Talon Outdoor, a leading Out of Home (OOH) media agency, announced its expanded programmatic capabilities following the integration with Place Exchange, a leading supply-side platform (SSP) for programmatic DOOH media. The partnership enables Talon’s clients to activate smart, dynamic Digital OOH campaigns, across Place Exchange’s premium inventory, via direct integration with Talon’s proprietary DSP, Atlas

Atlas launched in the UK in July 2020, with the aim of delivering audience-optimised campaigns for advertisers with expertise and transparency. By putting audiences at the core of the platform, and delivering relevant, viewed impacts within a brand-safe environment, the model is proving incredibly effective. Latest research has demonstrated that Atlas campaigns are nearly 4x more likely to drive brand consideration, and twice as likely to shift purchase intent versus online channels.

Talon Outdoor Boosts Programmatic Capabilities with Place Exchange Integration

The integration with Place Exchange allows US advertisers to access the same benefits, overlaying sophisticated audience insights from Talon’s proprietary Data Management Platform (DMP), Ada, with fully automated execution. The partnership provides brands with the ability to activate and adjust campaigns in real-time, in response to external triggers, and further unifies the buying and measurement of DOOH media with other digital channels.

As OOH continues to move from an offline to an online medium, advertisers are increasingly demanding consistency in audience targeting, agility, and reporting. The integration will allow Talon clients to plan effective omnichannel campaigns while retaining the core fame and brand-building benefits of the medium.

Place Exchange offers quality DOOH inventory at scale across numerous media owners in the US, including Lamar, Outfront, and Clear Channel Outdoor. This combined with their strong focus on tech and innovation, made them the ideal launch partner for Atlas in the US.

Sophie Pemberton, chief strategy officer, Talon Outdoor, commented, “We are delighted to announce this key partnership which provides Talon’s clients’ access to Place Exchange’s premium inventory.  By opening up additional ways to activate smart, dynamic DOOH campaigns, through direct integration with Talon’s proprietary DSP, Atlas, we can deliver better outcomes for brands.”

“Atlas brings a deep understanding of the OOH category, with technology designed to intelligently automate OOH activations,” said Nick Bennett, SVP of partnerships at Place Exchange. “We’re thrilled to partner with Atlas in helping advertisers and agencies around the world extend strategies from other channels into the DOOH arena, leveraging sophisticated targeting and measurement.”

The combination of new legislation (GDPR and CCPA) and privacy policy changes from companies like Google and Apple are bringing about big changes to consumer privacy and targeted ads. Cookies, specifically third-party cookies have long enabled advertisers to track consumer online behaviors and target them with relevant ads and product offerings. As Google, the owner of Chrome which manages roughly 70% of browser-based web traffic, plans to remove third-party cookies by 2023, the era of highly targeted ads will come to an end.

At PrivacyOC’s PrivacyNext Summit 2022, Talon America Vice President of Digital Solutions Danielle Rind delivered the keynote session: Interactive Advertising’s Consumer Identity Landscape & Its Privacy Impacts in 2022. The session highlighted the role and use of consumer identity in digital advertising and the impact of the demise of third-party cookies on advertisers, publishers, and consumers.

Among the key highlights:

The shift away from cookies will reverse the data food chain. Today, advertising data is at the top of the food chain. The end of third-party cookies will see advertising data drop to the bottom and publisher data rise to the top.

As publisher data becomes more valuable, marketers will rely on a smaller group of publisher partners and contextual advertising. As digital partnerships are consolidated, marketers will have the opportunity to reevaluate their media mix allocations. Because out of home is a strong driver of contextual relevance, it will be well-positioned to benefit from increased market share as cookies fade away.

“We expect advertisers to reallocate more dollars to OOH. The advancements in data-driven targeting and measurement now put OOH on par with other media channels. The digitization of OOH is further enriching the opportunities for advertisers to quantify OOH’s impact across the customer journey. Access to measurement outcomes and audience targeting will help drive more value from advertisers’ media investments,” said Danielle Rind.

