Ad Club New York OOH Now 2019
Zevi Tilles, Account Director, shares his thoughts and feedback from last weeks Ad Club of New York’s annual Conference, OOH Now 2019.

Every year, I look forward to attending The AD Club of New York’s end of year conference. Getting to Pier 60 by the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan in December is a cold trip. However, once inside I’m always reminded of why the event is worth travelling to.

This year was no exception, and it was better than ever. The agenda centered around how data, technology, creativity, and the experience of OOH specialist teams, are leading growth and expansion across the industry. The view presented at the event promoted more focus on digital OOH and how the medium should move to utilize real-time triggers from time of day or weather to dynamic creative optimization at a greater scale. We also heard from brands using ad tech solutions that are giving their planners the ability to find locations where their audience over indexes and that allows them to optimize their digital OOH plans and creative accordingly, to drive contextual relevance and impact by using real-time conditions. 

There was an amazing session on THE CREATIVE CANVAS led by Dan Brill, Group Creative Director, Spotify, Travis Sterner, Director of Media, United Artists Releasing, Robin Tilotta, Director of Consumer Marketing, Twitter and Paul Woolmington, CEO, Canvas Worldwide. It was moderated by, Ed Herty, National Creative Director, Outfront Media. The panel was in agreement, creative storytelling is now informing the buy. Advertisers are looking to make DOOH interactive, contextual, and they want to personalize their messages to specific audiences based on time of day and in the moments that matter to the viewer. This was exactly the sentiment I was hoping for and it was coming directly from the brands! This is the type of ambition that will lead our channel to new heights in 2020.

The MEDIA BUYER SPOTLIGHT featuring: Andrew Weinstein, Manager, Rapport Worldwide, Fatima Winfrey, Group Director, OOH, Horizon Media, led me to believe that the agencies were coming to the same conclusions. Better creative and smarter standards drive superior outcomes.

Throughout the day, a recurring theme was discussed by the speakers. The sentiment being, OOH faces challenges as it moves towards a programmatic future, and how we collectively handle them will have an important impact in our industry. Particularly as omnichannel platforms are moving into digital OOH. It was highlighted that we need to make sure there is consistency in how impressions are reported. For digital OOH there needs to be independent third-party verification of campaign playout, including interactions and other campaign-specific metrics. We must provide advertisers with a level of transparency and accountability, to realize the full potential of programmatic digital OOH. 

Furthermore, advertisers and agencies need better workflow tools for the management and trafficking of digital OOH campaigns. These tools should be dedicated to quality assurance, distribution, and auditing of digital OOH creative. This will, in turn, accelerate the path from creative producers to media owners simplifying the management and delivery of DOOH creative across networks and platforms. 

In conclusion, a digital-first OOH mindset and added experiences through touch, gesture, recognition, mobile, social and experiential have marketers and brands excited! They are spending more time, measuring the outcomes, and investing more budget into the channel. 

I can’t wait to see what happens as we transition to the next decade for OOH in 2020!

 

McDonald's Monopoly digital OOH campaign
McDonald’s are celebrating the return of their highly anticipated Monopoly prize game with a tactical, digital OOH campaign.

Mcdonald's Monopoly digital OOH

The UK-wide campaign encourages consumers to get “peely peely” for a chance to win, by reminding them how many prizes have already been claimed!

Created by Leo Burnett, the campaign creative features a live counter bordered by subtly-animated board game pieces and prizes up for grabs. Using data from a live API feed, the live counter capitalises on the consumers “fear of missing out.”

The campaign will run in two phases. The first phase will show consumers the number of prizes that have been claimed at a national level alongside the catchy call to action, “get peely peely for your chance to win.”

Similarly, the second phase will also show the number of prizes that have been claimed – but at a regional level. Twenty UK cities were carefully selected and campaign copy was tailored. For example, “10,000 prizes already claimed in Birmingham,” alongside the same call to action.

The campaign was produced by Grand Visual, with planning and buying by OMD and Talon. OpenLoop, the digital OOH campaign management platform from QDOT, takes the live prize data feed from McDonald’s and distributes relevant creative to Media Owners across the UK.

