14th July, 2022: Today, global advertising technology leader The Trade Desk and Omnicom Media Group UK (“OMG UK”) announce a new partnership with leading independent Out-of-Home (OOH) media agency, Talon Outdoor. This will provide OMG UK’s clients with the ability to deploy data-driven Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertisements in addition to their online media activity.

Talon’s expert data management platform, Ada, can provide up-to-date audience insights based on a powerful combination of anonymised behavioural, mobile location, point of interest and OOH inventory data, with the goal of producing effective outcomes for such clients.

OMG UK’s clients will be able to activate their own customer data or create custom audience targeting for their campaign goals. In addition to greater reach, Ada can offer optimisation capabilities, enabled by Talon’s artificial intelligence – providing a more sophisticated data-led approach to Ada-driven DOOH ad placements.

Partnership

As a strategic partner to The Trade Desk and Talon, Omnicom Media Group UK will be the first media agency group to access this DOOH inventory via Talon, with other agencies slated to join later this year.

Omnicom Media Group UK’s clients will be able to utilise these enhanced capabilities, enabling them to extend their omnichannel programmatic campaigns into this increasingly digital channel – DOOH. They can also access relevant data insights, targeting and measurement capabilities, meaning their DOOH ads can be optimised and aligned as part of wider digital campaigns.

Phil Duffield, VP UK of The Trade Desk, commented on the partnership: “Helping advertisers deliver high-impact campaigns is at the heart of what we do at The Trade Desk and it’s fantastic to see Omnicom Media Group UK lead the way in making the most of the new partnership. Being able to apply data in a streamlined way with transparent reporting is key to this.”

Barry Cupples, Group Chief Executive Officer of Talon, also stated: “We built Ada to create a unified understanding of OOH audiences and to enable advertisers to build accurate custom targeting in any OOH environment.

Underpinned by Talon’s wealth of OOH planning expertise, this partnership with The Trade Desk further expands our programmatic OOH reach. We’re entering an exciting new area of programmatic OOH, and this partnership signals an important step for all of our clients.”

Only in OOH: Pushing Creative Boundaries of the Advertising Canvas

The power of creativity to break through the clutter and capture consumer attention is undeniable. In late May, Netflix launched a global activation for the fourth season of its popular series, Stranger Things. The activation, which opened up a virtual portal to the ‘Upside Down,’ took over 15 landmarks across 14 countries, including the Empire State Building in New York City, Bondi Beach in Sydney, Duomo Square in Milan, the Gateway of India in Mumbai, and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain. The placements were big, bold, and visual spectacles that could only be possible in out of home (OOH).

An Airbus campaign, developed in collaboration with Talon’s award-winning digital OOH creative and production agency Grand Visual is another prime example. The creative execution projected a commitment to sustainability on the 2,700-plus foot tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai. There’s also PUMA, who in collaboration with Talon America, Havas Media Group, Grand Visual, and Nowadays, rolled out a cutting-edge digital OOH (DOOH) campaign to promote the launch of NBA superstar LaMelo Ball’s first PUMA signature basketball sneaker, MB.01. The award-winning advert appeared on DOOH bus shelters throughout New York City, which were outfitted with augmented reality (AR) technology and took passersby on an otherworldly journey.

Such campaigns underscore how OOH can serve as a veritable blank canvas with endless creative possibilities. The opportunity to capture the attention of audiences in their surroundings is what sets OOH apart – and creative is a proven competitive advantage. The world’s biggest brands are increasingly bringing the creative, immersive, and experiential capabilities of OOH to the next level.

What’s more is that these brands and their OOH partners are getting recognized for their creative excellence. At Cannes Lions, an international festival of creativity, OOH took home 48 Lions awards, including the top Grand Prix honor for ‘Liquid Billboard’ by Havas Middle East, Dubai, Cultural Insight for adidas. The world’s first swimmable billboard was created to promote the brand’s new inclusive, full-cover swimwear collection. With this single billboard, adidas reportedly reached 300 million people in over 50 countries. This campaign exemplifies the undeniable strength of OOH to help brands engage in-the-field and swim to victory.

Designing these types of one-of-a-kind executions begins with visually bold and creative storytelling to bring campaigns to life. And when combined with the latest in digital OOH innovations and emerging technologies like AR and virtual reality (VR), brands can enter the next dimension with campaigns that deliver powerful larger than life moments. What’s more is that great creative can also be a location driver, spark buzz, and deliver measurable results.

