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Jeff Atley, my business partner at ADCENTRICITY, forwarded me a great piece assembled by the ARF on Outdoor advertising.

Well worth a read! It goes over case study after case study.  Recall, sales lift, drive to web, etc all show large jumps.  It also covers some in-store numbers and goes over “WHY” outdoor (or OOH) works….which I think we could associate DOOH with as well.

…a neat compilation – especially when other numbers and studies on DIGITAL OOH are showing 2-4 times the awareness and recall of static OOH.  It’ll be nice when some of the full blown studies get done in our medium

You can read it here Does Out of home advertising work

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VSS has an interesting piece in Media Life magazine that caught me by surprise.

Turns out OOH is the shiznit.

Not only is the OOH market growing, it’s growing faster than any stat I’ve seen, from the reports of $8.2 Billion in 2012 to $10.2 Billion in 2013.  Huh? Where’d that extra $2 Billion come from???

Oh – wait…right…research & investment firms are actually starting to get their hands around how bloody big this (hidden) little gem of a market is. Something did seem a little wrong when reports of supply growth were 33% but no correlation to ad spend/demand existed.

And Digital OOH??? Well, it turns out that we were horribly wrong…it won’t be $3.9 Billion in 2012, It will be $4.5 Billion in 2013. Turns out Digital will make up for half of the OOH industry’s revenues by 2013. From the article:

Digital OOH spending will increase at a faster pace, with compound annual growth of 13.2 percent from 2008 to 2013. Total digital OOH spending will hit $4.53 billion in 2013, up from $2.6 billion this year, and accounting for 44.1 percent of all OOH spending.

What else is cool? Buyers are actually praising DOOH for the first time, albeit annonymously :

“Out of home has become such a flexible alternative, especially as the digital elements become more mainstream and/or available,” one buyer tells Media Life. “This flexibility allows the format to make sense for the quick turnaround necessary in these shorter planning periods.”

Look out TV & Internet – these strategy folks at agencies are starting to figure out that they can launch programs as fast with us as they can with you!  Which makes us….what’s the word I’m looking for….right…essential… for ongoing communication programs

Something else I got a kick out of that sounded vaguely familiar:

Among the growing technologies will be systems that send coupons to mobile phones and GPS-based tools to steer consumers to advertisers featured in VAN ads.

…Not sure where I heard that before.

The article is here

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Very cool article, which I heavily agree with.

I based some of the foundations of my company, ADCENTRICITY, on some of the basic premises of some of Ephron’s past theories.  In addition, Ephron is heavily involved in the ARF, of which we are members.

Mr. Ephron tackles the sticky problem of new research methodologies/modeling which the ARF is trying to tackle as a fairly significant problem for most mediums.

He starts of his thesis with:

To be of practical value, the early ARF models focus on obvious behavior and familiar measurements. Understanding is dumbed-down for easy use. The modeler’s assignment is “tell us how measurements can help better manage advertising dollars.” This results in linear models that follow the decision making process of the industry at the time – exposure, attention, retention, persuasion, interest in buying and finally, purchase.

That narrow road will no longer do. The early models do not stretch our minds or match reality. Their definition of media is narrow. The only media considered are paid media under advertiser control.

The models do not consider consumer states except as fixed attributes (sex, age, income), or known behavior inferred through measurements (buys vitamins, drives to work, drinks beer). And the models avoid discussing the many options in marketing which would show how limited advertising’s role in shaping a consumer’s buying decisions actually is.

Where he appears to get to is the (unthinkable and pooh-poohed) idea that creative is integral to the new measure we SHOULD be looking at – Noticeability.

When there is an eye-contact measurement of commercial audience, if a message attracts your attention (a bright yellow billboard in a green field, a 100 dollar bill on a magazine page, a Gecko on the TV screen), that message will attract more eyes, regardless of what is being advertised or how.

He also goes out of his way to commend the OOH industries (and I’m extending that with DOOH as we’re going the same directions) move to “eyes on” ratings and the need for adding “creative” as a necessary variable to measurement:

Eyes On data from Out of home shows a more noticeable ad can increase the unit’s audience (the number of people seeing it) by 25%.

Historically it’s been the look of the medium that attracts audience to advertising.   But when audience is defined as people seeing advertising, it’s the look of the ad that helps determine the size of that audience.

Welcome to the real world.

