produced by Grand Visual, the campaign was planned and booked by OMD and Talon and runs across transit, retail and city-centre locations until the 25th of August, with an extended run at Old Street roundabout.

Dynamic creative is delivered via OpenLoop, the Dynamic Creative Optimisation ad server from ad tech specialist QDOT.

Graham Bednash, Director of Consumer Marketing at Google UK, said: “There’s something unique about the British interest in the weather and the way we react to summer. We love the way this campaign really captures that and shows how Google Search and Maps can help people make the most of it.”

 

“Dynamic campaigns of this scale are archetypical of where the OOH market is headed following years of digitisation and investment. It’s awesome to see Google marketing continuing to lead and believe in the DOOH space with an epic campaign that is tactical, reactive and responsive.” Dan Dawson, Chief Creative Officer.

Google Outside Dynamic Digital OOH
Welcome back to another Top 5 countdown! Today we’ve narrowed down our favourite dynamic campaigns to just five (plus some honourable mentions). 

If you missed the last countdown, where we picked our favourite augmented reality campaigns, you should definitely check that out.

So drum roll please… in no particular order, here are our top 5 dynamic digital OOH campaigns. 

1. Spotify: 2018 Wrapped

To celebrate the end of another great year, Spotify revamped its popular campaign “Wrapped” with a dynamic, digital OOH twist! Spotify’s premium users were encouraged to sign up for a breakdown of their year in music – for the chance to appear on iconic billboards including Times Square and Piccadilly Lights. The campaign gave over 7000 ordinary people the chance to see their name in the famous lights. What an awesome way to wrap up a year!

2. Google: Introducing Explore

To encourage New Yorkers to explore their exciting city, Google launched this contextual, digital OOH campaign. Based on Google Maps’ latest features, the campaign made the public aware of new places and even reminded residents to check out places that they haven’t visited in a while! We love this campaign as it’s messaging continuously evolved based on what was going on at the time. Live in the Summer of 2018, “Introducing Explore” went on to win a silver OBIE!

3. Hiscox: Cyber Live

In a digital OOH first, cybercriminals were unknowingly behind this unique campaign for Hiscox Cyber Live. To drive awareness of cybercrime to small businesses, the campaign creative was responsive to real-life cyber attacks. As each attack took place, a spot on the poster would flash and pulse. A dynamic campaign that was truly unique, Cyber Live went on to win numerous awards including “Campaign of the Year” at the Campaign Media Awards 2019.

4. McDonald’s: The Iconic Weather Forecast

McDonald's McWeather Dynamic Digital OOH

We’ve seen a few dynamic weather campaigns over the years, but none as innovative as the Iconic Weather Forecast. Taking advantage of the ever-changing UK weather, McDonald’s decided to forecast the weather with a savoury twist. Overturned fries became rain, cheese-burgers became sunshine and chicken nuggets became snow… A chip dipped in sauce became the nation’s thermometer! The dynamic campaign was so popular in fact, that it ran for a second year in 2019.

5. Benadryl: Pollen Counts

Benadryl came to the rescue for hay fever sufferers with this clever, dynamic campaign. When pollen counts across the UK were irritatingly high, the reactive-creative alerted sufferers, prompting them to take action with Benadryl. Winning multiple awards, including a COOH award, the successful campaign was re-booked every summer for three years.

Honourable Mentions

It was so hard to pick just 5 dynamic campaigns, that we had to add these honourable mentions as well… Enjoy!

Top Dynamic Digital OOH Campaigns

Specsavers owned trending news and gossip with this hilarious campaign; prompting consumers to ask themselves if a leaking phone was more important than regular eye tests…

Exploring London was made easier than ever with this data-rich campaign for Google Outside. The digital OOH campaign went on to win two Cannes Lions later that year.

The out-of-home industry’s leaders encouraged other industries to “Get Out of Home,” with this tactical campaign.