 

#Getoutofhome digital OOH
To inspire and excite the ad industry about the power of OOH, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) and its members have initiated a national OOH campaign, to prove its value and significance in today’s digital world. Running across more than 50,000 OOH sites, #GetOutOfHome includes 27 digital screen networks, in 30 major US markets, over the coming weeks.

Touting the value of OOH as a great media amplifier, the campaign, created by Publicis New York, features ad industry icons, young creative thinkers and social media influencers. To encourage attendees of Advertising Week NY (October 1-4) to engage in the conversation, a real-time digital OOH campaign will run as part of the activity using the hashtag #GetOutOfHome.

#GetOutOfHome Digital OOH

Produced by Grand Visual, the dynamic creative will include live commentary, tweets, and Instagram posts published direct to digital screens across New York City. OpenLoop, the real-time campaign management and distribution platform from ad tech provider, QDOT, will deliver the live commentary and buzz from Advertising Week’s online social engagement to screens across NYC in a showcase that highlights the medium’s flexibility and relevance.

“Today’s advertising creatives and media planners grew up with the internet in the palm of their hands; they get digital media and push it forward,” said Stephen Freitas, OAAA’s chief marketing officer. “We want to show them some ideas are too big to stay trapped online. Bold ideas need a bold platform.”

#GetOutOfHome digital OOH

Ben Putland, MD of QDOT, said: “The technology and ad tech systems are now in place to make the delivery of real-time creative across multiple digital OOH networks seamless. Flexible, contextual messages complement the broader static campaign whilst responding to social triggers and encouraging people to participate online.”

Josh Horn, Creative Director, Publicis New York, commented, “OOH has become the ultimate stage for brands to get their message seen. It’s contextual, measurable and responsive. We wanted to celebrate its power to amplify today’s best campaigns.”

#GetOutOfHome NYC Taxi Top

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.”

Marvel Doctor Strange OOH experience

This article first appeared on Contagious on 22nd May 2018.

Ric Albert, creative director at Grand Visual, explains how film studios are raising the bar with exceptionally creative uses of digital outdoor.

Ten years ago, digital out-of-home was in its infancy; a blank canvas yet to be painted with the exciting content we see today. Film marketing was still very much focusing on the traditional channels of TV, print and OOH; video-on-demand and pre-roll ads had only just started to appear. In fact, online was where film marketing first started experimenting creatively. However, as the functionality and scale of Digital OOH has expanded, so too, has the way in which entertainment brands use it.

Fast forward 10 years, and things have changed dramatically. Today, digital inventory has given OOH film campaigns a new lease of life, adding some movie magic to outdoor executions. Now marketeers can run trailers and video content on the street, introduce characters, plot teasers, or run live-action sequences, direct from the film to whet the public’s appetite. Digital OOH has become the ideal advertising channel for the entertainment industry.

Shifting the needle

There’s been experimentation. It started in 2006 with Rocky Balboa running up the first digital escalator panels on London Underground, changing the way we thought about multi-panel creative. It continued with Legend of the Guardians, which saw a campaign pioneering subtle motion on roadside screens, a motion format that’s now an international standard.

In 2011, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 streamed its world premiere live to DOOH screens. Then there was the Jurassic World execution at Waterloo, which combined, traditional OOH, station wraps, Digital OOH and experiential. And a variety of AR and VR activations were used across the world for the release of supernatural horror IT.

There is real momentum to this creative evolution, and advertisers are changing the way they create and use OOH media. From static branding channel to high impact PR vehicle, DOOH now live streams worldwide premieres, provides immersive augmented reality events and delivers iconic treatments tailored for iconic buildings, environments and screen locations. Now OOH can be engaging, immersive, participatory, integrated and scalable.

Scaling interaction

Connecting with film fans on a deeper level is now achievable. Digital OOH offers interaction via a multitude of creative technology solutions. A campaign for Dr Strange opened up live portals between sunny Los Angeles and rainy London, and allowed people to warp the world in front of them. An AR campaign for Batman v Superman allowed participants across several markets to become their favourite superhero. And these aren’t just one-off special builds, we’re seeing interactive campaigns becoming more scalable: it’s now possible to produce engaging, responsive experiences seamlessly across borders and markets.

