Charlotte, Author at Talon

With less than 20 days to go until we welcome in another new year, the Talon team are back for the fourth edition of our annual wrap up. In this series, we celebrate the campaigns and accomplishments of the last 12 months and share our expectations for Out of Home (OOH) and the wider landscape in the new year.

Despite cost-of-living concerns and belt-tightening, OOH revenue for the first half of 2023 totalled £554m, an increase of +4.7% year-on-year (Outsmart). Q3 2023 advertising revenue was up +4.9% compared to Q3 2019, the first time this has been higher for a corresponding quarter pre-pandemic.

We’re predicting OOH will grow +7% to £1.26bn in 2023 and +5% to £1.324bn in 2024. For 2024, we estimate that digital OOH will account for 66% of overall OOH revenues, totalling £874m.

In this blog, we’re reflecting on some of the standout out of home campaigns in 2023 from our clients this year that reimagined and re-invented the possibilities of what outdoor can be.

Our favourite Standout Out of Home campaigns in 2023

All the campaigns below showcase the best in “thinking outside” in 2023 – exemplifying independent thought and big ideas, bolstered further by Talon’s technology, data and measurement expertise.

Starbucks: How data-driven OOH helped win the hearts and minds of Gen Z

In 2023, Starbucks embraced a data-driven, cross-format strategy to boost brand appeal and attract the attention of Gen Z in the highly trusted OOH environment. A first of its kind approach for Starbucks, the campaign has achieved notable results, including a year-on-year increase in rewards customers, improved ROI, and multiple weeks of record sales in 2022/23.

Choosing Starbucks as her standout campaign, Group Chief Strategy Officer, Sophie Pemberton, said, “Our collaboration with Starbucks has been exceptional, receiving recognition at the Drum Awards, Media Week and the OMAs. Our data integrations and digital activation strategies are really setting a new standard across the industry which we hope to build on next year.”

Budweiser & Pepsi MAX

For both Grand Visual’s Chief Client Officer, Jay Young, and Head of Client Services, Ben Gardiner, the activations for Budweiser and Pepsi MAX stood out to them the most.

“Our Budweiser billboard at the start of the year absolutely stole the show,” said Jay. “We transformed a billboard into a live music stage and provided a unique platform for underrepresented artists to showcase their talent to the world. One of the artists was given a record deal off the back of the campaign and we won a bronze Cannes Lion in June. It doesn’t get better!”

“For me it’s a tough choice between Budweiser’s ‘this billboard is yours to take’ and the Women’s World Cup reactive campaign for Pepsi MAX,” said Ben. “Both were epic for very different reasons but they both had massive ambition and creative drive. They were bold, brave and showed what’s possible when all teams really pull together and in the same direction to move mountains.”

Johnnie Walker Xordinaire

“It has to be Johnnie Walker’s launch of its exclusive Blue Label Xordinaire for me,” said Alanna Solanilla, Business Director, Talon International.

“As well as securing premium airport signage in Heathrow, Paris, Incheon and Hong Kong, our team secured our first airport campaign in Seoul’s Jeju Airport. We also secured the launch of a bespoke pop-up tasting lounge in Dubai Airport. This beautiful and premium installation drew inspiration from the refined ambience of a Parisian hotel. We’re very proud to work with Diageo and Johnnie Walker, exploring familiar environments but using innovative and interactive formats.”

Lenovo

“The team have done some fabulous work this year, and Lenovo comes to mind,” added Camille Uzan, Business Director, Talon International.

“The Lenovo F1 campaign in the UK stood out as the first-ever 3D project for Talon International with impressive campaign results and significant extra value for the brand. It led to strengthened ties with agencies and clients, showcasing Talon International as a strong partner to work with as well as a strong social amplification using Talon’s channels and a fantastic uplift from Assembly, Lenovo and Formula 1’s channels themselves.”

Yorkshire Tea: Tea so nice, Brits won’t shut up about it

Launching in Australia last year, Yorkshire Tea has since been ranked the best-tasting black tea in the country. To celebrate, whilst raising awareness for Aussies who hadn’t yet tried Yorkshire Tea, we launched a cheeky OOH and experiential campaign in Sydney and Melbourne.

Discussing the campaign, Melanie Lindquist, Managing Director of Talon APAC said, “To achieve our objective of raising awareness, we implemented a three-pronged approach consisting of data-driven audience targeting with Large Format OOH and DOOH sites, DOOH sites in proximity to Yorkshire Tea stockists and experiential sampling. A tea-riffic 1.4 million tea bags were sampled by ambassadors over the 4-week campaign!”

Scene + Loyalty Launch

Choosing the Scene + Loyalty launch as her favourite campaign, Talon Canada’s, Sarah Kim, Senior VP Client Partnerships said, “This campaign was part experiential, part programmatic and 100% fun as it included a game show taking place in a transit shelter. Not to brag, but it also won ‘Best in Show’ at the Ad Club OOH Awards.”

Specsavers: Hearing Services

Talon Ireland’s Insights Director, Caroline Decourcy, chose this clever campaign for Specsavers which utilised onomatopoeia, “One of the most ingenious OOH campaigns this year for me has to be Specsavers Hearing Services.

Clever creative using words, depicting sounds, was showcased across multiple environments nationwide. The campaign communicated a sound so articulately with audiences that were captivated by the meaning behind the ads. A great example of a brand conveying a distinct message to grab audiences’ attention using the power of OOH.”

