London, 15th July 2022: Frank Bryant, one of the founders of Talon Outdoor who set up and built the business alongside Eric Newnham and James Copley in 2013, has stepped down from the board with immediate effect.

Founder of Talon Outdoor, Frank Bryant, Steps Down from Board

Following the recent announcement that Talon has secured investment from Equistone Partners Europe, Frank has decided that this is the right time for him to step down from Talon and enjoy a well-deserved retirement.

As one of Talon’s founders, Frank played a pivotal role in growing Talon from inception to the leading independently owned global Out of Home (OOH) agency. His incredible passion and energy for OOH have been vital to establishing Talon’s culture and success – providing clients access to the best planning and service the industry has to offer.

In addition to building up Talon’s market-leading client-service offering, Frank is well known for his dedication to charitable causes and has been the driving force behind Talon’s charity work, raising a staggering 2 million to date through the industry-renowned annual “Talon Turns” parties and other fundraising efforts. The long-term partnership he established with FAB (Families Activity Breaks) has also positively impacted the lives of many military families.

The UK business has a strong and dedicated leadership team led by Global CEO – Barry Cupples, supported by the wider team of talented, passionate and creative professionals, who will continue to drive the business forward.

Frank Bryant said: “I’m happily stepping down from the board to enjoy retirement. Talon has been an unbelievable success since we came into the market and I’ve loved every minute of building and growing the business to its key leadership role in Out of Home. I’ve had the opportunity to work with a fabulous team of individuals which has been a privilege and honour to do. I wish Talon and the entire team continued success and I know the business will continue to grow and thrive under its current leadership.”

Eric Newnham, Talon co-founder, said: “Thank you Frank for being a brilliant partner and colleague. You have been superb at helping us take Talon to the heights we now enjoy and I wish you all the best in your retirement.”

James Copley, UK CEO, said: “It has been an incredible 10 years. Frank has played a huge part in Talon’s success; both in the early days and then driving further growth over the last few years. His commitment to charitable causes has been inspirational, and we will continue his legacy with the Talon Turns events. On a personal level, Frank has been a brilliant business partner and friend and I have enjoyed the best 10 years of my career working with him.  I wish him the very best for his well-deserved retirement.”

Barry Cupples, Global CEO, adds, “Frank has been an inspirational leader – his contribution has spanned every aspect of Talon’s phenomenal growth since start-up. As an advisor to the board, Frank has provided invaluable counsel as we successfully navigated a tumultuous few years. We are in a fabulous position to continue the incredible work done by Frank in nurturing talent and developing our management. He is a rare breed and a lovely person to boot. He will be sorely missed but we absolutely understand his position and respect his decision as he departs on the highest of notes.

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 today announced further expansion of its global footprint with new offices and leadership in Singapore and Dubai.

Talon Expands Global Presence with Offices in Singapore and Dubai

Melanie Lindquist and Chadi Farhat will lead Singapore and Dubai respectively.  Farhat and Lindquist are tasked with accelerating OOH growth in these key regions; ensuring clients realise the full potential of their OOH investment through Talon’s proprietary technology platforms and award-winning creative innovation.

Talon’s strategy-led leadership will help educate brands and agencies on the extensive OOH opportunities for tapping into richer behavioural and location insights for quantifying the channel’s true impact across the customer journey.

Powered by Talon’s deep investments in market-leading AdTech platforms Talon will offer smarter, data-driven and creative-led OOH planning and buying to offer brands and agencies around the world a powerful path for accessing innovative capabilities to fuel outcomes-based OOH campaigns.

Talon’s international footprint provides on the ground knowledge and expertise that ensures we can effectively plan buy and execute client campaigns in over 100 markets. In partnership with local media owners Talon will make it easier for advertisers in more markets to access and execute captivating and performance-driven OOH campaigns and drive OOH revenue growth.

Barry Cupples, Talon Group CEO commented: “With the continued growth of OOH revenues around the world this is the perfect time for Talon to expand our global presence. Mel and Chadi are first-class operators and we are delighted to have them on board as we continue to deliver our market-leading independent position within OOH. APAC & MENA now have the very best talent, which coupled with Talon’s data-fuelled technology will bring game-changing opportunities for advertisers. 