Elevating OOH creative begins with understanding the facts:

By its very nature, DOOH offers a lot of flexibility and limitless capabilities in terms of creating compelling advertising. And those attributes offer advertisers the chance to build everlasting moments, powerful statements, and lasting impressions.

Talon’s Out-of-Home Highlights & Call for Change

Laurie McAllister, our Head of Marketing, reflects on highlights from Talon’s activity in Cannes

After a two-year pandemic-enforced hiatus, thousands of people from across the media and advertising industry packed their suitcases and headed to La Croisette for a week of celebrating creativity in all its glory at Cannes Lions.

The awards and core-programme pull in a worldwide audience, and the fringe events even more. Talon set up camp at LBB & Friends Beach to fly the flag for Out of Home, placing our favourite medium in the heart of the conversation.

With so much to cover, I’ll leave the complete overview to Campaign who have shared a fantastic roundup of Cannes 2022 as well as a more in-depth look at the winners. And for now, zone into Talon’s highlights from our events and exploration at Cannes this year. 

Creativity in Out of Home

We kicked off on Tuesday with a live ‘Behind the Billboard’ podcast recording, hosted by Grand Visual’s Dan Dawson and Hugh Todd, sponsored by Talon. Unlike anything they’ve ever done before – and with only a few minor technical hiccups – Hugh and Dan chatted to some of the industries finest: Daniel Fisher – ECD Ogilvy, Keka Morelle – Wunderman Thompson Sao Paolo, and Sanjiv Mistry – ECD at McCann London, about all things creativity and Out of Home in Cannes 2022.

Sanjiv Mistry was the man on the ground, live from the Cannes judging room, giving behind the scenes insight into this year’s winners, how and why the Adidas ‘Liquid Billboard’ swept the board including winning the Grand Prix. Described as a “confluence of brand, purpose and product”, Sanjiv explained “one of the reasons it was a standout piece for us as a jury was, we saw a lot of purpose-driven work, as has been the dominant trend in the last decade or so, but this wasn’t just purpose – it showed a particular cultural insight and was product-driven as well, launching a new range of swimwear in the Middle East.”

The Adidas billboard was seen as a fantastic example of Out of Home’s unique ability to connect with people in real life, with “outdoor you always want to connect with your audience, there’s no better way to connect with your audience than literally having your audience participate and becoming part of your key visual”. We particularly enjoyed the discussion of the campaign extension, including the live stream of the campaign to DOOH alongside user-generated content “outdoor upon outdoor upon outdoor”.

This year, the UK only saw one bronze in the Outdoor Lions – and the podcast covered this too, questioning whether the entries were a true reflection of the work happening in the UK: “In Cannes, it’s a certain kind of work that gets through – it must appeal to an audience of global jurors. And certain work that we love in the UK doesn’t always make it to the global stage.” On what it is about UK work that doesn’t always land, the panel shared “a combination of jurors not being familiar with the brands and not being familiar with the insight”.

With approximately 2000 entries in the Outdoor section, and even more overall, the competition is fierce. No winners for Talon this year, although our work for Specsavers with MGOMD was shortlisted in the Media Lions. So how do you win? The panel had some advice: “the work that does win awards is when you are not thinking about it.”

It’s all about impacts that make an impact too, a big focus for us at Talon. “Try and do stuff that impacts the client’s business. We are in the business of trying to grow our clients, … what impact are you trying to achieve?” – Daniel asked – “if you are doing work that genuinely has an impact on the client’s bottom line or reputation, I think that’s a good start.” Keka added that when she sits in the jury room, she is “trying to find the real view of people and the brand activation”. Combining measurement with creativity to demonstrate the business value of your Outdoor campaigns is a great place to start.

The podcast also discussed moving away from pandemic-focussed creativity, nominated their favourite Cannes Lion winning billboards, chatted about the most memorable Cannes stories, and how much they love Out of Home. Give the full podcast a listen to brighten up your commute or pre-work morning walk.

Collaboration & growing Out of Home market share

The Out of Home industry were out in force in Cannes, with media owners, OOH agencies and OOH industry bodies showcasing and celebrating the creativity and innovation OOH delivers.

Our Group CEO Barry Cupples joined DPAA’s CEO Barry Frey for a fireside chat to discuss how the OOH industry needs to come together to move forward and how talking to clients about the value equation can get us there.On the power of OOH, he said “Out of Home should be taking the cake and not crumbs off of the table”. He encouraged the industry to rise to the challenge, a key focus for Talon moving forward as we work to grow OOH’s market share and showcase the value it can provide.