Who would have ever thought that a camera-wearing cow would make for pure digital OOH gold…

We hope that you’ve enjoyed these campaigns as much as we do; stay tuned for our next countdown!

Google Dynamic Digital OOH at Wimbledon
Sarah Hetherington, Senior Marketing Executive, shares her top tips for any dynamic digital OOH campaign.

Digital OOH isn’t just putting static artwork onto a digital screen. The creative potential of the medium is huge, DOOH has the unique benefit of being able to be updated in real-time according to various data triggers like the time of day, temperature, or even train times.

You can advertise ice cream when the temperature climbs above 25 degrees Celsius and hot chocolate when it dips below 15. Studies have shown that contextual creative works and is 49% more effective* overall than non-dynamic advertising.

The challenge for our industry is how we can do more to fully utilise the technology that has been developed for these digital screens.

So how to begin? We have put together our top three tips on how to craft dynamic content for digital OOH.

How to craft stories around live data

Audience: Who are they?

Having a strong understanding of your audience is key. It will allow you to tailor your content in a way that’s engaging and relevant.

Think about what your audience will be doing when they walk past your creative. Are they on their way to work? Do they actually have time to stop and engage, for example in a shopping centre?

Once you know who you are targeting, you can begin to craft your story.

Moment: What is their mindset?

There are many different data types you can use to make your content more relevant and contextual. From location, to weather, date, time of day, trends, local events or holidays.

To decide what will be the most relevant, it will come back to your audience and what might be affecting them at that moment.

Gauge their mood, need state and attitude. This will feed into what type of trigger data will be the most effective. Are they on their way to work and thinking about their journey? Or is it hot and they’re contemplating a cold drink?

Considering the “moment” in which your message will appear can enable you to use the data that will provide the most benefit to your audience. Meaning not only will your campaign be noticed, but your message will be appreciated.

Message: What will deliver a timely & impactful message?

Message is the element where everything comes together.  By strongly identifying your audience, and considering the ‘moment’ you will be reaching them, you can choose the most relevant data & contextual elements with which to craft your message.

Think about how those data types can be integrated within creative that befits your brand or product, and in a way that makes sense for consumers.

By taking the time to curate and craft creative messages, you will have the ability to update the content throughout the duration of the campaign, based on your preset data triggers.

Dynamic Digital OOH

Digital OOH is constantly evolving as technology improves, and brands are looking to be more strategic with their advertising. The challenge is to broaden the scope of campaign creative currently seen on digital screens. There’s huge potential to deliver multiple messages for multiple audiences and really maximise your impact through the integration of dynamic content.

The capabilities of digital OOH far extend using the same print creative on a digital screen. As an industry, we should be pushing to better utilise the technology available and craft some memorable data-driven stories.  

*LivePoster The Dynamic Difference

Google Pixel Digital OOH

This first appeared in Digital Signage Today on March 29th 2019.

Ric Albert, Creative Director at Grand Visual shares 3 ways to bring digital OOH creative to life.

OOH continues to outpace other traditional advertising, fuelled by fast growth in DOOH revenue which is expected to continue at a rate of 10% per annum, globally, until 2021. In the UK, digital now accounts for an impressive 50% of total OOH spend, and other markets across Europe and APAC are on a similar trajectory, with the U.S. now also at almost a third. Globally, 2019 is shaping up well for DOOH.

Creatively, for me, it is the sheer size, impact, and ubiquity, of digital screens in cities around the world that make it an exciting canvas to work with. Full motion creative is a game changer when it comes to crafting engaging stories for out of home audiences. Study after study has revealed that motion delivers more impressions, for longer, and drives ROI.

The effect of good quality creative on the medium itself also enhances the value of that media. However, I was dismayed to learn recently from one of the U.K.’s largest media owners, that just 10% of the creative delivered to their full-motion digital portfolio is animated. I’ve been scratching my head ever since.