Supported by clear measurement this will undoubtedly deliver strong client “outcomes” and brand performance, and ultimately provide top and bottom-line growth for advertisers which is at the core of the service Talon strives to deliver.”

APAC – Singapore  

Bringing a wealth of knowledge with her, Lindquist is an awarded media professional who has led marketing, strategy, data and sales operations teams for the past two decades across radio, television, digital, eCommerce and OOH.  After five years in Australian OOH directing client strategy, planning, data and sales operations teams, Lindquist relocated to Singapore in early 2021 and continued to consult and advise on OOH and establish a full-service customer team for a leading Singaporean-based eCommerce technology company. Committed to industry development, Lindquist has also mentored and advised on policy for several industry groups including the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI).

Speaking about her new role in Talon APAC, Lindquist said: “I am thrilled to be joining Talon to deliver scale, agility, and expanded capabilities to the Singapore and APAC region. For the first time brands, agencies and their clients will have the benefit of Talon’s global reach with full service, independent and data-backed expertise as the regional OOH industry develops at an exciting pace.”

MENA – Dubai 

Farhat has spent the last 25 years working across media, marketing, and communication within leading media agency groups in MENA.  In his last role as Chief Investment Officer at Omnicom Media Group, he orchestrated multiple mergers and acquisitions within the industry; with the aim to unremittingly improve the product offerings to the company’s portfolio of advertisers whilst strongly contributing to the growth of the business year on year. Farhat is a passionate, focused and highly driven leader. An envisioned and bold strategist, he has built an illustrious career across the Levant, GCC, and the wider Middle East’s media ecosystem  

Farhat added: “I am hugely excited to be able to bring clients in the MENA region a unique OOH planning and buying offering they cannot find anywhere else.  Talon will provide advertisers with world-class regional and international service, innovative technology capabilities, creative executions and high-touch collaboration to deliver measurable and optimised value, as well as the unmissable outcomes that only OOH can offer.”

Atlas, Talon’s DSP, proves programmatic OOH delivers stronger payback on purchase intent compared to digital channels.

Talon’s Atlas DSP Boosts OOH Effectiveness According to Latest Research

Traditionally, out of home (OOH) has been considered a valuable channel for driving metrics such as impact and awareness. But now Talon’s latest research into the effectiveness of its programmatic demand side platform (DSP), Atlas, has shown that OOH can also payback on a variety of performance-based metrics more successfully than digital channels.

Atlas is the only DSP which leverages specialist data via Ada, Talon’s proprietary data management platform (DMP), created to combine years of OOH planning expertise with real and recent audience behaviours. Atlas puts audiences at the core of the platform, with Atlas campaigns proven to deliver a stronger payback by identifying and targeting consumers who are more likely to be in the market for certain brands and products.

Atlas campaigns are nearly four times more likely to drive brand consideration and twice as likely to shift purchase intent because they deliver relevant, viewed impacts within a brand-safe environment. Analysis from the independent research agency, On Device Research, shows an almost perfect correlation, of 0.988, between claimed intention and actual – underpinning the impact Atlas has on maximising brands ROI by shifting real-world behaviour.

Since launching in 2020, Atlas has delivered countless intelligent, data-driven campaigns for clients. and demonstrated how including data, automation and attribution to OOH is delivering stronger results on core KPIs traditionally associated with performance channels. Providing confidence in programmatic OOH’s ability to provide a direct response and act as an extension of client’s online strategies.

Emily Alcorn, Head of Insight, comments: “At Talon, we pride ourselves on our ability to lead and champion effectiveness within OOH, and the ambition was no different when we launched Atlas. We’re incredibly proud of the outstanding results which are a testament to our dedication in providing products and solutions that focus on delivering effectiveness for our clients.”

Josko Grljevic, Chief Transformation Officer, comments: “We built Atlas to redefine the OOH programmatic market with a data-centric platform that enables advertisers to capitalise on the wealth of OOH planning expertise. These results demonstrate how Atlas has transformed the OOH market to target and nudge consumers further along in their purchasing journey.”