He also emphasised the social amplification opportunities of OOH, “what can social and OOH achieve together? End-to-end solutions, with creativity being the significant part.” Showcasing the amplification potential of OOH, the Specsavers campaign (that was shortlisted for a Cannes Lion) went viral – within hours of being posted organically by the public, images of the campaign picked up millions of likes and shares on social media. This added-campaign extension is unique to OOH and adds to the medium’s value proposition. 

The Need for Change

Finally, at the centre of many fireside chats, hosted sessions and private conversations was the need for more diversity and inclusion at Cannes. Cephas Williams, founder of The Black British Network, led this conversation in the build-up to Cannes with his fundraising campaign to take at least three black creatives to the event. 

Across the week, many discussions were hosted – with the overwhelming factor that more needs to be done and promises that have previously been made need to be kept. Patrick Campbell, from PATCAM, chaired a conversation between our CEO Barry Cupples and Cephas Williams at LBB Beach – centred on the question: two years on from the murder of George Floyd, have leaders kept their promises? This powerful conversation showcased Cephas’ mission of systemic change and the need for real transformation:

Cephas: “The agenda here is systemic change. How do we increase parity and equality? We made a promise that we don’t want to live in a world like this anymore. What do we all individually need to do to see the world that we all want to live in to manifest?”Barry: “We need to regain the momentum we had two years ago. It’s still unjust. Everyone has to hold hands and move things forward together. Cephas needs the support of the industry. We must all do better.”

As my closing thought, and a legacy of this year’s Cannes, I urge everyone reading this blog to read Letter to Zion now and consider what you can do to increase equality both personally and in the businesses you work for.

London, 06 July 2022: Talon Outdoor (“Talon” or “the company”), a leading, independently-owned global Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising agency, today announces that it has secured investment from Equistone Partners Europe (“Equistone”), one of Europe’s leading mid-market private equity investors.

Talon Outdoor Secures Investment from Equistone Partners Europe

Mayfair Equity Partners (“Mayfair”), a dedicated consumer and technology investor with over 1 billion in assets under management, will fully exit Talon, with management retaining a meaningful stake as part of this transaction. The financial terms of the deal are undisclosed and completion remains subject to customary closing conditions. 

Founded in 2012, Talon has delivered on its vision of providing smarter, creative, technology-led and integrated OOH solutions. The company offers the largest global OOH planning and buying network, covering 100 markets internationally, while its award-winning campaigns and proprietary advertising technology platforms – Ada, Atlas and Plato – deliver expertise at global, national and regional levels. Marquee customers include blue-chip advertisers Apple, Diageo, McDonald’s and PepsiCo and leading agencies Omnicom, Havas and Stagwell.

Since Mayfair’s investment in 2017, Talon has grown its team to over 200 employees across London, New York, Nashville, Frankfurt, Singapore, Dubai and Dublin. With Mayfair’s support the company completed four strategic acquisitions, strengthened its management team by hiring a new Chairman, CEO, CFO and CTO and significantly expanded its presence in North America.

Equistone’s investment will provide Talon with both the expertise and capital to continue its global expansion through further M&A and investment in new territories. The deal extends Equistone’s longstanding track record of investing in marketing services businesses, having invested in global marketing agency adm Group last October and realised its majority stake in global marketing technology and services provider Inspired Thinking Group in March.

Barry Cupples, CEO at Talon Group, said: “We are thrilled to be welcoming Equistone and excited to be working closely with the team to support Talon’s next phase of growth. Now in our tenth year, Talon is established as a market leading OOH agency and we thank Mayfair for being a huge part of this journey. We are particularly excited for the opportunities the new Equistone partnership will create for Talon’s clients across the globe.”

Paul Harper, Partner at Equistone, said: “We have been hugely impressed by the management team’s wealth of sector experience, strong track record and clear ambition to further scale the business, and we are excited to work with Barry and his team to accelerate the investment into talent and technology on a global basis. OOH media has remained a robust and attractive broadcast media for brands to communicate with customers, with the market continuing to digitise and invest in programmatic solutions.”