Can it be budget constraints? Are advertisers overwhelmed by the diversity of formats, locations, and technologies that make up the DOOH landscape? Plus with so much discussion focused on what the medium can do now, and in the near future, as a programmatically enabled, blockchain assisted platform, it is easy to see how some are finding the endless possibilities daunting.

So to all those advertisers who are still unsure about how to approach the medium, or are still using DOOH as an extension of their standard print or static outdoor work – here is a back to basics guide for crafting good quality, full motion DOOH creative. Based on three simple fail-safe tips that won’t break the bank.

1. Add motion

Generate creative that works harder. I’m talking motion. Motion, motion, motion! It attracts the eye, it helps to tell a story, it delivers drama and emotion. It brings a totally new dimension. It delivers cut through. It’s the absolute must-have for visual communication. It seems so obvious and yet we still see so much DOOH advertising that is static.

If your formats have it, use it! The power of motion helps an ad come to life. Sometimes, it doesn’t need much — a sprinkle of animation can elevate the creative into something memorable. Take advantage of the video content that may exist. Seek out the TV spot or trailer. It will have shots in it that bring a depth and richness to the DOOH creative.

Digital isn’t just pixels instead of paper, it gives us the opportunity to do more. We should be harnessing the potential of DOOH and stop using it as just another delivery file. It’s all about creative impact. And sometimes, a JPEG just isn’t that impactful! We can easily push beyond traditional print with animation, videos, live and updatable content.

2. Timing is everything

Dufry International Take Something Home Digital OOH

Be mindful of your environment and duration. All signs point to shorter sharper messaging being the way to go, but depending on the environment and duration of the digital screens you are using and what you’re trying to accomplish — longer form copy can work too.

Consider the difference between a five, a ten and a 20-second execution. Are you giving yourself enough time to establish your brand and message? Are you using the full duration of the execution wisely? Are you putting appropriate creative into different environments? Is there the potential to deliver multiple brand messages?

DOOH allows us to build a layered and nuanced piece of communication. Delivering a complex message or a last-minute offer is something that DOOH is great at. For example, in a ten-second piece, the creative can start with a call to action, proceed to the offer and finish with establishing the brand proposition. Separating these messages into bite-size pieces allows the audience to take in each element without being overloaded. It’s digestible and impactful and works for the dwell time.

Intelligent scheduling can make all the difference. Create something for the morning commute and another message for the evening. Or communicate with your weekend audience in a different way from the midweek crowd. Subtle changes in copy can build real depth to your campaign.

3. Be contextual

Digital OOH is a connected media. We are already serving creative that adapts to real-time feeds, such as weather, traffic flow, and social media trends. The infrastructure is in place so it makes sense to get the media working hard with useful and relevant messaging that can change and evolve during the course of a campaign.

Now, campaigns can adapt and respond to conditions and real-world events, or feature last minute deals that push different products to different audiences at different times in the day. By harnessing the context effect, brands can achieve cut through and turbocharge the relevance, and effectiveness of their advertising messages.

So the challenge is on for 2019 for all of us to ditch the JPEG. To be creative. All of the time. It doesn’t have to eat up your budget, it just has to move. Let’s ditch the JPEG and get the creative working harder. Let’s maximize the potential of the medium, use the full canvas, duration, and be relevant, and contextual. Let’s capitalize on the unique creative opportunity that DOOH provides for brands and audiences alike.

Dan Dawson CCO, Grand Visual

This first appeared in MarTech Series on 21st February 2019.

Our Chief Creative Technology Officer, Daniel Dawson discusses technological advancements in the Out-of-Home (OOH) industry in 2018 and his predictions for AdTech with MarTech Series.

Daniel Dawson ADtech OOH

Tell us about your role at Grand Visual and the team/technology you handle.

I head up all creative technology projects at Grand Visual and I am lucky to have a diverse team with a broad spectrum of creative, technical and coding backgrounds to work with.