Benchmarks were conducted from data analysis of Atlas campaign effectiveness studies with a sample of over n=2,400, which were then compared against On Device Research online and social benchmarks for brand uplift.

A recent trend that we’ve been seeing a lot of in the advertising world lately is drones. Despite some infamous cases such as the Gatwick airport incident, drones provide an incredible opportunity for Out of Home (OOH) brand fame.

So, what are Drone Light Shows? 

A drone light show is a performance of illuminated and choreographed groups of drones, arranging themselves throughout the show into different aerial formations. These formations can recreate desired images and words in the sky via a computer program that creates flight commands from graphics. These commands are then communicated to the drones.

The creative possibilities of drone light shows are immense – which is why we’re now seeing lots of brands using them all over the world.

A notable example would be Lady Gaga’s Pepsi Zero Sugar Super Bowl LI Halftime Show in 2017. As she performed, drones could be seen throughout the show, creating images such as the USA flag, as well as displaying the Pepsi logo over the stadium. The end result was mesmerising and is still talked about and heralded five years later.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time that a drone light show was executed, but it was a major turning point for brands and how they too could harness drones creatively.

In recent times, we’ve seen a variety of brands executing visually stunning and memorable drone light shows.

Chanel

Kicking off Art Basel 2021 in Miami, Florida, Chanel marked the 100th birthday of its Chanel No.5 fragrance with an exquisite drone light show. As well as displaying the Chanel logo in the air for all to admire, the brand also created images of its bestselling perfume bottle that was 600 feet tall and the profile of the brand’s creator Gabrielle Chanel. The drone light show also took place in Korea, receiving incredible coverage on social media and by the press.

GENESIS

Over Shanghai’s iconic skyline, global luxury automotive brand GENESIS, broke the Guinness World Record for the Most Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) airborne simultaneously. A total of 3,281 drones came together to create the Genesis emblem, celebrating the official entry of GENESIS into the Chinese market.

Johnnie Walker

Another recent and incredible drone light show was for the alcoholic beverage brand, Johnnie Walker. Taking over Goa’s skyline, a popular party destination in India, audiences were mesmerised by over 500 drones at midnight to celebrate and bring in 2022.

The show transformed the night sky with messages to inspire India to #KeepWalking as they welcomed in the New Year.

For all drone show enquiries please contact creativesolutions@talonoutdoor.com

Mastering Movie Launches: OOH’s Blockbuster Success Stories

With cinemas now open and a pent-up thirst for new movies to cater for, it should come as no surprise that the UK and Ireland’s box offices are booming. Cinemas took in 18.7 million last week, 10.9 million of which was taken in just over the weekend, showing that cinema-goers are back!

So, with a huge backlog of films to be released, as well as movie debuts on VOD platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, how do you stand out? With a vast amount of Out of Home campaigns for films under his belt, Grand Visual’s Creative Director, Ric Albert, knows a thing or two about nailing a movie launch.

In recent months, Ric and his team have been behind some fantastic OOH launches, including collaborations with Warner Bros and Amazon Prime. Pre-pandemic, the team also collaborated on movie launches with the likes of Sony Pictures and Disney. So, grab a refreshment and get comfy because we’re about to dive in.

Post-Pandemic OOH Advertising for Movies

Warner Bros – Wonder Woman 1984

Set to be released in June 2020, the release of Wonder Woman 1984 was delayed due to the pandemic. This led Warner Bros to rethink its launch strategy and draw attention from cinema audiences with an epic OOH stunt.

Choosing the largest digital OOH canvas in the world, standing at 828 meters high – the Burj Khalifa would definitely garner interest. A video of the stunt was shared widely online, receiving over 3 million views in 24 hours on Gal Gadot’s Instagram account.

So, Ric. What do you think?

“I don’t think there is a more exciting Digital OOH canvas to display your work than the tallest building in the world. Genuinely a bucket list job. Even for A-list Hollywood stars, it seems!

Look out for more of these giant-scale activations in the future – studios love the idea of epic proportions advertising their latest blockbusters.”