“Talon has crafted a special place in the market by focusing on delivering smarter, creative, technology-led, and integrated OOH communications,” commented Daniel Sasaki, Managing Partner at Mayfair Equity Partners. “Barry and the whole Talon team have delivered exceptional growth over the last five years, underpinned by a clear vision of continuous innovation and exceptional customer service. It has been a pleasure to be their partner, providing specialist support to achieve their digital transformation and U.S. growth ambitions.”

Paul Harper, Chris Candfield and Tristan Manuel led the investment on behalf of Equistone. Equistone was advised by Raymond James, Travers Smith, KPMG, OC&C and PWC.

Mayfair and Talon were advised by GP Bullhound, Goodwin Procter, RSM and PWC.

Management was advised by Highstead Partners and CMS.

If you read last month’s collaboration with Headcase, you’ll know that as an Out-of-Home specialist agency we are constantly seeking the next big thing for our clients. Throughout the summer months, we are collaborating with some of our media partners to take a deeper look into the different areas of creativity in OOH. This month we sat down with Orb to discuss further technological advancements in the OOH space and find out how your brand can harness the power of technology within your campaigns and target consumers in more exciting and creative ways.

Gone are the days where Out-of-Home advertising was defined as just your average paper poster or hand-painted sign. Over the last decade, we have witnessed digital displays increasingly replacing static out-of-home ads, with 40% of OOH ad revenue in Ireland now falling under digital. The use of data within OOH is also becoming more and more prevalent as it helps marketers reach consumers more effectively and efficiently. With greater technology, there’s no stopping what Out-of-Home campaigns can achieve.

Q: Can you go into a bit of detail on the offerings Orbs provide and then tell us how brands can utilise these offerings in their OOH campaigns?

Using current data to understand audience movements around selected points of interest and Orb panels is changing how we utilise our network. Insight into who has been exposed to a panel including dwell time and the number of visitations has many creative applications. It presents the opportunity to expand beyond broad awareness campaigns and use the panels based on the location of your target audience. This style of campaign means you can define locations where a higher proportion of your target audience are, pinpointing locations like events, retail outlets, restaurants, cinemas where your chosen audience dwell. Using this information and exposure to Orb panels creates an index, dictating where campaign plays or impressions should be delivered. This is really all about improving context, reducing wastage and bringing transparency to how the campaign performed.

For example, recently we did a campaign for a fintech brand that aimed at growing Irish awareness amongst millennials 25-44 who love shopping. Using current mobile & sensor data we analysed the previous month to see which screens had the highest concentration of this target audience. This presented 61 targeted panels with the campaign delivered in audience plays. A similar campaign was put together for a brand within the TV space whose aim was females 18-44 in Dublin with an affinity for reality TV. Using the same audience tool, 35 panels were identified that had a high skew to this specific audience. What both these campaigns have in common is using data to define the most relevant audience by panel.

Other new campaign options are dynamic triggers and advanced campaign measurement. Playout can now be in response to things such as dust levels, mosquito activity, barbecue conditions, flight arrivals, taxi availability and much more. These can all be used to offer another level of creative targeting and can be paired with measurement tools like brand uplift. The uplift of a campaign can be measured based on who was exposed to the ad. We can look at two groups of people, those who were exposed to the ad and those who weren’t, layering on different audience surveys all to truly see if the campaign had tangible results for the client.

These audience tools, dynamic triggers & measurement capabilities all present a new way DOOH can be used to really enhance and blend with client objectives. Why not look at using digital Out-of-Home through a more strategic lens, considering data strategy has made this possible.

About Orb

Orb set out on a mission 10 years ago to make DOOH a format where audiences were measurable, and campaigns could be designed to target them. Recent breakthroughs have seen their network being utilised based on two main categories, audience demographics and affinities. Their campaigns use frequency, play or impression buys and is measured on awareness and brand uplift to dive deeper into the campaign performance. See orb.ie for more.

Along with our incredible agencies and partners, Talon wins multiple awards at the annual Outdoor Media Awards, hosted by Clear Channel and Campaign.

For the first time in two years, we attended the ceremony in person alongside our industry peers. Over the 12 categories available, Talon was shortlisted across 10 of them with 21 shortlisted entries in total.

Talon Wins Big at Outdoor Media Awards

Kicking off the ceremony, the Visual Craft Award saw our campaigns for BBC: A Perfect Planet and Volkswagen: ID.4 awarded Silver and Bronze, respectfully.

