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As part of a global strategic realignment at Talon, from today Plexus will become Talon International.

The same trusted team of experts you know, the same high-level service you expect and the same global independent OOH network that is still the biggest in the world.  All brought to you more efficiently and effectively under one unified brand synonymous with pioneering innovation and quality in Out of Home – Talon.

The world of Out of Home media is changing fast, and Talon is proud of our contribution to driving this evolution over the last decade. Talon’s ongoing dedication to offering our clients best-in-class planning, buying, creativity and technological solutions, ensures we deliver the best experience and outcomes for our clients on a global scale.

Nothing defines this global commitment more than the Talon International team who serve as a centralised hub connecting over 20 Talon and partner offices around the world, enabling us to plan, buy and execute client campaigns in over 100 markets worldwide.

We are excited to take this next step on our journey with brand partners both new and old – to discuss the new opportunities this future holds, contact the team at

firstname.lastname@talonooh.com

Alternatively head to the Talon International page to see first-hand what this new direction has to offer.

Announced today, Talon is the headline sponsor of the Campaign Tech Awards 2023.

Open for nominations now, the Campaign Tech Awards exist to celebrate and showcase the companies that represent the industry’s trailblazing thinkers, imaginative clients and cutting-edge technology.  Championing the collaboration between agencies, brands and the technology communities, and recognising the outstanding work produced together to drive the creative industries forward.  

The awards honour successful innovators, celebrate amazing work, and stimulate even more ingenuity right across the marketing, advertising and media industries.

By embracing a technology-first approach to Out of Home, Talon have developed market leading proprietary AdTech platforms that have revolutionised OOH planning, buying, execution and measurement. Ada, our Data Management Platform enables behavioural audience-based planning and has been proven to deliver better short and longer term brand metrics. Atlas, our intelligent, automated digital OOH buying platform delivers 100% optimised programmatic OOH campaigns that generate more effective outcomes for our clients. And Plato, our in-house planning tool, automates campaign planning and buying for speed and precision.

Our technology platforms help our clients get the most from their outdoor campaigns –  sponsoring the Campaign Tech Awards is a perfect fit for Talon, elevating the amazing work being powered by technology across the wider media industry.

Nominations are open now, closing 22nd February. We look forward to celebrating with everyone at the awards ceremony!

campaigntechawards.com

As Talon approaches its 10th year, it is the perfect time to revitalise the Talon brand – including a fresh new look that will be applied to every element of the business. Coming soon!

Our Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Sarah Parkes, shares a sneak peek of Talon’s upcoming brand transformation. 

Talon has changed a lot in the last nine years, from our humble beginnings as an independent challenger brand in the UK OOH specialist market to where we are now – the largest independent global OOH agency with an ever-increasing international footprint. And our growth ambitions don’t stop there… 

We’ve invested in our people, in building market leading proprietary technology and this year we’ve invested in our brand too. You’ll have seen a taster of our new look and feel when you first visited the website and you’ll spy our new logo across our social channels. In the meantime, here’s a quick behind the scenes of what to expect when we officially launch our new brand by the end of the year. 

We are Talon 

If you’ve met us in real life or on Teams, you’ll know our mission is to drive the growth of OOH – supporting the transformation of OOH from a legacy medium to one that is highly effective, data driven, creative, and most importantly, measurable and effective for our clients. 

We’re growing fast, and our new positioning and website will support us on our journey – whilst championing the people who have made Talon what it is today.  

We’ve re-booted our brand look, feel and tone of voice to take Talon’s unique energy and spirit out into the world, and will start to bring the Talon global family together with one voice – including Grand Visual and Plexus which will rebrand to Talon International.

It’s everything our clients and agencies love about Talon – collaboration, bold adventurousness, relentless creativity and innovation – translated into new brand colours, a new logo, and a new website.   

We’re excited to share this next exciting step with you, but for now watch this space and begin to imagine what’s possible when we “think outside”. 

“The Only Way is Up for Out of Home!” – Barry Cupples, Group CEO Talon

Talon had an incredible time hosting a live recording of the Behind the Billboard podcast and an important conversation between Cephas Williams & Barry Cupples on the LBBonline – Little Black Book & Friends Beach, alongside joining in at Stagwell’s Speaker’s Lounge, a fireside chat with the DPAA on Yahoo Beach, attending events and catching up with clients and industry friends over lunch. Take a look at our behind-the-scenes roundup from Cannes in 2022.

In the words of our CEO Barry Cupples, “we’re just in the room as Out of Home expert’s trying to grow the category.” 

Cannes was a brilliant opportunity to connect with our industry peers and begin to work together to grow the medium. 

There are huge opportunities for brands to capitalise on OOH’s renaissance and the smart opportunities OOH can offer to reach consumers at scale. The time is now to further collaborate and educate advertisers and agencies on the fantastic results OOH can deliver. 

Here’s to Talon in Cannes 2023!

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.

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.

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

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. 

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.

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.