Amazon Prime – The Tomorrow War

Originally set for theatrical release in December 2020, The Tomorrow War was postponed and instead released on Amazon Prime. Although it wasn’t released in cinemas, the movie still needed a stellar launch to entice audiences to watch it... and the OOH campaign did just that! 

Bringing the war to cities including Stockholm, Madrid and Manchester, the campaign featured an incredible augmented reality stunt that turned these locations into scenes of The Tomorrow War. The movie went on to be a success, scoring 1.23 billion minutes of watch time, the best opening for an Amazon original movie. 

“Creating an Augmented Reality campaign across 5 countries and 6 sites was no small feat,” says Ric. “…But we’ve always been pushing the capabilities of this medium and wanted something different from a one-off stunt. Movie releases are global events, so it was fitting that the activation took place across multiple markets.” 

Pre-Pandemic Advertising for Movies  

A time before the pandemic feels like a distant memory, but we couldn’t not include these epic movie launch stunts. Now that restrictions have been lifted, here’s some great examples of OOH advertising for movies that’ll really draw attention.

Sony Pictures – Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse

For the launch of Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse, Sony Pictures wanted to steal the stage at one of the grandest OOH sites of them all – Times Square. We created an augmented reality experience that transported over 215,000 people passersby into the Spider-verse. The campaign went on to win 2 OBIE awards as well as the movie winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

Over to you Ric.

“This has to be one of my favourites: prime location – tick, mass audience participation – tick, turning crowds into cartoons – tick, using facial tracking to add speech bubbles above their heads – tick. This activation had it all, and the result aligned perfectly with the film to create a unique and memorable stunt.”

Disney Marvel Studios: Doctor Strange

As a master of the mystic arts, Doctor Strange deserved more than just a static 6-sheet. Using augmented reality, we created an OOH installation across 10 markets that gave audiences the chance to harness the mystical powers of the doctor. The film went on to open in the #1 position in the US box office, eventually grossing $677 million worldwide.

“This was the perfect marriage of creative and technology – when the stars align to create something truly special… and incredibly fitting for the movie,” adds Ric. “With some gesture recognition and live video portals, we connected people in London and LA and gave everyone the chance to become Sorcerer Supreme.”

“At the end of the day, that is what all of these activations are about. Bringing some of the movie magic into the real world. Giving the public the chance to interact with their favourite characters and creating an emotional engagement with the next big movie release.”

Online display advertising has sometimes been inextricably linked with a performance marketing positioning, but this link is eroding as marketers are forced to rethink their over-simplistic approach, as OOH sheds its image purely as an awareness-driving medium.

Performance and measurement have become synonymous with digital OOH now that data gives us the platform optimise planning and demonstrate outcomes.

Technology and data have been systematically transforming the digital out-of-home (DOOH) marketplace for some time now, and as we emerge from the cloud of the pandemic, DOOH has emerged as a unique and powerful channel for performance marketers to leverage.

Data-driven OOH

When the pandemic hit the UK in March 2020, people were forced to spend more time indoors. For OOH, this became a significant challenge. OOH agencies had to pivot tools primarily built for optimisation and campaign measurement to develop a better understanding of channel exposure.

With the acceleration of digital transformation within the channel, there has been an evolution in technology which manages and activates billions of device-level audience data points to create new insights about how people behave and how to reach and engage them while on-the-go. This enables data-driven, audience targeting and campaign measurement that hasn’t previously been possible.

The best of breed tools use mobile location data obtained with direct consent from users when a mobile app is downloaded on their mobile device, and combine proprietary data science models to understand the behaviours of OOH audiences.

Over the course of the last year, many brands have embraced data application in OOH, with uses ranging from audience optimisation and creative allocation to new outcome-based measurement techniques. For some brands, mobility data was used to monitor and calculate regional weights and to ensure these complemented and offset TV volumes. Additionally, data was used to negotiate value where footfall had significantly changed due to Covid-19, such as train stations and shopping centres.

Using a scalable data management platform (DMP) can help to effectively process this data at speed. This aggregated data can then be used to identify changes in audience movements and predict how different situations can prompt different patterns of behaviour – whether that is around lockdown restrictions or something like the recent Euro 2020 tournament.