Working closely with BBC Creative and Havas Media, A Perfect Planet promoted the TV show of the same name whilst delivering a stark warning about the future of our planet, setting one of the billboards on ‘fire.’ Our campaign with PHD, adam&eveDDB and 72 Point for Volkswagen, on the other hand, was a ‘living billboard’ complete with moss and turbines to power the creative.

In the next categories, two more Bronzes were picked up for Nissan: All-New Qashqai and Absolut: #TogetherIRL for the Tech Innovation Award and the Installation & Experience Award respectively.

The All-New Qashqai campaign in collaboration with MG OMD, TBWA, NissanUnited and Pixel Artworks, saw the vehicle ‘break through the screen’ with immersive 3D OOH. Our campaign for Absolut in partnership with Havas Media and Ann Squared celebrated being back together ‘IRL’ with experiential OOH.

Moving onto the next category for the Data & Intelligence Award, we picked up another Silver and Bronze award for The North Face VECTIV x Strava and Kopparberg: to Firsts that Last, respectfully. Working closely with PHD, OMGDOOH and Bigger, as well as Goodstuff and Neverland, both campaigns utilised smart audience data to make sure that the desired audience was targeted.

Next up and winning two awards throughout the evening, the campaign we worked on for Domino’s: Group Ordering with Havas Media and VCCP. Winning the Gold Cross-Format Award and the Silver New Approach Award, Domino’s cleverly used multiple OOH formats and increased its Outdoor budget in a move that successfully paid off.

Shelter: Fight for Home with Yonder Media and Who Wot Why would ultimately win the Gold New Approach Award for its hard-hitting, important campaign. Plan International UK: Crime Not Compliment by Grand Visual, Our Streets Now and Clear Channel would also win Gold, winning the National Social Impact Award.

Finally, for its continued hard work and dedication to delivering the best in OOH campaigns, BBC: This is Our BBC won the Gold Brand Building Award. The incredible yearlong effort alongside Havas Media and BBC Creative would also go on to be awarded the prestigious Grand Prix award – Talon’s fourth time winning the award in 4 years and BBC’s second after winning for Dracula in 2020.

To be recognised with 12 awards for all the hard work, smart thinking and collaboration that goes into delivering successful OOH campaigns is incredibly rewarding for all the teams involved. There were some amazing entries across the board this year that truly demonstrated the capabilities of OOH and showcased the creativity, agility and impact that only Outdoor campaigns can deliver.

The 2021 back-to-school shopping season came with many challenges for both families and the marketers that wanted to reach them. This year, however, parents are anticipating a different type of threat, inflation.

2021 Back-to-School Shopping Insights: Family Plans & Trends

To help brands stay ahead of the evolving conditions, we surveyed more than 200 families with children in school to find out their plans for this year’s back-to-school shopping season.

Amid heightened expectations from consumers on quality and value, we wanted to find out how consumers will be feeling heading into this back-to-school season and share some insights into how your brand can strategize for the shopping season ahead.

Most anticipate back-to-school shopping to take place in July (34%), followed by August (29%), with a number already having started to get organised (June 27%).

Our research also confirms that despite inflation, consumers are planning to spend in preparation for the upcoming school year, with most families (37%) estimating a spend of between 200-400, followed by 28% spending between 400-750 and a small number (18%) estimating a spend of +750.

Consumers will be shopping across several stores, with Tesco being the most popular (65%), followed by Dunnes Stores (60%). 52% of respondents will be keeping it local, by spending in school supply stores within their local area.

40% of back-to-school shoppers will be shopping across high-street, shopping centres and local stores. 27% will be using a mix of in-store and online. Only 4% of consumers will be doing all their back-to-school shopping online, this shows that there is a growing comfort with a return to in-store shopping.

With the back-to-school shopping season already begun, what can advertisers and brands do to make the most out of this time of year? Based on our findings, see below a few points to consider:

1. Local communities are still vitally important. Even though we are finally at the point of a post-pandemic new normal that doesn’t mean local communities should be forgotten when planning your campaigns. Many consumers now, more than ever are making a more conscious effort to shop local therefore it’s important to still include these areas in your plans to reach audiences right along the path to purchase.

2. Despite Inflation, spending power is still prevalent for back-to-school shoppers. Our findings suggest that this will be a very competitive back-to-school shopping season with many consumers shopping across multiple stores. July is set to be the most popular month although of those who participate in back-to-school shopping, many have started to make purchases already.