Watch the entire keynote session for deeper insights on the changing privacy landscape and its implications on the digital advertising ecosystem.

Originally published by MarTech Series.

The OOH Renaissance: Resurging Impact Amid Device Fatigue

The out-of-home (OOH) advertising recovery has been faster and much more substantial than the industry predicted at the onset of the year. The growing adoption of digital screens along with new innovations in data and automated trading have elevated OOH’s in-market position to match other dominant media channels.

With the increase in device fatigue, it’s becoming harder for digital marketers to effectively capture their consumers’ undivided attention. According to the OAAA, 39% of consumers are actively trying to spend less time on their phones, computers, or watching TV and 62% frequently skip ads due to device burnout. Conversely, OOH offers dozens of different media formats and experiences, it’s captivating and relatively unobtrusive in surrounding people’s everyday journeys. As consumers spend more time outdoors, advertisers are taking note and recognizing their growing opportunity to reach consumers in a novel way. Advertisers new to OOH have been drawn to what it has to offer, and seasoned OOH advertisers are expanding their approach by investing in new tools, data, and technology.

Considering its growing reach and sophistication, here are three OOH predictions to watch out for in 2022:

Performance marketers embrace OOH attribution to drive strategy

Over the last several years, OOH has been transformed by data and technology to deliver more targeted and measurable campaigns. As a result, self-identified “performance marketers” have become more open and eager to invest in the historically classified branding channel. By leveraging location data, the OOH industry can tie ad exposure back to brand sentiment, purchase intent, footfall, website visits, app downloads, and more. Marketers can now confidently spend in OOH and see a direct correlation between exposure and the outcomes most important to them.

For our advertisers, we include attribution as often as we can. Beyond positive lift results, attribution can be leveraged for insights and learnings to guide and inform creative and media strategy. For example, we recently ran three separate campaigns with three different strategies for a brick-and-mortar retailer. We conducted an independent footfall study alongside each campaign and while each achieved positive lift outcomes, the lift itself varied as did our findings. The first campaign generated the best results in reaching and driving new customer acquisitions, the second maximized incremental visits from existing customers, while the third delivered the most efficient reach.

With results such as these, advertisers and OOH specialists can fine-tune their plans based on specific and measurable goals. For these types of capabilities to grow and advance, we encourage the OOH community to continue investing in attribution and using the results to learn, adjust, and optimize campaigns. Moreover, as data collection and processing speeds advance, there will be even more opportunities to capture learnings and performance results earlier in the campaign life cycle.

Programmatic OOH growth will push optimization tools forward

When developing OOH media plans, most U.S. advertisers prefer to hand-select or approve each individual placement. As a result, direct buys continue to make up the majority of OOH spend to date. While placements can be hand-selected and targeted programmatically, programmatic is better suited for flexible, expedited, or dynamic OOH campaigns.

Buying open exchange inventory programmatically allows advertisers to shift budgets penalty-free between media owners and environments, customize creative messaging to align with contextual triggers, and buy based on when and where specific audiences are located. As faster data and technology become available, the flexibility of programmatic buying will allow advertisers to take action on early performance results and optimize their campaigns mid-flight.

In our business, we’ve seen more advertisers allocate incremental budgets to programmatic OOH rather than choosing between programmatic and direct for the same campaigns. Programmatic simplifies and speeds the OOH buying process by reducing the amount of outreach, paperwork, and setup required. While we don’t expect programmatic OOH to overtake direct buying, the two approaches can and should be used for different opportunities, simultaneously. And while still relatively nascent, all signs point to the growing adoption of programmatic OOH in the year ahead.

Advertisers will tap new cross-channel opportunities with OTT & DOOH

The pairing of OTT and DOOH has created an opportunity for advertisers to augment their video strategies by reaching a single audience in and out-of-home. Combining these two high-impact channels allows advertisers to drive consumers, primed with OOH signage, down the purchase funnel. Exposing audiences first to OOH creates brand awareness and recognition, which can be followed up in-home where that same audience is able to take a secondary action – like visit a website, sign up for a service, or locate a retailer. As we look ahead to next year, we can expect marketers to embrace new capabilities that integrate audience targeting, measure reach and frequency, and attribute outcomes across both mediums.

