The World Out of Home Organization’s Asia Forum –-- the second event in WOO’s Grand Tour, after the European Forum in May and with the Africa Forum to come in January --- was a content-packed day which analysed all the key OOH issues in the region.
The Forum highlighted the growth prospects for OOH in the region and also the improvements that need to be made if the medium is to fulfil its potential. OOH creativity and innovation are far advanced and the higher internet usage and smartphone ownership than the world average provide great scope for developing DOOH. Yet speakers agreed there is still too much fragmentation of media owners and industry bodies and low levels of audience measurement.
Barry Cupples (PICTURE LEFT) from Talon said that the APAC region was leading the global recovery from the pandemic and its digital world incorporating the connected consumer has long been way ahead of the West. “Even during the pandemic, the region developed pioneering digital sites and special builds, along with world-leading consumer coupon and retail delivery. And although programmatic is still very small, APAC is a great place for it to develop because of the high data capability”
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Earlier Dentsu APAC CEO and India chairman Ashish Bhasin was bullish about the recovery in Asia - although he said it differed markedly country by country - and for the Out of Home medium, he was blunt about the issues still holding OOH back. “So far the medium has not played to its fullest potential,” he said, with lack of media owner consolidation and poor audience measurement holding it back.
Jim Liu (PICTURE RIGHT) of BNR Communications gave a regional update on OOH in Asia. While China is back to normal in revenues, with OOH taking 7 per cent of media spend, India is still lagging behind, having fallen from 5 per cent to three per cent. Although digitalisation across the region is higher than average, again India has a very low digital capacity. And audience measurement is still very diversified and is heavily influenced by the data provided by internet and mobile phone companies.
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Audience Metrics
A high-powered panel (Jim Liu, Angie Cutter from TAC Media, Rachana Lokhande from IOAA, Jun Sakurai from Live Board and Franck Vidal of AdCity) moderated by Gideon Adey from Gurooh looked at how to gain better OOH value in Audience Metrics, describing the strengths and weaknesses in OOH across the various countries of Asia. The sophisticated data capability provides plenty of potential but there is much to be done in building measurement networks. “We can see how audience metrics are the key to growth of OOH in the region and how it will allow OOH to compete with and take budget from other media., said Adey.
DOOH innovation
Diya Xu (PICTURE CENTRE) from Phoenix Metropolis Media in China highlighted the growth of DOOH in China and said that the opportunities provided by DOOH were making advertisers more demanding. “ They see traditional OOH as driving attention and providing domination but with digital they want innovative visual effects and wide range cover, and with Smart OOH they expect surreal visuals, linkage with multi scenarios and data driven efficiency.”
Programmatic
The panel on Programmatic (Srikath Ramachandran from Moving Walls, Remi Roques from Broadsign APAC, Gavin Wilson from Viooh, and Troy Yang from Hivestack) moderated by Clear Channel Singapore’s Amanda Woo, agreed that more collaboration and consolidation is essential to avoid programmatic becoming an outlier in the marketplace. They also stressed the need for education of both agencies and clients to explain the benefits of automation.
Creative Technology
Sean Lee from the d’strict design company and Jon Settingsgard from Daktronics demonstrated the potential of 3D effects in DOOH, with stunning examples on buildings in Times Square in New York, Seoul and Las Vegas. “ These displays improve the look of the buildings and change the urban environment,” said Lee. “In fact where this kind of digital signage has been used for public art, it has led to more advertising business for the media owners because advertisers have been so impressed with the visuals.”
Landlord and Media Owner collaboration
Tim Bleakley from Ocean Outdoor and Chris Lynham from Unibail-Radamco-Westfield talked about how the original Westfield Ocean development in Shepherd Bush London had led to higher creativity from the industry, through the content on screens and ways in which consumers can interact with the digital screens through wi-fi and their phones. “Consumers want something different, new experiences when they come to Westfield, “said Bleakley.
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Now WOO will move on to the Africa Forum, a virtual event in late January 2022 and available live with access for all WOO members across the world.
This will be followed by the first WOO person-to-person Global Congress since pre-pandemic Dubai 2019, which has been confirmed for Wednesday-Friday, May 25-27, 2022 in Toronto. The Congress will be held at the Sheraton Toronto Centre Hotel, 123 Queen Street West Toronto.
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