The digitisation of OOH has also enabled outdoor creative to become firmly embedded in the broader digital strategy, playing a central role in an omnichannel execution. The power of social media and its influence over box office results means that OOH can be a great conduit for driving audiences online, and vice versa. Digital outdoor activations can be crafted to generate shareable content for garnering audiences online.

For the recent launch of season 7 of Game of Thrones, dramatic fan reactions posted on social channels were shared moments later on digital screens across the UK, tapping into the buzz and excitement of the show whilst delivering a powerful UGC endorsement. Interestingly, Digital OOH has also begun to influence other channels, with its content nowadays seen at movie premieres and press junkets, as well as within online banner creative and social feeds.

Digital OOH’s presence and ubiquity in cities around the world is also part of its allure to the film and entertainment industries. Film campaigns demand an international rollout, and as DOOH spend overtakes traditional OOH revenue in markets around the world, this has forced us to change our approach. Nowadays scalability is vital to production processes, so now we use master creative toolkits and flexible creative that can adapt to all the different shapes, sizes, durations, environments and audiences of the screens we’re faced with.

To give you an idea of that scale, in 2017 we delivered over 12,500 files to 52 markets, from Guatemala to Kazakhstan. Localisation and delivery become paramount, as does sophisticated ad-serving technology from QDOT. Now multiple markets can take advantage of a toolkit of creative rather than the traditional siloed approach.

So, what next? It’s undeniable that Digital OOH has become a major marketing channel for film studios and entertainment brands. Moreover, the film industry has become a major driving force for the continued development and evolution of global Digital OOH campaigns.

Now that the production processes have been nailed and the intelligent ad-serving infrastructure is in place, we expect to see truly global campaigns that deliver local relevance become the new standard. Combined with tactical, interactive and cross-channel strategies, the marriage between film marketing and digital OOH looks set to blossom.

Summer is a great time of year to target people with digital OOH advertising, with nearly half of the population becoming more active during spring/summer when the weather gets warmer*.

The good weather has a positive effect on people’s mood and will make people more likely to get involved with interactive campaigns. Take this fun, engaging campaign for Hasbro Monopoly for example.


Summer is also a great time to integrate the warmer weather with a dynamic digital OOH campaign and provide relevant & contextual messages. This campaign for refreshing, cool beverages from McDonald’s, only went live when the temperature rose to a “balmy” 17 degrees.

Of course, it doesn’t need to be dynamic to catch people’s attention. This summer campaign from Tropicana brought sunshine to the stations of London with eye-catching, linear creative.
It’s easy to see why advertisers are using digital OOH in the summer, with more people out and about, it’s the perfect time to be seen.

Sources:
*Talon Generator
OMA Summer
Media Village, Reaching the On-the-Go Consumer in Summer

McDonald’s has today launched Traffic Busters, a unique roadside campaign that uses traffic data to automate contextual messages, aimed at tempting drivers to visit their nearest McDonald’s restaurant. The nationwide campaign reacts to the speed of traffic at each location to deliver tactical messages across premium roadside billboards from 6 th –15 th November.

Created by Leo Burnett and produced by Grand Visual, the campaign features tantalising shots of McDonald’s most well-loved burgers, fries and shakes, but when congestion levels rise, and traffic slows, the creative switches to display the brands iconic illuminated golden arches with the simple, relevant, call to action: “Stuck in a jam? There’s a light at the end of the tunnel”.

The media was planned and booked by OMD and Talon and spans multiple screen formats across 10 key cities and spanning 7 different media owners. The dynamic campaign is managed and distributed through QDOT’s digital OOH ad tech platform OpenLoop. OpenLoop analyses real-time data from Google Traffic API and triggers the relevant geo-targeted playout of content to each roadside location.