To get the first look at part 2 of our blog, in which our team reflect on new initiatives, launches and share advice, make sure that you are following us on Twitter and LinkedIn. You can also keep up to date with the latest Talon news and views by signing up for our monthly newsletter.

The last year has been a strong period for Out of Home (OOH), and as we look to 2024, the sector shows promise for continued growth and transformation. This dynamic industry has consistently evolved, given back and provided advertisers with exceptional creativity, data-driven strategies, and technology-driven outcomes.

It’s not surprising that consumers prefer in-person media channels for advertising over online platforms, with OOH and digital OOH (DOOH) ranking among the top five channels. No longer just a medium that drives primarily top-of-the-funnel outcomes, OOH is successfully driving bottom-end metrics too.

Overall, global OOH revenue is projected to reach US$38.41bn in 2023, with DOOH projected to reach US$17.54bn. By the end of 2024, global OOH is predicted to reach US$45bn. DOOH is set to see further significant growth and is predicted to grow 17% – driven by further media owner investment and increased investment in programmatic OOH (prOOH).

Curious about the future of OOH? In this blog, we’re diving deep into the upcoming trends and insights shaping the landscape for 2024:

The Positive Impact of OOH

Data-Driven Outcomes

A Drive Towards Attention

Creativity and Technology Unite

The Brand Fame Comeback

Standardisation of Programmatic OOH

Retail Media & DOOH drives Path to Purchase

Enhancing OOH with AI

The Positive Impact of OOH

OOH will continue to come together as a collective to showcase the sustainable and giving nature of the channel.

A recent study by PwC, commissioned by Outsmart, found that in the UK 46p in every £1 that is spent in OOH goes back into the community. The industry will focus on the positive impact of spending in OOH towards public infrastructure and communities whilst working to reduce OOH’s impact on the environment.

Another study (Outsmart, Legacy Media – out soon) has shown that when compared to TV, Press and Online, OOH has the strongest ESG credentials – ranking highest for Environment and Community.

Data-Driven Outcomes

The death of the cookie is stated to finally happen in 2024, meaning the era of highly targeted ads will end and advertisers will need to seek new ways to drive brand objectives.

OOH continues to impact across the whole funnel. In 2024, we will see a further drive towards performance and bottom-funnel metrics with brands using first and third-party data to create audience-first OOH campaigns.

We will see even more brands gravitate to utilising OOH for data-driven outcomes. Programmatic OOH impacts metrics across the entire brand funnel amongst optimised audiences. The strongest impacts are seen in bottom funnel metrics – preference and purchase.

A Drive Towards Attention

Understanding attention in advertising will become even more important. Attention in OOH is not a new metric and is imbedded within the methodology of Route. However, understanding how attention is given to inform effectiveness is what should be looked at; not only understanding where someone has looked and for how long, but correlating that with the impact – good or bad – to showcase the influence attention metrics can have on brand performance.

Kantar’s recent Media Reactions is a key example of how attention is coming to the forefront of conversations surrounding media effectiveness, citing a 90% correlation between channels that consumers claim capture their attention and those that they prefer.

51% of marketers claim their marketing budget decisions are influenced by attention, but Kantar’s report shows a clear divergence between what marketers think delivers consumer attention, versus what consumers think captures their attention. There is a 90% correlation between channels that consumers claim capture their attention, and those in which they prefer seeing advertising.

Creativity and Technology Unite

Over the past year, we have seen significant developments in creative DOOH, from AR and VR to 3D and AI. In 2024, brands will begin to realise the possibilities and potential of these developments even further to engage audiences, build brand share and deliver significant ROI.

Looking back at our 4^th Space Research, as well as Ocean’s “Neuroscience: Redefining Human Engagement” and “Digital OOH: The Vital Ingredient,” creative digital OOH executions are proven to supercharge impact and deliver significant increases in attention, purchase consideration and memory encoding:

Full motion DOOH copy is viewed 60% longer than static
Special build OOH can increase purchase consideration +35% vs traditional
Increase in consumer attention when using 3D DOOH +15% vs 2D
Stronger memory encoding for live stream content 3x vs full motion.

The Brand Fame Comeback

OOH is well known for its ability to provide broad reach and deliver brand fame, in 2024 we’ll see advertisers revisit the channel’s number one strength. With a 98% UK population reach, OOH is, of course, powerful at driving reach. However, it is also incredibly powerful at driving brand fame (+23%) and brand trust (+8%).

The likes of PepsiCo, McDonald’s and HSBC lean into OOH’s strengths to build their brands and we’ll see more and more brands follow suit, using it to build awareness and impact.

Continued Growth of Programmatic OOH

2024 will see Programmatic OOH (PrOOH) technology continue to develop, and we’ll see a drive towards the standardisation of PrOOH alongside more OOH media owners trading through programmatic.

Programmatic OOH spend is predicted to grow over the next 18 months by a third on average (VIOOH State of the Nation). The move towards ever more digital and data-driven outcomes through programmatic will continue to increase, with consumers demanding more dynamic video content to connect OOH to their other digital media channels alongside a growing demand for greater online-to-offline opportunities.

Advertisers will continue to adopt PrOOH as part of their omnichannel digital strategies, alongside many new brands entering the market as barriers to entry are removed.

Retail Media & DOOH drives Path to Purchase

The role of OOH within the Retail Media ecosystem will continue to gain momentum and DOOH, will become a pivotal player in every shopper marketing strategy.