OOH and performance measurement

Evaluation and measurement have always been must haves for marketers. At Talon, for example, we have developed our own DMP, known as Ada, to make precise and accurate performance measurement possible even in an offline broadcast medium like DOOH. The platform has been built to provide outcome-based measurement by harnessing mobile location data to report on campaign exposure and footfall to store during and after a campaign.

When it comes to using this data to produce targeted advertising activations, Ada fuels Talon’s automated trading (PROOH) platform Atlas. Through direct DOOH integrations, Atlas creates an optimised OOH schedule for brands.

In a recent campaign for Fineco, activated via this platform, we saw an increase in purchase intent of seven p.p. which is significantly higher than the measured benchmark for OOH. As this case study indicates, by activating OOH campaigns against the right audience group, outcomes are produced at the lower end of the brand funnel. This approach allows advertisers to understand whether consumers have taken physical action after being exposed to an ad and how to shift campaign strategies to increase the likelihood of this action.

Understanding audiences, activating against them, and measuring results will always be key elements of marketing. In recent years, marketers have relied on unfettered access to third-party cookies to do much of the heavy lifting.

In today’s fast-changing environment, systems that harness consensual and anonymised location data should be considered as readily available alternatives and the new role for OOH ads in driving performance outcomes should be recognised and embraced.

By Josko Grljevic, Chief Transformation Officer.

This first appeared in Performance In.

Creative Excellence in OOH: Cannes Highlights & Impact

There were a few clear themes present at the virtual Cannes advertising festival this year reflecting not just digital transformation but also the immense strides Out of Home (OOH) has made in a most difficult but ultimately rewarding year.

These campaigns fully integrated creativity alongside brand transparency and transformation at the heart of media’s digital revolution. More than ever, it is important for a brand’s values to truly resonate with consumers and stand out to make a point that embraces simplicity, and – more important than ever – relevance to the year’s events.

At Talon we worked with some big, but hugely progressive brands not afraid to put creativity and bravery at the heart of what they do; not afraid to use OOH to reach people in a bold way.

HSBC & Shelter: As well as winning the UK Outdoor Media Awards’ Grand Prix, HSBC and Shelter’s Fixing the “No-Fixed Address” Policy made a real impact at Cannes, as it did on the streets, winning two Gold Lions.

Simple but extremely powerful, the OOH campaign took over a selection of bus shelters which are often used by homeless people as shelter in moments of desperation. These shelter vinyl wraps featured a visual of a homeless person sleeping on the bench with details of HSBC’s No Fixed Address service and a QR code that passers-by could scan with their phones and donate money to Shelter.

The campaign was a huge success with HSBC’s No Fixed Address service growing +52% and QR code donations generating enough funds to support over 100 individuals facing homelessness. 1 in 5 QR donors even signed up to become regular donors to Shelter, leaving a long-term funding legacy for the campaign.

Volkswagen UK: VW’s Eating Pollution picked up one Gold and one Bronze Lion. The brand has worked hard on sustainability and environmental messaging, reflected in its vehicles and its advertising, particularly in OOH.

To launch Volkswagen’s ID.3 electric vehicle, we delivered an OOH campaign that was as clean as the car. Using air-purifying murals and carbon-neutral digital OOH sites – in an incredibly creative execution – the ID.3 became the UK’s best-selling electric car in just its second month.

McDonald’s: A long-established media partner, McDonald’s won a Gold and Silver Lion at this year’s Cannes, even though none of its products actually featured in its OOH campaign. Using just the brand’s iconic golden arches and a clever play on words, the campaign is a fantastic example of the possibilities of OOH branding, delivering visual brilliance and rewarding brand fame in abundance.

As OOH adapts and progresses into cutting edge use of data, location, targeting and technology, Cannes reminds us that truly effective campaigns embrace all these things. Award wins came to those brands who successfully integrated these elements fully with creativity and outcomes – still very much the cornerstone of the best advertising globally. No longer is OOH a poor relation among media channels. Some of these examples allow Talon and our partners to take real leadership in implementing brand success.

This article first appeared in More About Advertising.