3. Brick and mortar is still an area of focus. Even though consumers are beginning to shop more online, back-to-school shopping is likely to be done in person. Advertisers and brands should still be focusing their campaigns on driving footfall to stores, you can do this via campaigns that include directional messaging to the nearest location or prompt shoppers by displaying quieter times to visit.

All of the above findings point to the optimism consumers have heading into the 2022-2023 school year.

Methodology: Bounce Insights conducted the online survey of a main urban sample of 200 respondents between the ages of 18-54 with children of school age, either primary, secondary or both. The research was conducted on the 24th & 25th of May 2022.

If you found this blog interesting and are looking for more information, please reach out to a member of your client service team.

After seventy years of dedicated service, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee. A once in a lifetime event, the public was given an extended bank holiday to celebrate. Which of course, they did by getting outside and being a part of this national event.

Over the four-day event, both live and TV audiences were wowed with a traditional trooping of the colour, an eccentric pageant and a star-studded concert. This provided a huge audience for OOH, with McDonald’s and John Lewis both capitalising on this opportunity.

Outstanding OOH Moments at Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee

The Weekend Footfall Increased +17.1% 

Footfall over the Jubilee week was up an impressive +17.1% vs the May average, with the number of people visiting shops increasing by +17%, also. 8.5 million tube journeys were made throughout the four-day weekend as well as over 13.5 million bus journeys.  

Despite current cost of living concerns, the hospitality industry benefited well from the Jubilee weekend too. Spending at restaurants rose +41.5% over the weekend, with a +67.3% increase in spending at pubs, bars and nightclubs. This boost is estimated to be worth 2 billion to the hospitality industry.

OOH Formats Stealing the Show  

From the drone light show to the dazzling projection mapping onto Buckingham Palace; these were just a couple of incredible executions that wowed audiences. They are also innovative ways that brands can advertise using OOH.

Keep reading for OOH formats that are fit for royalty and have the power to elevate a brand’s reach beyond the streets.

Bus Advertising 

Seven classic London buses played a surprisingly big role in the Queen’s Jubilee pageant, each wrapped to represent a different decade of the Queen’s reign. To achieve this, the buses were completely wrapped with different icons and memories from the decade it was representing. To top it off, the buses were ridden by iconic Brits including Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Sir Cliff Richard.

There are currently 37,800 buses in service across the UK, resulting in 4.5 billion annual journeys, 2.2 billion of which are made on London buses alone. According to Route, bus advertising reaches over 48 million adults over a typical two-week period, resulting in incredible reach for advertisers.

Bus advertising is well received with 4 in 5 Londoners recalling seeing a wrapped bus and 85% preferring buses with ads.

Projection Mapping 

At the Concert Party, as day turned into night, the scene was set for an incredible projection mapping show. Buckingham Palace lent itself as a customisable backdrop for the performances as well as a blank canvas in which images and videos of the Queen throughout the years were illustrated.

Projection mapping allows brands to seamlessly blend a building canvas with brand creative. We carefully build bespoke content which interacts with and amplifies the building’s features. The result is a turbocharged DOOH installation with serious impact.

Often iconic and famous buildings that tower over target cities to amplify the message even further are chosen.

Drone Light Show 

Before the final act, audiences were left stunned by a spectacular drone light show of the Queen’s favourite things. These included an animated Corgi, teapot and swan. As the show ended, the drones formed a message that read, “Thank You Ma’am.” Using 400 drones, it was reported that the show could be seen away from Buckingham Palace.

Consisting of illuminated and choreographed groups of drones, drone light shows can recreate desired images and words in the sky via a computer program that creates flight commands from graphics. To find out more about the brand-building capabilities of drones, please click here.

The Jubilee has provided us with some inspiring examples of OOH executions and showcased how they can be used to maximum effect. Talon’s Creative Solutions team and Grand Visual are on hand to support and develop your campaign ideas.

If you found this blog inspiring and want to discuss how you could execute a campaign for royalty, please get in touch.

With Summer finally upon us, consumers are planning on how to spend a Summer in a ‘new normal’. Our latest consumer research piece looks at the Summer of 2022 and how consumers best plan to spend it. Although going abroad is top of the agenda for so many, results indicate strongly that many people plan on spending time locally but out of home, lending to new opportunities for advertisers using the OOH medium. We know from tracking mobility levels through out the pandemic that mobility remains strong throughout the Summer, despite school holidays. It’s fair to say this Summer will bring unprecedented levels of mobility with people of out of home, bringing new targeting opportunities for advertisers.