Leveraging first and third-party data, DOOH ensures your message reaches the right audience at precisely the right moment, from the outset of their journey to the final in-store purchase. It’s the missing link that seamlessly connects the worlds of home and store, providing brands with a unique opportunity to engage with consumers on an entirely new level.

The integration of DOOH with retail media networks will enable marketers to supercharge their shopper marketing – with advanced measurement and attribution solutions linking OOH ad exposure to critical business outcomes.

Enhancing OOH with AI

As the drive towards AI integration within businesses continues, OOH agencies and media owners will continue to integrate AI to improve efficiency, creativity and copy to create even more effective OOH campaigns.

Watch this space_

By Lucy Baumgartner, Senior Effectiveness Executive.

In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, cross channel measurement is a hot topic. As each media channel’s roles and capabilities continue to evolve, it is becoming more difficult to effectively assess and compare their performance. However, cross channel measurement is fundamental in understanding the role of each channel within the wider media ecosystem and how best to implement each channel to achieve your campaign objectives.

At Talon, a consistent approach to measurement in line with OnDevice Research has allowed for the effective comparison of OOH (Out of Home) benchmarks to those of other media channels. This analysis has reinforced that OOH’s position within in the wider media landscape has changed significantly. OOH’s role and the way it is used within media plans needs to be re-evaluated to reflect the fundamental part it is now playing across the entire brand funnel.

OOH is continuing to fulfil its traditional role of driving brand fame and trust. Paper and paste campaigns deliver an average uplift in unprompted brand awareness of +8% while also delivering an astonishing +10.3% uplift in brand trust. Meanwhile, long term benchmark analysis has shown that cut through on digital channels is becoming more difficult, with average uplifts in unprompted awareness dropping from +3.5% in 2018-2019 to +2.6% in 2020-2021.

However, the rapid development of DOOH (Digital Out of Home) and PrOOH (Programmatic OOH) has seen OOH take on new functions that were traditionally only associated with online performance channels. PrOOH is now able to deliver stronger uplifts across bottom funnel metrics compared to online digital and social channels.

On average, Talon Atlas campaigns drive uplifts of +4% in brand preference, and +5% in purchase intent. Meanwhile, digital sees purchase intent levels remain stable (+0.2%), and social delivers a +1.7% uplift.

The effectiveness of OOH to influence and resonate with consumers is unsurprising in the context of Kantar’s recent Media Reactions which placed OOH and DOOH as 3^rd and 5^th respectively as consumer’s top preferred channels. Much of this is down to consumer’s desire for in-person experiences and a push against what’s viewed as invasive and untrustworthy online channels. These trends are expected to continue into next year, with VIOOH’s State of the Nation report predicting PrOOH alone will continue to grow on average by a third over the next 18 months.

Use OOH to reach your campaign objectives

These benchmarks demonstrate how OOH is now able to achieve a much broader set of objectives, hitting each level of the brand funnel through a blend of multiple formats and strategies that OOH and DOOH offer, communicating with consumers in a way that they are receptive to. Classic paper and paste continues to deliver the brand fame and cut through that OOH is synonymous. By tapping into data and utilising audience targeting, reactive activation and dynamic creative, OOH can go beyond being a canvas for eye-catching brand campaigns to driving preference and purchase intent.

Want to know more about using OOH to reach your campaign objectives? Get in touch with your Talon representative or alternatively, drop us an email.

By Effectiveness Executive, Ellie Reeves.

Navigating Attention Dynamics in OOH

Off the back of IPA Effworks and Future of Media, Talon’s Effectiveness team sought to bring the key debates, themes and trends seen across the industry in-house. While the demands of day-to-day planning are higher than ever before, it’s fundamental to understand the wider media landscape to ensure that our campaigns – and channel – are as effective as they can be. Media events and publications are largely dominated by digital channels, while OOH agencies have to read around their trends to interpret the state of our own. With speakers from Route, OnDevice, and Analytic Partners, this week offered a unique opportunity to look at key themes within the OOH industry and the role these play within the wider media ecosystem.

ATTENTION

Highlighted by Dr Grace Kite at IPA Effworks, inflation will be the core impact on consumer sentiment and behaviour for the foreseeable future. With consumers increasingly shopping around for the best price, brand loyalty is down while shoppers are actively looking for brands to support them through hard times. As a result, it’s an incredibly important time for brands to be advertising – the battleground will be in gaining meaningful attention among consumers in an oversaturated advertising landscape.

Kantar’s recent Media Reactions is a key example of how attention is coming to the forefront of conversations surrounding media effectiveness, citing a 90% correlation between channels that consumers claim capture their attention and those that they prefer. Consumers placed both OOH and DOOH in their top three attention grabbing channels, and top five preferred channels. Though 51% of marketers claim their marketing budget is influenced by attention, the paper’s findings showed significant discrepancies between perceived and actual consumer preferences. Reflecting on a broader shift towards in-person advertising experiences, Kantar emphasised the importance of attention on strategic decision-making. But how are media channels themselves understanding attention?