A read a highly recommend – (If it’s moved, search for: Do Ads Increase Audience).  It basically contends that creative MUST be taken into account if we want to more accurately define and have success with all forms of advertising.

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I was lucky enough to get an advance screening of this and wow was I impressed.

Arbitron today announed the most comprehensive, cross network study of demographics and behaviours in DOOH. This is massive…it squarely puts a face on DOOH that is thorough and tied to mainstream metrics. It elevates the whole space.

Per the report, one of many gems:

Approximately 155 million (67 percent of) U.S. residents aged 18 or older have seen an Out-of-Home (OOH) digital video display, in the past month, at one or more of 17 types of public venues

DOOH reaches 67% of the US population monthly – now that’s huge and eye opening to the Brands and agencies that are out there.  Some of the agency partners we work with claim their clients simply aren’t asking for it. This may change their minds.

And further:

• Nearly one  in five (18 percent of) Americans aged 18 or older noticed  a video screen in a place serving food or beverages in the past month; 21  percent of adults have seen video displays at a movie  theater.
• Twenty-two  percent of U.S. adults have viewed a video screen at a gas station in the past  month; 19 percent have seen video displays at an airport during the same time  period and 7 percent have noticed video content while waiting for or riding  mass transit.
• One in  seven adults (14 percent) has noticed a video display in an office building or  elevator in the past month.
• Nineteen  percent of American adults have seen a video screen at a doctor’s office or  hospital in the past month and 7 percent have viewed video content at a health  club.

This was long overdue as a real study of this magnitude had not been accomplished since 2006.

The Full report can be downloaded here

Congrats to Chris, Rob and the gang at Arbitron – great work!

UPDATE: Katy Bachman, one of the more learned journalists on DOOH, has a write up on it here: http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/out-there/digital/e3i8a55a31083e02409b61f754c3c1fcf2e

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You’ve all heard me discuss the importance of Shopper Marketing and the Path-to-Purchase in the past. The old sofa-to-store philosophies of old just aren’t holding strong. So I was smiling the whole way through when reading Joel’s post (CRO at the ARF) about why Shopper Marketing matters – especially to agencies.

Generally, media agencies have not been great at understanding shopper marketing or retail in general. There are some notable exceptions in the like of Publicis ARC, Satchi X and David Sommer and his group over at Mediaedge.  For most, until recently, it just hasn’t really been part of their purview, falling in the larger pool of 245 Billion in trade/promo spending.  That has been changing recently and folks in the media biz have to start paying a lot more attention, if not for anything than Joel’s #2 of his top 10:

#2: Shopper marketing offers immediacy and reach and is projected to be the fastest growing part of the media mix over the next few years.  Wal-Mart offers a bigger audience than any prime time show. Target is up there too. In the era of fragmented media audiences, delivering a huge audience, right at the “first moment of truth” should not be ignored.

Yes, Shopper Marketing, although fuzzy in what it includes, is growing faster than both Internet and DOOH.  Some projections put it in at over $30+ Billion by 2012.

For those of you who don’t know what Shopper Marketing is, Joe answers that very question in the comments based on what the ARF’s councils (which are made up of folks from companies like Unilever) deem it to be:

The ARF shopper insights council leadership agrees that shopping begins well before someone enters the store. Whenever a person begins a process intended to end in purchase, they have started down the path to purchase and are shoppers.

Some of my favorites in Joel’s post:

#3: What people care about as shoppers is different.  As shoppers, people are in action mode.  They are making many decisions during the course of a shopping trip, filling their cart with diverse products, taking only seconds per decision.  When people are shopping they are motivated by different messages than they are as consumers (more price-related and solution-based).  Shoppers want a highly shoppable environment which is tricky because 99% of the products in the store are irrelevant to the shopper’s mission on a given trip.

#4: Shopper marketing gives you unique opportunities to be relevant. Retailers have different store formats that are geared to serve their local clientele. Some formats match the local ethnic concentration. How will your brand presentation be customized in each store format?

#7: Advertising agencies must master shopper marketing to have a complete offering: those who do not offer shopper marketing services will be viewed as incomplete in their messaging and media planning approaches.

#8: Shopper insights and consumer insights are different things. Consumer insights study the relationship and expectations a person has regarding brand alternatives.  Shopper insights study how people put preferences into action in the context of replenishment needs, search for solutions, promotional offers, and the retail environment.  The research tools, questionnaires, and mental models are all different.