The recent investments in digital ad placements, data-driven audience targeting, and programmatic technologies are transforming the OOH industry – giving advertisers access to proven digital advertising techniques, such as dynamic and contextually relevant creative, location, and behavioral audience targeting, and decision-based buying. As OOH integrates more ad tech capabilities, marketers will embrace new opportunities to expand their use of the channel to reach highly engaged on-the-go audiences and deliver measurable outcomes in 2022.

Campaign Features Basketball Star LaMelo Ball’s Signature PUMA Sneakers: MB.01

Talon America and Havas Media Group today unveiled the launch of a new, cutting-edge digital OOH campaign for PUMA to promote the launch of NBA superstar and Rookie of the Year LaMelo Ball’s first PUMA signature basketball sneaker, MB.01. The signature shoe, co-designed by LaMelo Ball, will be supported via an out-of-this-world OOH campaign that features Augmented Reality (AR) experiences on strategically located JCDecaux digital bus shelters in New York City and laser projections in Charlotte, North Carolina executed by National Experiential.

The campaign was co-created and executed by Talon and Havas in collaboration with Grand Visual, Talon’s award-winning digital OOH creative and production agency, and PUMA Basketball creative agency Nowadays. The idea that phenom LaMelo Ball is ‘not from here’ drove the AR concept that brings an interstellar experience to life in the surrounding streetscape, fully marrying message and environment. The takeover of specific NYC placements features the latest AR technology and is intended to stop pedestrians in their tracks, prompting engagement and creating a meaningful moment for PUMA and consumers.

The experience allows consumers to snap photos and create personalized content for social sharing, while also highlighting the PUMA NYC Flagship store and Foot Locker locations to find the all-new sneaker.

“We saw this as an opportunity to push the boundaries of OOH by marrying smart media planning and creative execution to achieve a meaningful connection between PUMA and consumers,” said Enza Chiodi, SVP, Client Strategy, Talon America. “This interactive campaign creates a memorable moment that drives the type of consumer emotion and behavioral response that PUMA is seeking.”

“Creativity is a fundamental lever for OOH and we’re creating an otherworldly experience that’s unmissable, immersive, and shareable for PUMA using augmented reality in a high-impact experiential storytelling campaign,” said Dan Dawson, Chief Creative Officer of Grand Visual.

NAR’s Good Neighbor Awards Shine Bright in Times Square OOH Campaign

Talon America and Havas Media Group unveiled a novel, strategic, out-of-home (OOH) campaign for The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) in Times Square, New York.

NAR’s OOH campaign showcases its 2021 Good Neighbor Award winners, recognizing REALTORS, members of the National Association of REALTORS, who have made an extraordinary impact in their community through volunteer work. Leveraging the NYC ABC SuperSign screen, NAR’s “Good Neighbor” messaging is featured above the Times Square Studio with a  “good news” ticker, running in contrast to the typical stark news of the world. NAR street teams will also hand out special edition “Good News” newspapers from custom-designed newspaper boxes beneath the digital screens on December 8 and December 9, all championing the good news of NAR’s good neighbor members.

The campaign also capitalizes on the renewed adoption of QR codes to drive members of the public to a landing page where they can view videos that tell the story of each Good Neighbor Award winner and finalist.

NAR’s Good Neighbor messaging will run on the digital board through December 19, when Times Square is expected to attract an average of 227,000 visitors per day, and consumers are even more inclined to engage with OOH ads. According to a recent OAAA report, nearly three-fifths of US consumers are prepared to engage with OOH ads in some way, including 85% of Gen Z-ers and 78% of Millennials.