Digital channels have been almost systematically referring to attention as ‘the new metric’, calling for its incorporation into measurement frameworks and an understanding of the concept across different platforms and formats. By comparison, OOH has been researching and quantifying this concept for decades. Euan Mackay outlined the sophisticated methodologies that have been used by Route to determine the visibility of OOH, making OOH the only media channel where inventory is 100% viewable. Eye-tracking projects with Lumen mean that we have an extensive understanding of how pedestrians view the world around them, and as a result, how many people really see an OOH ad. While digital impressions can overestimate an audience by up to 91%, OOH uses visibility-adjusted impacts as a truer measure of campaign reach and are embedded into the currency of OOH.

MEASUREMENT

While impacts are a significant differentiator of OOH from other media channels, in the words of Ceclia Dones, “impressions just prove you spent money”. Holistic and thorough measurement has been an increasingly prevalent topic of conversation in the media industry, highlighted by the Future of Media’s decision to create a measurement track this year. Dones was one of many speakers calling to distinguish metrics of delivery and metrics of effectiveness, highlighting the inconsistency of these across media channels. For brands, the key challenge will be defining and measuring success across channels and markets in a coherent and comparable way.

For media channels, the challenge is in justifying individual channel effectiveness to clients while appreciating our role within an omnichannel strategy. As campaigns run across multiple channels, we need to measure in the same way. Speaking at Talon’s Eff’ Week, OnDevice’s Sarah Robson outlined both the necessity and complexity of constructing an omnichannel measurement framework, claiming: “data is driving what we do and yet there still isn’t one coherent way of measuring what we do”. Effectiveness needs to be independently assessed, looking at the whole strategy and understanding the cumulative impact of channel spend. Effective measurement is being able to unpick where a campaign has worked and what hasn’t worked – where improvements and adjustments need to be made in future strategies.

ECONOMETRICS

Instrumental to the effectiveness of a measurement framework is the use of varied metrics for success, looking across the brand funnel to chart awareness, loyalty, trust, and sales, to name a few. Another key buzzword in the industry, econometrics has been increasingly leant on as the sole framework for quantifying channel effectiveness through ROI. Through econometrics modelling, OOH is typically positioned as a channel that delivers poor ROI. This is largely due to very few data points being ingested, lacking granularity, and failing to account for incredibly important factors like creative performance, regional differences, and seasonal impacts. Hearing from Justine O’Neill at Analytic Partners, our Eff’ Week looked to assess the challenges and opportunities for OOH and econometrics.

Fundamental to accurate econometric reporting is collaboration. Agencies must be transparently and productively working together to ensure that detailed, accurate data is used. For OOH, this means utilising Route data at a regional, or even frame, level. With channels running together, it’s difficult to isolate the effects of each, so a broader understanding of the media plan and channel spend will have a significant impact on reading results. While econometric modelling is an invaluable tool for clients, it’s not to be considered in isolation. Ten years on from their initial publication of ‘The Long and Short of It’, Binet and Field reminded us at IPA Effworks that short-term metrics must be considered in tandem with the long to assess and maintain long-term brand penetration.

UNDERSTANDING TRUE CAMPAIGN EFFECTIVENESS

Understanding true campaign effectiveness means identifying the objective of the campaign and how that can be measured with the right framework. There’s a need for multiple measurement frameworks in place to fill the gaps for each other. If 41% of ROI is driven by creative quality, versus 59% for executional elements, then we have to be measuring and optimising creative performance. Peter Field has highlighted that brand trust is becoming increasingly fundamental to driving profit, so measurement must take into account emotional and behavioural metrics also. Ultimately, cutting through the clutter requires a thorough understanding of the objective, strategy, and brand, with frameworks in place to measure and optimise the process for the betterment of clients and agencies alike.

Talon’s Eff’ Week allowed us to go beyond proving the need for measurement, to debate and understand at a broader level what effectiveness means for our agency. As quickly as the media industry evolves so do measurement and effectiveness conversations, meaning as an agency we must stay abreast of key issues and topics within the industry. As the first OOH agency to receive IPA Effectiveness Accreditation in 2021, the event was another great opportunity to show our commitment to a culture of constant learning.

WATCH NOW

With less than 100 days until Christmas, we’re seeing consumers immerse themselves in the spirit of the season. From days out and trying festive menus to shopping for gifts and dinner with loved ones, the onset of winter ushers in shifts in consumer behaviour. All these activities, alongside normal day to day life, mean that audiences will be OUTSIDE this festive season. Out of Home advertising at Christmas provides the perfect opportunity for brands to influence consumers.

In this blog, we will explore these opportunities and share our heady mix of creativity, technology and data to help brands connect with audiences and reap the rewards using OOH advertising this Christmas. It all starts with thinking outside_

Key Shopping Dates

Christmas shopping is skewed throughout Q4, with big events such as Black Friday, providing audiences with ample opportunity to shop for the best deals. According to an IPA survey, the bulk of Christmas shopping starts as early as September and as late as the third week of December.

The most popular times for gift buying are the first half of November (21%), the first week of December (which has increased YoY from 15% to 21%) and Black Friday Week (16%). Unsurprisingly, 72% of consumers are planning to get the best deals by shopping for gifts this Black Friday. Despite economic uncertainty last year, an impressive £12.3 billion (Mintel) was spent on Black Friday (vs £2.53 billion pre-Pandemic) with a +13.9% increase in high street footfall YoY.

Shoppers are Hybrid

This year, 73% of adults will research their purchases beforehand and 77% of under-35s are setting aside some of their Christmas budget for the sales. According to data from Yodel, 61% of Brits are “hybrid shoppers,” shopping both online and in-store for Christmas gifts.

