The seminar, chaired by Nick Hurrell, included presentations from Mark Crammer, Aegis; Rob McIntosh, Creative Director at Frog; Chris Cardew, Strategy Director at Mindshare; Kevin Brown, Digital Director at Brothers & Sisters; and Zandra Ives, Head of Advertising at Yell. The Auditorium was full – over 300 people attended.
Mark Crammer summarized the Digital outdoor landscape. Digital now accounts for a 14% market share of OOH spend in the UK. Smart phones, creating the opportunity for relating with consumers on the move via digital allows for new opportunities not available elsewhere. Mark also confirmed outdoor advertising is now richer, more dynamic and more personal than it has ever been before, thanks to digital. The future looks bright for OOH as new technologies come on stream.
Chris Cardew demonstrated the way ITV made use of Digital OOH to generate targeted public awareness of their sport programmes, in particular the Rugby World Cup. He highlighted the need for future planning, and for reliability of the digital product.
Kevin Brown used the Sky campaign to show how successful digital has been for his client. It is vital that Agencies and Creatives grasp the great opportunites that digital provide. He showed that the IBM campaign in Airports demonstrates the true flexibility of a truly creative approach to the digital opportunity.
Zandra Ives showed how Yell used digital on buses and key static digital locations to promote their 118 247 campaign. A year ago Yell selected 6 cities – booked 31 bus stop locations with touch screen technology, and displayed 450 advertisements, which offered contact details for specific businesses. The campaign was a great success.
Rob McIntosh shared his views that convergence of information flow from smart phones, social networks and OOH is creating new interest in OOH. He concluded that we as consumers combined, are becoming a giant computer with a wealth of shared knowledge around us, summarising the convergence of us as consumers who are part of the technology and the world in which we use it.
In summary, Clients needs to have faith in the digital technology in order to invest, so the OOH operators must demonstrate reliability. The flexibility offered by digital is key, so advanced planning must be considered. Technology placement needs to be relevant to the location. Overall the speakers were very supportive of the growth of Digital in OOH, and the way it is being used alongside social media and smartphones. The synergy on offer provide huge opportunities to use OOH very creatively.
John Ellery
FEPE International 16/11/2011