Besides working on our own AdTech platforms and systems, we also explore, implement, and hone a whole range of innovative engagement techniques such as Augmented Reality, Touch & Gesture, Face Tracking, Video, and Mobile to drive interactions. Engaging stories allow consumers to change or personalize experiences in various ways, creating greater brand recall and changing consumer behaviours. 

What were the most significant technological advancements in the Out-of-Home industry in 2018?

There have been some high-profile advancements in the testing of programmatic platforms for automated media trading. A significant and necessary step forward for the industry, in terms of connecting real programmatic media to programmatic creative — the holy grail.

Google Maps DOOH 2019

What are your predictions on the state of AdTech in 2019?

AdTech systems are already changing the way brands plan, book and use the Out-of-Home medium. OOH specialists have begun to buy a sustained presence across the year for heavy OOH users such as McDonald’s, Coca Cola and Google, with these brand’s implementing a longer-term intelligent planning approach across their brand and product portfolios. In 2019, these backend AdTech systems will make huge steps in terms of their interoperability. This will see improvements across inventory management, transactional exchanges, data management, creative logistics, creative optimization and, of course, reporting, all areas for systemization. Consolidation of networks, agreement on standards, and system integration will show Digital Out-of-Home gearing up to be a real force this year.

How would the AdTech industry further grow with the maturity of data science and analytics?

In the Digital OOH (DOOH) space, we are rich in data. While data aggregation and uniformity is still a challenge, especially with some campaigns using up to 15 separate data feeds, we have the benefit of permanent screen technology and can, therefore, build a data picture of the location, the changing conditions, and audiences. Audience insights boost our ability to make advertising creatives contextual and relevant, and more impactful. It also enables targeted Out-of-Home ad buys, which are only activated when the conditions are right, leading to improvements in audience targeting efficiency.

Real-time campaign reporting from third-party verification platforms such as PlayTrack also offers advertisers the ability to assess campaign success and optimize creative on the go. This level of transparency and accountability is crucial for the programmatic future of Digital OOH. Further down the line again — increased data sharing through the blockchain will fuel omnichannel and omniscreen campaigns with much smarter cross-platform audience planning. With more electronic devices in everyone’s pockets, connected, cross-platform digital platforms campaigns will become a programmatic reality.

Spotify 2018 Wrapped Digital OOH

Tell us more about QDOT.

QDOT is an AdTech business designed to facilitate smart, scalable campaign management for digital OOH. These digital-asset management tools were originally developed and used as in-house processes, for Grand visual clients. But as the market grew and evolved to become a flexible, tactical, and real-time platform, just like other digital mediums, Out-of-Home required the infrastructure and creative toolkits to handle the growing volume of creative. That’s why we launched QDOT and opened up our platforms and services to the entire market.

To deliver Spotify’s Wrapped campaign, for example, over 7,640 personalized playlists were shared globally. OpenLoop, the smart campaign management platform from QDOT, allowed users to submit their personalized Wrapped stats and see them published on iconic digital billboards around the world. OpenLoop ingested the data and automated the delivery just moments later. Before OpenLoop, campaigns like this would have been a logistical nightmare. It’s about providing ease of use and driving creativity.

How did you prepare for the execution of the ‘Wrapped’ campaign?

Spotify sent us a version of their data schema and a mock-up of the creative. We tested the schema across our platforms and suggested refinements. Our software is very versatile and is able to ingest feeds to match them against physical locations and media plans. Pairing this with our creative and content development made the whole process very smooth for us and the client.

McDonald's McWeather Digital OOH

At Grand Visual, how do you combine creative technology with data? Could you lead us through your data analytics operations before launching any DOOH/OTT campaigns?

Data crafting is part of what we do. We evaluate all the sources of data that are available and decide how and what to use in order to enhance the brand story and bring the campaign to life. It’s not about using data and technology for the sake of it, we approach data carefully with the brand story always at the heart of what we do. It’s rule-based and creative-driven data science.