For the hybrid shopper, we recommend an omnichannel approach. When used in combination with digital channels, OOH increases the effectiveness of online ads by +31%, paid social ads by +56% and +80% for search ads. Consumers already spend an average of 70% of their time outside of their homes – so OOH is a prime channel for reaching these audiences and an omnichannel approach can increase overall reach by 68%.

Timing Your Message is Everything

With audiences thinking of Black Friday and Christmas purchases throughout the festive buildup, it is important to time your message effectively. Audiences are thinking about Black Friday purchases up to 2 months prior to the event, with the majority thinking of their purchases 1-2 months to 1-2 weeks prior. This provides brands with an ample window of opportunity to get their messaging in front of consumers early to avoid the Black Friday clutter.

It will certainly be an end-of-year push to fill stockings for most consumers this year, as their preparations are set to begin sooner than last. So, how do we ensure that we effectively reach these “scramblers” with OOH?

Audience-first Planning

What makes OOH advertising at Christmas so advantageous for brands is its ability to work across all stages of the purchasing funnel. In recent years, the advancements in digital capabilities have shifted the role of OOH from being primarily a top-of-the-funnel medium to working across the whole funnel.

Out of Home’s role has evolved and continues to evolve based on:

Audience Targeting: +15% higher levels of audience relevance
Reactive Activation: The ability to book panels in the hour for the next hour
Driving Bottom End Metrics: 2x increase in purchase intent

Using an audience first planning approach in Out of Home benefits our clients:

Brand 1: Saw a +28% increase in on-target impressions vs. Busy high-street gifter audience
Brand 2: Achieved a +50% Uplift in on-target impressions vs. In-market gifters & the brand’s consumers
Brand 3: Saw a +12% Increase in footfall to the store vs. Competitors during the campaign

One brand in particular, used audience-first planning to drive footfall to store over the Christmas period using Out of Home. Utilising Atlas, the retailer’s campaign activated OOH based on the recent movements of Luxury Christmas Shoppers. As a result, they saw +17% Higher levels of store footfall vs. Their competitors, and a +42% Increase in visits seen in London across the campaign.

Driving Action Through Out of Home Advertising This Christmas

So, how do brands drive action this festive period? There are six ways a brand can achieve this:

Be at the “moment of truth”

Proximity advertising resonates with consumers. Proximity targeting during the festive period offers brands the opportunity to capitalise on the unique context, emotions and activities associated with these special times. Consumers feel that adverts in proximity to the store are more noticeable than adverts in other locations, which influences consumer action.

Lean into context with dynamic creative

This is even more crucial around the holidays and allows brands to connect emotionally with their audience.

Reach more of your audience through OOH

Utilise audience-first planning to optimise any OOH campaign, improve brand awareness and increase purchase intent. With our DMP Ada, brands can be as narrow or as broad as they require.

For brands wanting to optimise their audience-first OOH plan further, we recommend activating digital Out of Home programmatically via our DSP Atlas.

Own key consumption opportunities with programmatic (prOOH)

Data shows that the use of Atlas can deliver strong brand payback on consideration and purchase intent metrics. PROOH drives purchase intent.

Shoppable OOH

QR codes are helping to bridge the gap between online and offline channels. They can provide quick access to holiday promotions, discounts or event information, enhancing the holiday shopping experience and improving the effectiveness of your Out of Home advertising this Christmas.

Amplify with creativity to increase attention

Special builds are a great addition to any marketing plan, whether they serve as a vessel for social content or supplement/lead an OOH campaign. Special builds make an impact and can generate viral attention.

As a result of being exposed to this special build for Sainsbury’s:

64% agreed it made them like Sainsbury’s ad more.
6 in 10 also agreed it made them more likely to shop at Sainsbury’s.

Experiential OOH is another brilliant way of amplifying attention and positive feelings towards a brand. With consumers desiring real experiences, experiential OOH physically places brands in the action.

Ready to sleigh the season with Out of Home advertising this Christmas? Get in touch with Talon today!

Lori Lee, Head of People, North America, shares her experience with menopause for World Menopause Day.

A Menopause Journey

In the stillness of the night, when most of the world was lost in dreams, I would abruptly awaken, my heart pounding like a drum solo at a rock concert. My mind seemed to choreograph a gymnastics routine of worry, competing for the elusive gold medal. At times, I found myself drenched in sweat, as if I were rehearsing for a solo water ballet, my spine serving as the grand stage. At 45, I was convinced I was slowly transforming into a stressed-out pretzel.

“I’m okay. Everything’s okay,” I’d whisper to myself, almost as though I were trying to convince a skeptical squirrel. Adding an extra layer of intrigue to the madness, I’d start counting backward from 50, as if my thoughts were engaged in an intense game of hide-and-seek with my anxieties.

Before long, I began experiencing spontaneous “chill sessions” and surprise sweat marathons during my daily train commute. Even more amusingly, I’d transform into a full-blown fountain of perspiration right in the midst of crucial meetings, with a room full of people looking at me as if I were a unicorn who had accidentally stumbled into a scientific symposium. And let’s not forget the simmering rage bubbling up inside me, making me feel like unleashing a fiery tirade for no apparent reason at all.

I was eating less, but it seemed as though I was defying the laws of physics by gaining more weight than a spaceship loaded with donuts. I had once been a size 6, but within two years, I had ballooned to the size of a cosmic black hole, seemingly devouring calories.