Katie Parker, Head of Marketing, at McDonald’s, said:

“This data-driven digital OOH campaign uses traffic speed to contextualise copy, reaching drivers with targeted and tactical messages that tap into their mindset in that moment.”

Dan Dawson, Chief Creative Technology Officer at Grand Visual, added:

“This tactical campaign is a great use of the medium. Simple, tantalising, recognisable product shots stimulate the appetite during fast flowing traffic, whilst longer contextual copy lines run during heavy, slow moving traffic, acknowledging the delays to deliver a relevant and powerful call to action.”

Helen Saffer, Business Director at Talon commented:

This campaign is the perfect example of Talon’s smarter as standard approach to planning, fitting seamlessly with how the client and agency want to use media and push the boundaries. Using relevant data we hand selected key sites on the busiest roads in the UK. Through smart use of data we have used Digital OOH to the best of its capabilities to ensure a contextual, striking and relevant message for consumers.

Grand Visual produced localised, tactical creative to support the launch of TSB’s 555, a new offer that will provide Classic Plus customers with added ‘plusness’ when it comes to their everyday banking.

The large DOOH campaign consisted of 132 files trafficked through FileDrive, across 9 different formats. The creative was localised and tactically scheduled throughout the day ensuring creative was always relevant. The morning creative features friends in a coffee shop, in the afternoon it shows friends shopping and in the evening a couple out for dinner.

The TSB 555 campaign is a great example of a brand embracing the capabilities of DOOH to deliver contextual messages, resulting in greater relevance, impact and driving greater ROI.

Grand Visual produced the creative which played out across Clear Channel’s AdShel network and Exterion’s London Underground Network, and was live from the 14th March for two weeks.

Rapport worked alongside Sky and Grand Visual to measure social activity on Twitter with up-to-the-minute information being displayed across national roadside digital 6 sheets, including mall and National Rail.

The Digital Out of Home special, went live on Wednesday 6th May, will demonstrate how Sky News will be at the heart of the inspiring election conversation. A system has been built that pulls in data from social media analytics company, Vigiglobe, a partner that Sky have collaborated with for the Sky News app, to measure the latest stats of the election build up.

OpenLoop will be used to manage live data reflecting the performance of the 5 main political parties on Twitter. On screen, the dynamic creative will adapt every hour according to social media sentiment to keep the public informed as the election progresses. Vigiglobe will analyse all relevant tweets based on which party has had the most positive tweets and which party has been tweeted about the most over the previous hour and feed that data via API into OpenLoop.

Alasdair Weddell, Media Planning Controller at Sky, commented:

“Sky News coverage of the General Election is about being up-to-the-minute, relevant and accessible across multiple platforms. This dynamic digital outdoor solution enables us to be first for breaking election updates even when our consumers are out and about.”

Craig Barber, Head of Innovation and Emerging Media at Rapport, said:

“It’s yet another exemplary campaign from Sky who are harnessing the power of Digital Out of Home. Sky News is able to visually represent the election conversations taking place across the UK, showcasing how Sky News is at the heart of election campaigning. Digital Out of Home is one of the few mediums that is able to support this up to the minute data on a national scale.”

Neil Morris, Managing Director at Grand Visual, explained:

“This campaign for Sky News demonstrates the power of Digital Out of Home for brands in a rich and relevant way through smart use of data. OpenLoop and enhanced Digital Out of Home communication really comes into its own at a time like this when the public have a real hunger for insight and a trusted source.”

In advance of Vodafone’s 4G service launch in London, Grand Visual and RKCR/Y&R produced a tactical burst which ran on hundreds of Digital Out of Home screens across the capital for one day. A two week launch campaign followed announcing the arrival of 4G and free Sky Sports Mobile or free Spotify music streaming for customers adopting the new plan.

 

A range of executions ran featuring Vodafone’s brand ambassador Yoda and promoting the ultrafast 4G service backed with the strapline “Power to You”.  The campaign also marked the Out of Home debut for Vodafone’s new visual brand identity, Power of Red, from The Brand Union and digital consultancy Digit. The identity focuses on a flexible rhombus shape that anchors to the Vodafone roundel.