How do you prepare for an AI-focused world? Which technologies are you most keen to learn more about?

Grand Visual’s job is to craft creative stories based on the data sources available. So, we’re interested in Machine Learning algorithms and Predictive Analytics based on historical data. Both on a media buying level as well as content creation. If we can predict consumer behaviour — we can base messages on real-world outcomes.

Unified programmatic planning and creative optimization is the end goal, where Planning, Buying, Distribution, Playback, and Reporting are programmatically achieved using real-time audience information and data insight to drive the decision-making process. So. right now creating standards, is a core challenge for the industry. Globally agreed standards for independent 3rd-party verification of advertising play-outs (down to a panel and individual play level), will support the growth of the digital OOH market globally. Making it easier to run digital campaigns at scale across all DOOH channels.

Google Pixel Digital OOH
To promote the release of the highly anticipated Google Pixel 3, Google has launched a huge digital OOH awareness campaign.

Launching on the 25th of October, the large-scale campaign gives the tech giant’s latest smartphone impressive visibility across the UK’s digital OOH media landscape. The phased campaign supporting pre-orders, launch and the Christmas period is scheduled to run right through to 10th December.

Google Pixel 3 Digital OOH

For the first phase of the campaign, the multiple creatives featured a product shot merging into a lifestyle scene – as well as the call to action of ‘Pre-order Now.’ On 1st November, when the smartphone was released, the copy was switched to ‘Now Available’ and focused on the Pixel’s various features.

Grand Visual was responsible for digital production and developed the creative provided by 72 and Sunny into an impressive linear campaign. The campaign has been booked across traditional and digital OOH media in a 50/50 split that encompasses 8 different media owners.

Google Pixel 3 Digital OOH

The impressive campaign can be seen in action at iconic sites across the UK including Manchester’s Printworks, London’s Storm Cromination and a digiwall domination at Piccadilly Underground Station.

 

google digital ooh old street
Google extended its “Make Google Do It” campaign, with a clever UK-wide digital OOH push.

The campaign demonstrates how Google Assistant can help with a variety of everyday tasks. The activity runs across transit, retail and city-centre locations until 8th July, Old Street roundabout has an extended run which lasts until 3rd August.

google digital ooh old street

The ‘Make Google Do It’ digital OOH creative uses two creative threads. The first features the Google Home Mini and highlights the versatility of Google Assistant, its main product, by demonstrating how it can help to “Play it. Skip it. Time it. Dial it. Forecast it. Remember it. Schedule it. Prep it. Do it.”

The second creative thread demonstrates Google Assistant’s ability to help with everyday tasks in a Q&A style activation at Old Street Roundabout. Here copy is linked to time, day, location, and major cultural events such as the World Cup, Wimbledon, and Pride London. Additionally, it pulls in local and contextual information such as “Feeling hungry Old Street? or “Can’t find the mythical Shoreditch cash points?” to highlight Google Assistant’s ability to provide location-based relevance.

Created by R/GA London and Google UK, Grand Visual was responsible for the production & delivery whilst media planning & buying was taken care of by Talon and OMD. The digital OOH campaign is part of a broader integrated global campaign that is running across cinema, TV, out-of-home, press, display and social media.

Meg Ledger, Client Manager, Talon said:

“OOH was the perfect channel to communicate how Google Assistant can be your playful sidekick throughout the day. Working collaboratively with Grand Visual, Google, OMDUK and R/GA we were able to maximize the effect of OOH by deploying clever contextual creative assets to tap into a relevant frame of mind for busy on the go audiences”

Dan Dawson, Chief Creative Technology Officer, Grand Visual, said:

“This campaign took over 100 pieces of copy to deliver. By using smart scheduling, Google has created a fresh, timely and engaging campaign that reaches a mass audience and demonstrates just how far the medium has come.”