Now, I had a group of close friends I could have confided in, but what on earth could I say to them? “Hey, ladies, guess what? I’ve turned into a walking sauna with anger management issues!” It took me years of enduring this rollercoaster of emotions—anger, anxiety, sweating, freezing, and worry—before I finally realized I was essentially hosting a menopause-themed amusement park.

I attempted to describe my peculiar symptoms to countless doctors. “Am I losing my mind? Am I working too hard? Have I broken some universal rule?” I even played a sort of doctor roulette, changing physicians regularly, hoping that somewhere out there, someone had a clue.

Then, one fateful day, following a meltdown that could rival a toddler’s tantrum, I decided I’d had enough. I screamed, cried, yelled, and broke things, and in that chaotic moment, I had an epiphany: there was absolutely no rhyme or reason to this madness. So, I promptly scheduled an appointment with a therapist.

In just two sessions, this young therapist, who likely believed menopause was as mythical as unicorns, dropped a bombshell. “Has anyone ever discussed menopause with you?” she asked. I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. After all, I was too young, too vibrant—I wasn’t supposed to be part of the menopausal club. I stormed out of her office in frustration, sat in my car, tears streaming down my face, only to later realize that she might be onto something. I marched right back in, determined to get an explanation.

Picture this: she wasn’t a day over 35, and there I was, sharing my midlife crisis as though it were the most riveting soap opera drama. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and I was all ears. Little did I know, she was about to educate me on a subject she had never personally experienced: menopause, the unexpected plot twist in the sitcom of my life.

Fast forward to today, at the tender age of 53, I’m nearing the end of this wild journey. While I still contend with many of these symptoms, I’ve become adept at managing them and setting realistic expectations for myself. Do I experience hot flashes? Absolutely! Am I occasionally a bit irritable? You bet! Do I miss sleep? Oh, absolutely. But here’s the twist—I’m much more informed about the situation, and I’ve opened up a dialogue with countless women going through the same thing. I’ve learned that I’m not alone anymore, and I don’t have to endure it in silence. Menopause might have thrown me for a loop, but I’ve turned it into one heck of a comedy show!

Conclusion

My journey through the tumultuous seas of menopause might have started as a bewildering and frustrating ordeal, but it has evolved into an unexpected adventure filled with laughter, self-discovery, and camaraderie. I hope my story serves as a reminder that no matter how unpredictable life’s twists and turns may be, we have the power to adapt, grow, and find humor in even the most unlikely situations. So, if you’re experiencing your own midlife rollercoaster, know that you’re not alone, and there’s always room for a good laugh along the way.

Cutting Through Christmas Clutter with OOH Benchmarks

Lucy Baumgartner, Senior Effectiveness Executive at Talon shares the need to know on Talon’s OOH Christmas Benchmarks.

Christmas is, for many brands and advertisers, the most important time of the year. Media spend increased +14% between Q3 and Q4 2022, and similar trends are expected this year (Nielsen). With this huge increase in ad spend, the market can feel like a battleground with brands fighting for dwindling consumer attention. This highly cluttered environment produces the issue of Christmas message fatigue amongst consumers, causing campaigns to be lost.

While this time of the year can pose problems for many brands, benchmarking analysis demonstrates that Out of Home (OOH) offers a unique opportunity to cut through this Christmas clutter and stand out from the crowd. Talon benchmarks show that OOH campaigns which run in the lead up to Christmas deliver an uplift of +23% in ad recall, versus +18% for campaigns running across the rest of the year.

But why, in the period when consumers feel most bombarded by advertising, does OOH deliver stronger levels of ad recall? A big part of this is down to OOH’s ability to subtly blend into the surrounding urban environment with 62% agreeing OOH adverts fit into their environment, ensuring brands and messaging are reaching consumers when they are actually receptive to that advertising.

This is closely linked to recent Kantar research which has shown that consumers are enjoying going out more than ever, solidifying the position of outdoor channels as more relevant, useful and entertaining. Talon benchmarks reinforce this notion, highlighting that over 5 in 10 consumers agree OOH Christmas adverts reached them in the right mindset, at the right time and with relevant messaging.

This ability of OOH to be less intrusive whilst still delivering big impacts allows the channel to captivate consumers at a time of the year when they are most difficult to reach – driving brand metrics. Analysis has shown that brands who use OOH during the Christmas period see uplifts of +11% in unprompted awareness (versus +4% across the rest of the year), +9% in the perception of ‘a brand for me’ (versus +5%), +7% in consideration (versus 4%) and crucially during this period +9% in purchase intent (versus +7%). Results also demonstrate OOH is particularly effective at influencing 18-34s, with 62% of this audience feeling positively towards OOH Christmas campaigns (versus norms of 59%).

OOH is a fundamental part of the media mix, captivating audiences, providing cut through and offering brands the chance to overcome those classic Christmas hurdles. OOH enables brands to target consumers during this festive period at the point of purchase, as well as with contextual messaging which drives consumer engagement on average +14%. Through using OOH advertisers can capitalise on the unique context, emotions and activities associated with these special times.

Want to know more about using OOH to cut through the “Christmas Clutter” this year? Get in touch with your Talon representative or alternatively, drop us an email.

London 29^th September 2023: Today, the global, independent Out of Home (OOH) media agency Talon announces the appointment of Mike Saunter to the role of Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Henry Lucas in the newly created role of Group Chief Commercial Officer and Stewart Easterbrook extending his remit to become Talon’s Executive Chairman, as the business continues its focus on international growth and expansion.