“Our goal through this campaign is to amplify the good news that REALTORS volunteer at nearly three times the national average and spent 99 million hours giving back to their communities this year.  Talon and Havas developed a highly creative and memorable way to engage with Times Square visitors by harnessing the combined power of real stories with out-of-home storytelling, and at a time when we could all use some good news,” said Victoria Gillespie, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, National Association of REALTORS.

“The ability of OOH to cut through and deliver culturally relevant messages to audiences in the moment and in ideal locations is incredibly powerful. We’re proud to team with Havas in building and executing this multifaceted campaign for The National Association of REALTORS which highlights the many ways that volunteer leaders help their local communities,” said Enza Chiodi, SVP, Client Strategy, Talon America.

“Our goal for this campaign was to capture the attention of engaged audiences and drive awareness of the positive impact REALTORS have within their communities, highlighted via the Good Neighbor program,” added Greg Walsh, CEO, Havas Media Group, North America. “The ability to activate in a prime location like Times Square and leverage a larger-than-life canvas made out-of-home the perfect channel to build impact and communicate a meaningful message.”

More information on the 2021 Good Neighbors Awards can be found here.

Adweek Elevate OOH Panel: Leveraging Local & Regional Ads

During the Adweek Elevate: Out of Home event, Talon America’s Vice President of Digital Solutions, Danielle Rind, was joined by Michael Page, Senior Vice President of Digital Sales at FOX Television Stations, Christiana Cacciapuoti, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Innovation at MadHive and Blake Sabatinelli, COO of Atmosphere TV, for a discussion on how OOH presents new omnichannel opportunities for local and regional advertisers.

The session, which was moderated by Adweek Executive Editor Chris Ariens, included some top-line thoughts by Talon’s Danielle Rind:

Among the panelist key takeaways:

DOOH Gives Advertisers Agility

“There’s a growing demand for OOH. Media owners realize that some of the ways they can support and feed that advertiser demand is by transitioning from static to digital units – and investing in new digital screens like urban kiosks. On the advertiser side, DOOH allows brands to be nimble and run different versions of their messaging based on locations and times, as well as consumer behavior and situational contexts,” said Danielle Rind.

Drawing Parallels Between OTT & DOOH

“Both OTT and DOOH represent an evolution from their predecessor, i.e. traditional television and OOH. From a macro level, these are two high-impact mediums that are now digital, which makes them more accessible and more accurate. They can now sit in the same campaign and media plan – and data can be leveraged to measure ROI,” said Christiana Cacciapuoti.

DOOH as a Natural Extension of CTV

“As experts in high quality, long-form video advertising, we work with our customers to really help them understand the impact, the performance, and the value that their advertising is having on our connected TV product. I see DOOH as a natural extension of that, especially on a geographic level and a targeted level,” said Michael Page.

New Solutions to Unify In-home & OOH Advertising

“One natural way for advertisers to look at combining OOH and OTT is to extend an engaging video campaign from the 1:1 or 1:3 in-home screens to OOH screens that are going to provide a similar experience. Audience data and targeting is another way to unify the mediums and track digital reach across different devices and units, therefore creating an extension of the campaign and managing the user journey in terms of exposure, frequency, and different messaging,” said Danielle Rind.

OOH is a Full-Funnel Solution for Advertisers

“Traditionally people think of OOH as just a billboard – and it’s become so much more than that. As a person who came from TV, we’re seeing comparable results with OOH. For example, we have a food client that placed a local ad that saw 129% increase in ROI. That level of foot traffic speaks to the true addressability of OOH. You’re able to target contextually based on the venue, know who you’re going to reach, and achieve your desired result. Overall, OOH is a full-funnel opportunity to attract engaged audiences who have purchase intent,” said Blake Sabatinelli.

The Importance of Local Market Intelligence, Executed at Scale

“Markets vary – and understanding that is critical. Driving footfall to a retail location in NYC is different from a geographic radius standpoint than San Antonio. The same is true when looking at audiences and demographics and how they behave in one market versus another market. The reason that’s so important for OOH is that it dictates the locations that an advertiser wants to be in and the types of inventory they want to purchase to resonate with the right audience. And OOH specialists like us are now able to refine the data to help advertisers buy locally at national scale,” said Danielle Rind.