Seizing Summer 2022: Out of Home Advertising Insights

Spending time outdoors is on everyone’s agenda! Holidays are top of that list, both abroad but staycations too.  42% of respondents plan on going abroad, while a further 28% plan on going abroad and taking a staycation. 16-24’s are most likely to go abroad with almost 50% stating so.  Interestingly, many of us will be making the most of our Summer through staycations (61%), day trips around Ireland, daily activities, and days out with children.

The question on how respondents plan to travel for staycation trips and day trips as mentioned previously, yielded some interesting results.  80% of those interviewed will be travelling by car.  In addition, 91% will be using some form of public transport to get around this Summer, either by bus, train, DART or LUAS.  Therefore, planning an OOH campaign couldn’t be easier.  By using a mix of multi environment formats across roadside, travel and retail formats, brands are guaranteed that key messages will be communicated effectively to target audiences.

Attending festivals and concerts is the top performing activity this Summer across all demographics.  53% of us will be attending at least one concert or festival this Summer, while 26% will be attending a sporting event.  45% of respondents will be travelling to a main city to socialise while 32% plan on shopping in at least one main city this summer.

Finally, when we asked respondents what they are most looking forward to, “Being able to be outside and enjoy the Summer” topped the poll, as well as spending time with family and friends and everything re opening.

The summer of 2022 is shaping up to be productive, with many people making up for lost opportunities and spending as much time out of home as possible.  With so many audiences on the move, there has never been a better time than now to plan Out of Home Advertising.

*Results are based on a sample of 250 respondents nationwide using an online methodology.

The latest spend figures released for Q1 depict a positive story for the Out of Home Industry in Ireland, according to OMA/Nielsen.

Q1 2022 saw an increase of 109% on the same period last year. The OMA/Nielsen figures, which report rate card less discount to reflect market conditions reported an increase of 11.1m compared to 2021, with 7 of the top 10 advertisers increasing their spend on the same period last year. The numbers are re-assuring, providing evidence that the OOH sector is undergoing a strong period of growth after a steep decline as a result of the Covid19 pandemic.

OOH Expenditure Overview: Key Trends and Insights from Q1 2022

Category Trends

The top category was retail with an overall spend of 5.3m, up 25% on same period last year.  Retail as a sector has seen a challenging few months, with supermarket groups increasing spend promoting price stability on the back of inflation worries.  Home grocery shopping has been an upward trend too with almost all supermarket groups now offering home delivery and promoting same message.  For example, Tesco increased spend in quarter 1 (+118%) to 948k, as it invested heavily in Price Comparison, Grocery Home Services and Good Grub campaigns.  The figures reflect trends seen in our own consumer research studies in Jan- Mar with so many consumers opting for healthy options and home cooking, lending to increased grocery spends.

Drink & Food categories also fell within the top 3 spenders.  Diageo are leading the charge within the drinks category as the overall top spender in Q1 at 1.6M, no change to its position last year, but we’ve also seen numerous new zero alcohol products come on stream too and use the OOH medium effectively to communicate with target audiences.

Similarly, food spend on OOH saw an increase of 12% on previous year.   Mondelez took 4th place as top spender @ 649K, coupled with various other food advertisers investing heavily in the medium.  The pandemic reinforced that there is a desire for quality food produce, that consumers are prepared to spend more on luxury and premium food items, which lends to the increase in this category too.

2 categories that have emerged as strong contenders in the Q1 figures are household services and entertainment and media.  Rising inflation has led to a demand for price reductions and switching of household utilities, a trend set to continue.  Both Sky and Virgin Media demonstrated strong spend results for Q1.

Similarly, with entertainment & media Disney Plus featured in the top 10 advertisers, with numerous other entertainment platforms using OOH also.

Similarly, entertainment & leisure saw a big increase v Q1 2021.  Advertisers such as McDonalds, JD Sports and Paddy Power used the power of OOH to drive key messaging of their brands across this category.

Film releases within the entertainment category also saw an increase which is no surprise given the backlog of movies released once cinemas and theatres re opened.

Summary:

It is fair to say that OOH is on an upward trajectory.  The spend figures reflect investment in our medium, not just by brands and advertisers that use the medium regularly but newcomers who recognise the inherent benefits of using OOH to reach key audiences.  Audiences are spending more time out of home too, putting reach and frequency front and centre for advertisers.