Alongside these new hires, Talon have restructured the global board with Barry Cupples stepping down as Group CEO and Eric Newnham, founder of Talon, stepping in with immediate effect.

Eric is a renowned entrepreneur with several decades experience leading successful Out of Home businesses, and has been at the forefront of Out of Home’s transformation from a legacy medium to the effective, measurable and data-driven channel it is today. Eric founded Talon in 2013 alongside James Copley and Frank Bryant and during his tenure as CEO – 2013 to 2019 developed Talon into the leading global OOH independent agency.

Mike, an accomplished international leader, joins the Talon board as Group CFO. He has extensive experience in the advertising industry with time as International CFO at Clear Channel Inc. and as Global CFO with advertising agencies Crispin, Porter + Bogusky in the US, and Bartle Bogle Hegarty in the UK. Most recently Mike has spent time in an advisory capacity to early stage technology businesses in electric vehicle charging and blockchain infrastructure.

Henry will be part of Talon’s senior leadership team, based in the UK with responsibility for developing and diversifying Talon’s global commercial strategy. He joins Talon with a wealth of commercial expertise having spent the last nine years at Dentsu, most recently as Commercial Operations Director at Amplifi Global. Prior to Dentsu, he held Group Account Director roles at WPP and IPG.

Both appointments follow a successful period of growth for Talon and new senior team hires, including ex-Starcom Mediavest chief Stewart Easterbrook as chairman, Alice Date as Group Sustainability Manager, Todd Palatnek as SVP, Client Development in North America, and the promotion of Luke Willbourn to Managing Director UK. This year, the business completed the acquisition of Evolve, the fast-growing, independent specialist OOH business, as well as the acquisition of Novus Media Canada Corp. Talon, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, also opened new offices in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, and secured new investment from Equistone Partners Europe, allowing the business to continue its global expansion and technical innovation.

Eric Newnham, Group CEO Talon, said:

“I look forward to re-taking a hands on role leading Talon towards its global growth objectives and wish Barry well with his future endeavours. Looking ahead, Stewart’s wealth of experience in leading digital-first businesses including MiQ, will be instrumental in delivering our future growth. I’m excited to work more closely with him to deliver Talon’s commercial objectives.

Additionally, Mike and Henry are extremely experienced business leaders in driving commercial growth and operational efficiency. They will be pivotal in helping us leverage our powerful and intelligent tech and media offering to further drive the business forward.”

Mike Saunter, Group Chief Financial Officer at Talon, said:

“Talon has an impressive position in the Out of Home industry and has achieved a great deal in its first ten years. Its investment in technology, strategic acquisitions and partnerships has developed a unique proposition in the market and I am excited to be working with the senior team and board to further amplify Talon’s impact and to play a key role in its ongoing development and success.”

Henry Lucas, Group Chief Commercial Officer at Talon, said:

“Talon’s investment in technology has cemented its position as a leading OOH agency both domestically and globally. It has enjoyed several strategic acquisitions in recent years and is now at a pivotal period of its global expansion. A mission of mine is to create a sustainable commercial environment to ensure we future proof the business and deliver best in class results. Moreover, I want to ensure we continue to create meaningful value for our partners, and deliver tangible business outcomes for our clients. I’m very much looking forward to working with the Talon team in enhancing its commercial operations, and growing the business together.”

Inside Talon: Exploring the Professional Journey of Anant East

Outside thinking – it runs in the Talon family. We pride ourselves on being a company built on people with big ideas. People who constantly challenge themselves and the industry to re-imagine and re-invent the possibilities of what Out of Home can be. 

In this series, we’ll be getting to know more about the people of Talon, their roles, advice and what they get up to outside of OOH. This week, we sat down with Anant East, Chief Technology Officer at Talon.

Explain your role?

As Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Talon my role covers the delivery of both the support and development of the tools Talon use to operate the business, as well as the many products we have developed to plan and manage campaigns for our customers.

Fortunately, I have a talented team that helps me to do this. My team is responsible for providing this to all the companies within the Talon group, covering:

Our Microsoft 365 applications, laptops, phones and the corporate networks
Finance systems such as NetSuite
Our data warehouse and MI reporting
The products we have built: Plato, Atlas, Ada, Radius, and TIM
Cloud hosting in Azure and AWS.

What does a typical day at work look like for you?

A typical day is a mixture of ensuring the software developers and support teams have everything they need to deliver the services we provide and build new features. This includes unblocking any obstacles they may have, thinking about the future shape of the teams, helping to manage the product roadmaps and the resolution of any incidents.

What do you enjoy most about working in OOH?

As an industry there is still a lot to do to make use of the appropriate technology for all sides of the industry; all the way from the customers and agencies through to the media owners and suppliers involved in the planning, booking and operations of media campaigns. My role allows me to play a role in the implementation of technology to deliver value to our customers and owners.

Most memorable moment or achievement from your time in the industry?

I’ve worked on both the selling side and buying side of the industry and my most memorable achievement is working together to deliver the automated trading the industry must adopt to remain relevant and more importantly, give access to new customers to OOH.

Any tips or advice for someone interested in joining the industry or pursuing a similar career path?

Having worked in manufacturing, finance and retail domains I can honestly say that media and OOH is just as challenging and rewarding, with the added advantage of your friends and family seeing the campaigns you help to deliver.