“It’s a revolutionary time to be able to connect the dots for advertisers across all these different screens. You certainly couldn’t do this 20 years ago or even five years ago. As a seller, it’s important to convey to the advertiser on the combined advantages of the high-quality inventory and scale on the connected TV side, plus DOOH, so they see the value,” added Michael Page.

Brands and agencies are embracing digital out-of-home (DOOH), and through programmatic trading, media buys can be paused, pushed, and optimized with the same ease as other digital media. Particularly helpful during the last 19 months, DOOH is being used increasingly by brands and agencies to add flexibility and agility to their media strategies.

At Advertising Week 2021, Talon America Vice President of Digital Solutions Danielle Rind joined DPAA Global President & CEO Barry Frey, Vistar Media Senior Vice President and Head of US Sales Lucy Markowitz, and Captivate CRO Lorenzo Papa for a discussion on “Programmatic DOOH: A Growing Part of the Omnichannel Mix” that explored the state of the art and what’s next on the horizon.

The session highlighted how brands and agencies are using programmatic DOOH, what’s needed on both the publisher and demand side, and the future of the emerging medium.

Key takeaways:

Programmatic DOOH is Just Now Starting to Grow

OOH advertisers and media buyers are accustomed to hand-selecting their media placements and flight dates and negotiating with media owners directly. The role of programmatic buying is to provide a different way of purchasing OOH media that reduces the focus on the individual media placements and shifts it to following audience behaviors. This is a mindset and strategic shift, and as such, programmatic is only now beginning to be adopted in OOH.

“Putting together a direct buy can be a meticulous and complex process whereas programmatic is like hitting the easy button so you’re able to create this expansive reach using a high impact medium in a seamless way. Programmatic OOH allows advertisers to focus on reaching audiences, adjust their creative or shift where they are buying. This new approach is foreign for some traditional buyers,” said Danielle Rind.

Programmatic is an Extension of OOH

Programmatic is complementary to direct buying and offers new ways for advertisers to access OOH and simplify the buying process.

“There is absolutely a time and place for buying direct. Direct buying is not going away but we see programmatic as an extension to the OOH channel. Our goal is to make it easier for advertisers to access OOH with programmatic buying. As demand for long-form video and connected video increases, we’re seeing new opportunities with connected TV (CTV) dollars flowing into programmatic and DOOH,” said Danielle Rind.

OOH Can Now be Integrated into a Wider Omnichannel Video Strategy

The growth of digital video offers new opportunities for advertisers to unsilo OOH and activate a cross-channel video strategy that can connect CTV and OOH audiences.

“As an independent agency, we can move in the direction that makes sense for us. Early on, Talon differentiated itself by investing in technologies, such as our proprietary DMP, Ada, and establishing programmatic partnerships. We continue to innovate and push the boundaries. Right now, we’re looking at omnichannel beyond mobile. We’re looking at how consumers interact across different screens, such as CTV, and to connect that experience with DOOH,” added Danielle Rind.

Talon CEO on Boosting OOH Spend

As OOH specialists and media owners invest in new technologies, how are advertisers shifting more dollars into OOH? Marketers are focused on reach and frequency but knowing that their media spend is effective at driving results is table stakes.

At last week’s DPAA Summit, Barry Frey, President & CEO of DPAA, conducted a fireside chat with Talon America CEO Jim Wilson on the transformation of OOH as an outcomes-based business – and Talon America’s accelerated growth journey fueled by data-driven innovations.

Among Jim’s key takeaways:

Growing OOH Spending with More Education

Digitization is transforming the opportunities for advertisers to be able to target and measure OOH more precisely in the same way as other dominant media channels – and reach large and diverse audiences quickly and simultaneously. But education is necessary to help brands and agencies understand this fragmented channel, which has been one of Talon’s missions to help simplify OOH planning and media buying for advertisers.