#9:  Studying the path to purchase offers a new approach to media planning.  Some product categories are characterized by brands being decided on before entering the store (e.g. cigarettes, soft drinks, iPhones).  For them, shopper marketing is less important and off-premise is more important.  Other brands are chosen in-store mostly (store brands, lower priced alternatives, impulse items) and shopper marketing is a must.

One thing I feel Joel doesn’t touch on is understanding/communicating “What Retail Is” beyond the typical explanation of a retail store carrying 100,000 SKUs.  Retail may be different things for very different industries.  For instance, Bars, nighclubs, Convenience Stores, Hotels and the like may not be seen as retail for Unilever but they are most definitely known as “retail” to the likes of Diageo, Coors and Patron.  In the same way, a pharmaceutical company may view a Doctor office as “retail” (while you may buy drugs at a pharmacy, you make the purchase decision at and with the Doctor).  I just listed off a couple Billion dollar companies/industries that may not typically be recognized in ARF shopper marketing philosophy but the philosophy of Path-to-Purchase/Shopper Marketing applies in the same way.

What I did find fascinating is that while Joel’s own definition of Shopper Marketing states that Shopper Marketing begins WAY before the store, all of the focus for insight in his top ten is generally at the retail environment/location.

My feeling is that Shopper Marketing as a MEDIUM and MEDIA need to connect both retail and the Path-To-Retail more suscinctly (read: consistency in messaging and creative/promotional handoff) if it is to mature as a science and an art.

Great job though Joel!  Keep it up. The article can be found here

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While there are a lot of rosy numbers, predictions and positive news coming out about Digital OOH from stats, growth analysis and the use of the medium, it’s always a kick in the teeth to realize that folks still really don’t know what makes up the full scope of the Digital OOH space.

If you speak to the average ad layman about DOOH, they generally may recognize some of the more prevalent forms of DOOH such as Gas Stations or Elevators but many simply don’t get the opportunity to end up in the other forms of venues such as malls or convenience stores and so are unaware of the huge amount of opportunities out there. For example, I haven’t actually been IN a mall or Dr Office myself in over 4 years (other than to review DOOH installs)…it’s just not my stage in life or what I do so how would I otherwise run into these forms of DOOH media if I wasn’t in the business?

Case in point Media Life Magazine had a piece earlier this week that painted a relatively rosy picture and a fast recovery for the OOH medium in general. That’s great news and Brian Weiser from Magna is bullish on DOOH and it’s play in driving that growth.  As he says:

Place-based media, such as sports stadium ads, digital advertising and cinema will all boost outdoor over the next few years, Wieser predicts.

He says that this year there are 1,519 digital billboards, more than double the number just two years ago. That figure is expected to grow by about 100 per year as controversy over the safety risks of the digital displays dies down

What is disconcerting, to say the least, is to read further down and look into their “analysis” of what they call “Alternative” Outdoor:

Notice anything wrong with this?

Magna is completely aware that there are 265,455 “faces” for advertising on buses…but he has NO concept of how many digital Convenience Store “faces” there are.

2nd problem?

Listed here are only FOUR categories for “Alternative/Digital” (”Video Networks” is not a category). As many of you know, my company has done a fairly exhaustive breakdown of where we know these DOOH screens exist and we break them down into 16 top-line categories and over 70 sub-categories.  Some of these top line categories are:

Airport	Convenience Store
College	Entertainment
Hospitality	Gas Station
Grocery	Office Building
Personal Care	Retail
Health Care	Shopping Centers
Transit

Under “Healthcare” however, you may have DOOH displays in Pediatric, GP, Cardiac, OBGYN, etc…the list goes on and on.

The problem is, if Magna 1.) Doesn’t know how large the list of possible locations actually IS and 2.) Doesn’t know how many are in each category….how the heck can they help support planning or strategy decisions to the media teams they support?

I don’t blame Magna at all for this and OVAB is working hard to get folks like this to understand the true scope and scale of the medium but we have some way to go to let folks understand that there are millions of screens out there that most definitely fit into some of their plans.

Maybe the report does dig deeper and they do have more info but, from the tone and content of the article, it doesn’t sound like it.

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While I haven’t seen him in a while, my buddy Marc Belcourt over at BMW is doing some great things with the new Z4 and his outdoor promotions and is really making the case for smart outdoor executions and how SMS can help to prove out some of the effectiveness.