What do you get up to outside of work?

Sleep, but on the weekends and in my free time I like to hike and am a member of a large walking group. I have walked the West Highland Way three times, most of Wainwrights lakes, the Welsh 3000, Hadrian’s Wall, Jurassic Coast, SWCP, several 100km walks, and that’s just in the UK. I have also hiked in Africa, South America, New Zealand and the Himalayas. Most Sundays I walk 10 to 15 miles usually in the Chilterns.

If you could quickly and easily learn any new skill, what would it be?

Plumbing as you can never find one when you need to.

Share a memorable adventure or travel experience you’ve had during your free time. How did it impact your personal growth or perspective?

When you trek through remote places such as the Himalayas and see how happy everyone is with the very few possessions they have it always reminds me to keep things as simple as possible.

Emily Haile, Programmatic Manager and Sustainability Squad member, details the new ASA greenwashing regulations and how brands can ensure their OOH advertising complies.

Greenwashing in OOH: Ensuring Campaign Compliance with Environmental Standards

On a rapidly warming planet where extreme weather is fast becoming the new norm, consumers are now hyper-aware of the environmental impact of the brands they buy. Three in four consumers are calling for companies to reduce their own environmental footprints, and Global Google searches for sustainable products have increased by 130% in the last five years. Eight out of ten shoppers say they would pay more for sustainably produced goods – with this figure rising further among Millennials and Gen Zs.

In response to this demand, brands are naturally keen to showcase all the ways they are making progress in this area. But when it comes to corporate sustainability claims, consumer trust is low – and with good reason. 58% of CEOs admit their own company has engaged in some form of greenwashing: the practice of making a brand/product appear more environmentally friendly than it really is. Additionally, an EU survey in 2020 found that over half of environmental product claims were ‘vague, misleading or unfounded.’ Even when brands are not deliberately trying to misinform consumers, the prevalence of vague language, unsubstantiated claims and inconsistency across the market means that consumers are confused at best and disengaged at worst.

With brand values crucial in determining brand trust, and trust now the second-highest factor in driving profit, it’s clear that there are both reputational and financial risks – and opportunities – for brands wanting to promote their environmental credentials. The guidance released by the ASA aims to help advertisers make clear their commitments in this space and reinstate consumer confidence in their environmental claims.

What are the new regulations?

In 2021, the ASA identified that the use of ‘carbon neutral’, ‘net zero’ and ‘offsetting’ claims in advertising were at risk of being misleading given low consumer understanding and lack of consensus on their meanings. Subsequently, they have released new guidance for advertisers regarding these claims.

As of February this year, new CAP guidance requires that advertisers should:

Avoid using unqualified carbon neutral, net zero or similar claims – any claims relating to these terms should be based on verifiable strategies to deliver them

Include accurate information about whether (and the degree to which) they are actively reducing carbon emissions or are basing claims on offsetting – any claims about offsetting should comply with usual standards of evidence for objective claims and should include information about the offsetting scheme they are using

In June, further guidance was added, clarifying that the environmental impact of the whole business should be considered and not only the specific initiatives or products advertised:

Environmental claims which relate narrowly to specific products should make this clear, to ensure that they are not understood as being representative of the entire business

Where businesses are responsible for a significant amount of harmful emissions or other environmental harm, ads which reference specific environmentally beneficial initiatives are more likely to mislead

Ads which present a business’s negative environmental impact as being in the past are likely to mislead if the company is still having a significant negative impact

How can brands ensure compliancy in their OOH advertising?

OOH, as a broadcast channel existing in the public sphere, is rightly held to the highest standards of accountability. In no small part due to this, OOH is the most trusted media channel (vs. digital and radio) and is particularly strong at driving trust amongst hard-to-reach sceptical Gen Z audiences. OOH is therefore the natural choice of media for promoting a brand’s environmental commitments, but advertisers should be mindful that their OOH messaging should adhere to the new guidelines and any use of ‘carbon neutral’, ‘net zero’ and ‘offsetting’ claims should be well-substantiated. CAP advice should be sought in the case of any uncertainty.

TfL have made clear their commitment to upholding the new CAP guidance by updating their advertising policy for all campaigns running across their advertising estate. All advertising copy relating to fossil fuel extraction or any copy submitted for brands associated with fossil fuel extraction now need to be submitted to TfL for review, as well as any advertising copy including an environmental claim. TfL request that CAP advice is sought on all such copy prior to being submitted for review.

What else is on the horizon?

This is only the beginning of the conversation on environmental claims in advertising. Since the CMA launched its Green Claims Code in 2021, it has been applying this to its sector-by-sector review of misleading environmental claims. In January 2023 the CMA announced it would widen its review to FMCG and this investigation remains ongoing.

Concurrently, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill is undergoing parliamentary approval which could give the CMA new fining powers to deal with greenwashing as a misleading practice, which could be in place as early as 2024. Now more than ever, brands should ensure that their environmental credentials stand up under scrutiny from regulators and consumers alike. Not only will this stand them in good stead against future regulatory developments, but the accelerating nature of the climate crisis also means that eco-consumerism is not just another marketing trend – it is a fundamental shift in buying behaviour that is here to stay.

Advertisers should see this as an opportunity: those who put in the groundwork now will enjoy increased consumer trust, loyalty and ultimately profitability in the years to come.

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