“We spend 70 percent of our time outside yet only five percent of advertising dollars go to OOH. The future of digital OOH is about local messages on local screens. We see tremendous opportunities to shift more dollars through education and by giving advertisers the tools to access inventory and audiences – and more importantly, prove that we can deliver measurable outcomes. This is our focus at Talon.”

Transforming OOH with New Tools & Technologies

From agency and brand research executed in partnership with BWG Strategies, the top client priorities are attribution and measurement, as well as confidence that they are hitting the right audiences. As such, the role of data and insights to inform media strategy has never been more important and Talon is utilizing data to drive cross-platform buying and deliver outcomes-based measurement.

“One of the biggest challenges for agencies in OOH is complexity. This is a highly fragmented market and there are still thousands of networks that need to be aggregated. Talon is solving this fragmentation through automation and aggregation by making it easier for advertisers to access OOH through our tools and platforms, such as Plato.”

Unlocking OOH’s Value with Cross-channel Video

One of Talon’s education topics is helping brands and agencies embrace the concept of ‘unsiloing OOH’ to drive more value and quantify the effectiveness of OOH in the larger context of the cross-channel media buy. The growth of digital video is fueling this movement from in-home to out-of-home and Talon recently launched an offering to help advertisers activate their cross-channel video strategy. 

“The biggest opportunity for OOH is in customer journeys – and to shift dollars from declining broadcast to create DOOH video extension from OTT. We’re enabling advertisers to start an OOH journey in-home and end it outside the home.”

This year’s holiday shopping season is expected to meld the high consumer confidence of 2019 with the accelerated e-commerce experiences of 2020 to create a more omnichannel customer journey than ever before. Moreover, U.S. consumers are expected to spend a whopping $1.09 trillion dollars this holiday season, according to eMarketer. With consumers consistently out of their homes at levels that exceed pre-pandemic mobility (Geopath), brands are turning to out-of-home (OOH) to increase awareness, consideration, and drive conversions.

In our latest study, Talon America partnered with LoopMe, the outcomes-based advertising platform, to unwrap U.S. consumers’ new holiday shopping behaviors and uncover insights on how brands can reach, engage, and convert ideal customers.

“Brands are bullish about the 2021 holiday season, and marketers are turning to OOH to place their messages in the right places at the right time to reach and influence holiday shoppers and ultimately drive sales,” said Zach Friedman, Senior Vice President, Client Development, Talon America. “The ad channel can be harnessed in a number of ways, including promoting special sales and events in real-time, as well as reaching shoppers in close proximity to retail locations to boost in-store traffic.”

Among the key findings:

Reach Early Birds and Last-Minute Shoppers

More than a third of U.S. consumers have already begun their holiday shopping, but others are making the wallet-friendly decision to delay gift purchases until Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

OOH Generates Strong Brand Recall

The opportunity to get in front of high-intent consumers is key for brands seeking an edge in an extremely competitive landscape. OOH influences holiday shoppers by achieving the strongest level of recall among all ad channels.

OOH Prompts Consumer Action

Taken together, awareness and recall can have a direct impact on consideration and conversion behaviors in the consumer journey. OOH delivers remarkable reach, recall, and brand awareness, and consumers who notice an OOH holiday campaign say they are highly likely to visit the brand – either online or in-store.

Take the Right Message to the Right Audience

New data-driven behavior and location intelligence in OOH allow brands to connect with target audiences to deliver the right message, at the right time and place. And the messages that are resonating the most this holiday season are information on the best deals, where to shop small and local, and unique ideas for everyone on consumers’ lists.

As brands finalize their strategies to capitalize on the holiday shopping season, it’s become increasingly important to think holistically about the customer journey to be able to connect with, and influence shopper decisions. Our study demonstrates the pivotal role OOH advertising plays in building awareness and recall, as well as sparking consumer action amid a highly competitive marketplace. Developing the right campaign strategy and captivating creative, in addition to harnessing data-driven insights to reach on-the-go shopper audiences, will be essential steps towards brand and business success in this year’s holiday season.