As a society, we’ve grown up with Out of Home advertising. Whether it was the humble 6–sheet with no digital capabilities or the now–digital landscape that we’ve become accustomed to, OOH has always been a part of our lives.

Across various generations, we’ve seen brands such as Coca Cola build their empires through heavily investing in OOH. From paper and paste to the pixels and screens, OOH truly is a proven fame maker.

Whilst some may argue that the traditional OOH medium isn’t as effective at building fame as online channels; at Talon, our Creative Director, Ric Albert and Head of Creative Solutions, Jay Young, think differently. With an incredible portfolio of some of the best in OOH campaigns under their belts, such as BBC’s Dracula, Pepsi MAX and a range of work with Warner Bros, there’s no better people to ask…

Why is OOH so highly regarded in terms of fame making? 

Ric: “OOH has the ability to connect with the public in ways that other channels simply cannot. Firstly, you have a broad audience to tap into. OOH can take advantage of its environment and therefore its audience’s mindsets, to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time.

Beyond that, the sheer scale of the billboard or screen creates a canvas unlike any other. In a world where most content appears on small screens in front of our faces, being able to put your message out at this size really helps OOH to be a unique proposition for fame making.”

An amazing example of this was when Warner Bros took over the world’s tallest building, The Burj Khalifa, to promote its latest movie Wonder Woman 1984. The campaign showcased the movie on the largest digital OOH canvas in the world, at 828 metres high! The video received over 3 million views in 24 hours on Gal Gadot’s Instagram account.

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A post shared by Gal Gadot (@gal_gadot)

Jay: “OOH is the perfect stage for brands to perform on. It’s big, it’s un-skippable and it exists in the real world. You can close a newspaper, turn off your phone or fast forward TV, but OOH stands tall regardless and with that comes an overwhelming sense of power and impact.

You can see a cultural moment blow up on Twitter at 9am. You’ll get a reactive ad on DOOH across the country by the time you log off for the day. I still love the Specsavers campaign we ran in reaction to the Moonlight Oscars blunder. We could never have achieved the same impact with static OOH going live days later.

Combine this with the fact that we can reach 98% of UK adults every week. It’s a fame machine.”

So, we know why OOH is a “fame machine,” but what does it take to create an impactful campaign that lives beyond the billboard? 

Taking this campaign, featuring K-Pop singer Wooyoung for his birthday on a screen in Times Square as an example; living anywhere else in the world, you wouldn’t have seen it. However, because a fan connected with and shared the campaign on social media, it has now been viewed over 110k times – amplifying the campaign and building fame.

Jay: “As humans, we are ruled by emotions, we don’t just buy products and services, we buy feelings. The most impactful ads make us really feel something! Do something unexpected to get noticed. Use context to optimise your message and use emotion to make the audience feel something. Emotion makes it memorable.”

Ric: “Can the billboard start a conversation? Can it get people talking or thinking so that the message lives on after the billboard? Creating a campaign that can emotionally engage with the public is key and isn’t always down to the location of the billboard.

There are some locations such as Times Square that are just iconic and there are some locations that you have to think outside of the box and make it iconic; so that even if the advert is 10m tall or 500 other people are also looking at it, does it speak directly to you. This can be done with messaging, imagery or even just the sentiment behind it.”

What campaign stands out to you as a fame maker for OOH? 

Jay: There are so many campaigns I love for different reasons. The sheer simplicity of the BBC Dracula shadow billboard, the innovation behind Pepsi’s Unbelievable Bus Shelter and the always on and always awesome ads from McDonald’s. As advertisers, they have all reaped huge rewards from constantly challenging themselves and not settling for cookie-cutter planning.

For reference, Dracula and Pepsi MAX’s Unbelievable Bus Shelter have received over 15 million views combined and remain two of our most popular OOH campaigns of all time…

Ric: One that comes to mind is Nike’s Dream Crazy campaign with Colin Kaepernick. It won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix and for good reason. Using such a large canvas, and public space to broadcast a bold, daring and important message… It used OOH’s unique abilities to provoke conversation, publicity and make the public think, and feel. It wasn’t putting the product front and centre, but something more important for us all.

