The Future of Outdoor
Ivan Clark, MD of Kinetic’s Destination Media Group, puts forward his view of the future of the Outdoor advertising medium, flagging up the “third screen” of mobile…
I was recently at Twickenham for the England Vs Italy Six Nations rugby match and it struck me that the number of brands staking their claims on the hearts and minds of the audience was staggering. Surely, one might think, with this clutter, advertising is wallpaper? Not so when you consider how valuable the crowd is in the eyes of the marketing community.
None of these people can be in two places at once – many a chief executive and media mover and shaker networks with clients, colleagues and friends. The time and place and their frame of mind make them fantastically valuable consumers, whether they are there individually or on behalf of their business. It’s this level of heightened awareness and receptiveness that typifies the competitive advantage out-of-home media will continue to exploit in the coming years.
The vast choice of formats and opportunities means advertisers effectively shadow consumers throughout the day. The posters running the length of the walkway leaving Twickenham station; promotional girls handing out maps and info cards as the crowd walk to the venue; the ref-link radios sponsored by Land Rover; the West car park village offering premium facilities to brand converts; perimeter boards; corporate hospitality; stadium announcer brand messages; TV style commercials from Blink TV on the spectacularly clear LED screens inside the stadium – brands have a vast menu of compelling options to tailor-make their OOH destination advertising package.
This is where Outdoor can win over traditional media, everything from high impact billboards and displays to active brand engagement aimed at a relaxed yet energetic audience with an attractive upmarket male profile. Of course other media can do this too, but in-home is private, a closed environment nearly always too expensive to break into, except in the most powerful, creative and emotional TV shows, magazines and newspapers.
It’s not just the destination venue where out-of-home media excels. What about the Cromwell Road, home of the flagship billboard? Airport special builds, long-term holdings aimed at the lucrative business and holiday traveller markets; giant LED screens now emerging as the premium formats to the pedestrian audience in buzzing city centres. Building wraps and spectaculars dominate the skyline and offer creative teams massive potential to execute their big ideas on the outdoor stage often with the added benefit of newsworthy media coverage.
OOH also extends to experiential and creative event-based marketing which can generate PR – massive interest to the media fighting to distinguish their editorial from the celebrity obsessed but somehow bland and repetitive copy and images this generates over time.
Digital innovations also have a major impact upon the development of out-of-home in the coming years. To date, the industry has suffered set backs, some networks have not recognised the importance of screen content and understanding how this needs to be appropriate to the environment.
Some locations where people have some time to dwell can accommodate engaging content, others where the audience is on the move needs content that can subconsciously interrupt. Nevertheless the cost of technology continues to decrease and the healthy equation between cost and quality is leading to more impact and technical innovation at keener pricing, similar to the computing market.
Advertisers are increasingly keen to achieve brand stand-out from the greater impact generated by moving images, while exploiting the creative and tactical possibilities the flexibility of the new media offers – all the while enjoying lower production and distribution costs.
Flexibility is a key benefit. The modern customer-centric advertiser needs to move fast in the techno-world of price transparency, level playing fields and intense global competition. Digital OOH allows advertisers to change their offers rapidly, develop dynamic messaging and deliver copy appropriate to the audience and frame-of mind. This heralds a new level of precision and tactical messaging in Outdoor, with ads varied according to the time of day, day of week, state of the weather, even what’s in the media. Essentially the advertiser will now be able to pick from a palette of creative assets and allow the digital copy experts to prepare their messages for many platforms, at low cost and with instant distribution and display – all with their brand integrity intact.
Scale has already arrived with digital and it will continue to grow. Transvision, mainline rail termini, giant LED screens, new digital innovations on the London Underground – all are high-impact formats in an environment where there is a highly valuable audience. Relatively small city centre geographic regions suck in a widely dispersed wealth machine which many brands are desperate to reach.
Faced with the threat of time-shifting, self-editing, information searching and personal buying and selling, existing media view technological advances as the enemy. Not so with Outdoor, where technology is a friend. Technology is complimentary to out-of-home, providing a response mechanism and creating valuable consumer interaction.
And, soon, when the mobile becomes the “third screen”, the personal friend and the electronic purse, out-of-home media will truly be a force to be reckoned with. Mobile phones will soon offer the multimedia functionality of a home computer, but it will also become a consumer’s personal window on the world while they’re on the move.
The mobile channel owners will need signposts from the huge range of Outdoor media available to drive audience, and the corresponding commercial revenues. Good creative people, in conjunction with smart planners, will develop through-the-day campaigns. They may start in-home, progress to travel time, where broadcast Outdoor will be prominent, through to experience and fulfilment at destinations.
In a complex world it’s no good having roads without signposts, Outdoor media brings the map to life.