While more of a OOH Merchandiser than “ads”, BMW used SMS and a couple of 40″ screens to promote their test drive program.

The conversion rate from those who text to those who actually FULLY REGISTER is an astounding 12.5% through mobile.  That figure doesn’t even include those who go online on their own or just show up at the dealer based on the promotion.

This, added to Porsche’s SMS program last year that drove 22% of the total campaign has got to have the auto industry talking.

Obviously, when converting this into a larger true “campaign” that has scale, you will see these numbers go down (it’s just way too expensive to put Z4s in front of every luxury hotel ) and if you don’t have a car that’s as sexy to promote as Marc’s Z4 you’ll probably see it go down as well but this does prove out that using SMS in OOH with an effective consumer value prop DELIVERS.

Hats off to you Mark and we should grab a beer soon and chat about doing this targeted in ALL DIGITAL!

The original article can be found here

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Continuing on my rant on how creative needs to drive digital OOH and, as Shawn Riegsecker says in this piece on Ad Age AND contrary to what many tech folk in Internet AND Digital OOH say:

Unfortunately, algorithms can’t build great brands.

Shawn wrote a nice piece on how the early pioneers of web advertising created the problems the medium has today in that everyone thinks advertising is an algorithm.  It’s nice to see some folks pushing back, intelligently, on the problem:

Early internet companies and digital gurus have attempted to change the fundamentals of advertising by promising a world of measurability, interaction and precise targeting. The first 15 years of online advertising was littered with portals, ad networks and pay-for-performance “spray and pray” advertising. It was a direct marketer’s dream: buy billions of squares and rectangles on the web as cheap as you can, add some basic audience-targeting parameters and presto! You’re considered a successful internet marketer.

This method worked in the beginning when online-media consumption was under 10% and great brands were still built through offline channels (e.g., newspapers, TV, radio, magazines, etc.). However, with the average person now spending close to 35% of his or her media consumption time online, the facade and fallacy of online marketing “success” is quickly crumbling. Brands are being forced to use the internet for positive brand-building experiences

Advertising is much, much more than technology or the algorithms technology creates and we will do ourselves well to remember that as we collectively mature Digital OOH.

Great “truths” that he relates as well that fit into our world.  I especially like # 3 and #4:

Today, marketing executives I speak with, who have collectively spent billions in online advertising, recognize certain truths:

1. You can’t build a positive brand identity by simply buying billions of squares and rectangles on unknown websites; in fact, littering the web in this manner will, in almost all cases, hurt your brand more than it will help it.
2. Creativity is still everything.
3. The environment in which your ad is seen is more important than how many of your ads are seen.
4. The decline in offline-media consumption has left a void in helping advertisers build strong brands.

These executives are turning to the web but find the digital industry’s focus misguided and the fundamental brand-building tools lacking.

On #4, many advertisers I work with are running into the problem of finding “voids” in their plans in coverage because of faltering traditional media and fragmentation.

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I’ll start this post with a comment: “The wrong measurement solution or tactic can kill mediums”.

I’ve had this conversation with many after recent announcements have come out on the mobile marketing front. I’m very cautious when talking about mobile and where it will go and how we need to be cautious in its introduction into the culture and execution of Digital OOH’s success.

Case in point? Look at the Internet.  While Internet advertising has grown by leaps and bounds and makes lots of people very rich, the fact of the matter is, because it went to a “success is a click-through” model (aka direct response) as fast as it did, it leaves 100s of millions of dollars on the table as click throughs rarely actually lead to the execution of a “sale” that is trackable.  As today’s Ad Age article from Hernan Lopez details on a statement from Randall Rothenberg:

Randall Rothenberg, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, has called for a “creative renaissance” on the internet, which he said has been “an unthinking hostage to a direct-marketing culture and tradition that devalues creativity and its long-term effect on brands.”

Read more

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This has kinda been my mantra about the benefits of Digital OOH for some time now. The medium is efficient (more targeted media for less), effective (it produces better ROI/action results if used properly) and scaled (there is now enough media out there in Digital OOH to get the coverage you need).

So when I read this post on AdRants about Facebook at Ad:Tech Paris, their mantra and the line from Facebook Europe, I had to smile:

The biggest takeaways: Mark Zuckerberg is God, and God’s particular mantra is “Efficiency, Effectiveness, Scale.”

Media has a problem and those three little words are what you should be focusing on to help your clients succeed.

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