Another example of fame building and amplification online, is when a celebrity themselves, shares their billboard with their followers. Molly Mae Hague, a popular UK based influencer, shared her billboard to her fanbase of over 340k Twitter followers and 5.3m Instagram followers.

Although we’re not inside the head of the celebrity, it’s interesting to understand why they specifically share their billboards rather than various online ads they feature in. So, from your experience, why do you think celebrities share their billboards on social media? 

Ric: “We’ve grown up with billboards around us. Long before phone screens, iconic sites like Times Square and Piccadilly Circus captured our imaginations and felt like the biggest screens in the world. So today, with so many screens in our lives, having our face (or work) on DOOH screens – whether small format like D6s or large format city centre ones – still triggers an emotional excitement within us.

It’s different and it’s not easily doable. You can’t just tweet something and it goes up there. So, fame is still exclusive. It’s just not an arena everyone can participate in!”

Jay: “When brands, or people for that matter, appear on billboards they enter a relatively exclusive club. You, unlike most, have achieved a status that allows you to fill this very public canvas. It’s the “I’ve officially made it” moment. Instagram and other platforms thrive on our societal need to play status games. An image of yourself on a big iconic DOOH screen gives you bonus points for sure!”

OOH is a medium that delivers scale and unrivalled creative potential, making it the ultimate ‘fame maker.‘ The perfect recipe is a combination of audience understanding, contextual relevance, creativity that packs a punch; get these right and OOH can extend beyond the billboard and provide stand out fame making moments.

This article first appeared in Little Black Book.

If nothing else, 2020 was a masterclass in showcasing the need for adaptability and rapid innovation. Agility, technology and data have become essential guiding lights for navigating constantly shifting landscapes, for status quo is now synonymous with change. What is the likely impact on the OOH industry, as it strives to ramp up Digital Transformation now that long-established ways of working have been disrupted?

Top 5 Trends for the OOH Industry in 2021

1. Programmatic, and any form of automated trading for that matter will continue to gain momentum. OOH’s progressive shift from an off-line to an on-line medium is being driven by advertisers wanting to activate campaigns in near-real time and in response to environmental triggers. With media owners actively looking to monetise their inventory through as many channels as possible, SSP’s, DSP and 3rd party buying platforms provide an attractive pipeline of demand. All of which will continue to drive the cycle of continued investment, capability and scale of DOOH inventory in this space.

2. Data and insights will become foundations for strategic decision making. Long established and proven OOH patterns have been turned on their head over the past 12 months. With advertisers demanding more accountability and ever greater returns on their investments, access to good data and ability to harvest meaningful insights, is rapidly becoming a must-have business capability in today’s evidence-based economy.

3. Privacy and data compliance will take centre stage throughout 2021. Imminent changes in data collection, processing and privacy regulations will place even more emphasis on compliance, measurement and transparency. The ICO’s continued scrutiny of RTB, Apple’s IDFA policy, and the sunsetting of 3rd party cookies will create a bow wave of disruption throughout the industry. All of which will require new and innovative approaches for collecting, storing, managing and transacting PII data. As is the case with all change, this will no doubt create opportunities for organisations that can come up with compliant solutions for behavioural audience targeting and activation.

4. The industry will remain in a state of flux throughout 2021. Implementing and fast-tracking digital transformations will be key to staying relevant and competitive in a rapidly changing tech-centric economy. Organisations with access to investment and leadership necessary to execute their transformation strategies will have an edge over those that don’t. Providing them with a competitive advantage when the market starts to recover.

5. M&A activity will gather pace on the back of two key drivers. Firstly, companies with mature data, insights, activation and technology capabilities have become likely acquisition targets for those looking to bolster their OOH capability. The progressive shift from paper to digital billboards is expanding the addressable inventory universe, making DOOH an attractive medium for digital advertisers. Secondly, reduced access to capital investment in 2020/21 will drive the consolidation of smaller tech companies and media owners. There are benefits in integrating complementary services into new and existing solutions, without the need for significant Capex overhead.

Josko Grljevic, Chief Transformation Officer