To view additional insights from the survey, download the “(Out of) Home for the Holidays” study.

 

METHODOLOGY: A five-question online survey was conducted in September 2021 to uncover insights into the mindset of U.S. consumers regarding holiday shopping. The survey resulted in more than 5,000 responses, all of which came from adults 21 years of age or older.

Insights on Evolving OOH Advertising Strategies

With the promise of fresh perspectives, deep relationships, and fast-paced agility, independent and boutique agencies have become increasingly attractive to brands. But how these ambitious agencies deliver on their missions and highlight tangible results will be crucial to retaining clients and growing their businesses. That’s where out-of-home (OOH) comes in.

At this week’s Adweek Elevate: Independent Agencies event, Talon America COO, Jonathan Conway, was joined by Jeffrey Buntin, Jr., President and CEO, Buntin Media Group, and Timothy Simko, Executive Vice President, Client Lead, Arena Media – a Havas Media Group company, for a discussion on meeting marketers’ growing demand for and expectations of OOH advertising by tapping into its unprecedented tech, targeting, measurement, and creative capabilities to unlock its full potential. 

In setting the stage, Jonathan Conway stated:

Among the panelist key takeaways:

On the importance of OOH as part of an agency’s growth strategy

“As an idea-driven agency, our aim is to guide clients to have the qualities of a high conviction brand and making sure everything we do has a high degree of measurability. OOH has passed that test in unique ways through the years for Buntin. OOH’s ability to flex strategically into the needs of what clients are looking for has been evolutionary and, in more recent years, revolutionary in terms of its fit strategically in our integrated channel plans,” said Jeffrey Buntin, Jr.

On OOH data investments

“The prevalence and role of data, as well as other tech innovations, has allowed us to be very targeted with OOH. We’re able to almost personalize the way we approach campaign messages and how best to integrate them with social and digital. Those opportunities have inspired our brand, channel, and creative teams to look at the medium through unbiased eyes and to collaborate to get more value out of OOH than we had thought possible 10 years ago or even three years ago,” said Jeffrey Buntin, Jr.

On the benefits of moving OOH upstream

“We saw the opportunity to take the medium from being the last thing that was thought of to one of the first by working with the media supplier community to create a robust inventory system that could bring the right data picture to the fingertips of planners. If you give OOH the credence of thinking about it as part of the early planning process in a cross-platform media strategy, it could really pay back in ways that some channels simply can’t and at a value that will really surprise people,” said Jeffrey Buntin, Jr.

On building an executable OOH campaign

“It starts with an understanding of the audience, their passion points, where they live and work, where our client’s product is available, and the various channel-specific tactics that we can use to engage with them along the way. No media and person exist in a silo, so why would we plan that way? There has to be multiple touchpoints. That’s why OOH is so interesting. And it works so well with mobile, which is inclusive of video, social, and other digital ways that a consumer can interact with a brand. Understanding how each of the channels work with and impact each other to amplify the message that we’re trying to deliver to the consumer is key,” said Timothy Simko.

On OOH’s customer journey advantage

“Oftentimes the consumer journey is purely conception, but OOH literally lives along that journey. Not only can a piece of OOH be along that journey, but it can also become an integrated experiential destination for the audience to interact with the brand. That has been exciting to think about how data, the channel, and the message can coexist to really to become both experiential and OOH – and blur the lines between the two,” said Jeffrey Buntin, Jr.

On working with an OOH specialist

“When we get to the regional and local levels, it requires expertise to understand the inventory that’s available and the best types of units to leverage to reach consumers. We lean heavily on our Talon partnership for that because you have the strategic capabilities and the expertise to build out the right type of media plan for those markets. You also understand who the right suppliers and media owners are, and you have relationships in place with them,” said Timothy Simko.