After attending DMEXCO 2022, Business Director, Nicola Fox, shares her thoughts on the event, outlining the sustainability challenges ahead.

Digital Innovation: Balancing Growth and Sustainability

Last week marked DMEXCO’s comeback to Cologne with many of the industry’s top minds getting together to chat all things digital media, data, and tech. Presenters spoke enthusiastically about the exciting innovations taking place, with talks on the future of AI, web3, and of course everyone’s favourite buzzword of the moment, the metaverse, pulling in particularly large crowds. The developments on the horizon are exciting, if not a little daunting, but what became an evident theme across the event was that with such ambitious growth comes increased responsibility to understand the environmental impact of our work to future-proof our industry.

One session tackled this challenge head on, with Andrew Hayward-Wright, Sustainability Advisor at IAB Europe stating that with the digital advertising industry accountable for 2% of carbon emissions, the time to act is now. If the internet were a country, it would be the 5th largest global polluter (in line with Japan) and as damaging to our planet as the aviation industry.

If that wasn’t worrying enough, our footprint is only set to grow. Internet usage is anticipated to increase by at least 40% every year until 2030. Even Gen Z, coined the ‘climate-conscious generation’, are one of the highest consumers of online digital content, so it’s clear that the change must happen from within. What’s more, the digital ad industry is growing too, contributing CO2 emissions equivalent to 45 million passenger cars every year. That’s an average of 5.4 tonnes of CO2 per campaign, so we all have a role to play.

The good news is that a positive change is happening and much of the innovation discussed across the conference was geared towards providing brands with more sustainable ways to interact with their consumers. Snap focused on the role for AR technology in reducing customer returns. In the UK, 1 in 3 online fashion purchases are sent back and the sad reality is that a significant proportion is diverted to landfill. Snap anticipate that AR lenses which enable consumers to try before they buy could reduce returns by up to 80%.

The development of solutions like this, as Ellie Bamford, Global Head of Media & Connections at R/GA presented, are being driven by a shift in scrutiny. 78% of consumers expect the companies they buy from to have a positive social impact and over half of us will boycott a brand if we think their business practices are unethical. This information is easily accessible, consumers are aware, and they’re voting with their wallets. Now, more so than ever, everything brands do matters. It’s not just about what they say, but how they show up, and where they buy their media. Responsibility is key to success.

As OOH experts who operate in the public realm, here at Talon we recognise our role in protecting our planet and helping our clients to activate sustainably as the sector continues to digitise. We recently joined the IPA Media Climate Action Charter to support the industry’s transition to a zero-carbon future. As part of our continued commitment to sustainability, we have also launched a Sustainability Squad who are working to ensure that everything we do as a business is environmentally responsible.

As an industry, we have a big challenge ahead of us. We don’t have all the answers and whilst I’m not yet convinced that AR will ever solve the problem of ill-fitting jeans, what’s clear is that positive strides are being made. The time for change is now and the responsibility to identify robust measurement frameworks and sustainable solutions is on every one of us, for where innovation will take our industry over the next 10 years is entirely dependent on the decisions we make today.

Talon MENA, the Global and regional Out of Home (OOH) advertising specialist, has joined The Interactive Advertising Bureau GCC (IAB GCC) as a member as of August 2022.

Talon MENA Becomes Member of IAB GCC

Established in May 2019, The IAB GCC is the regional voice and thought leader of the region’s interactive marketing and advertising industry, committed to building a sustainable future for digital advertising.

Through the membership, Talon will bring its expertise in digital and programmatic OOH to the IAB’s activities and initiatives.

“We are delighted to join the IAB GCC and to work alongside fellow members to help positively shape the future of MENA’s OOH industry. Talon recently launched in MENA to accelerate the OOH growth in the region, helping to further educate clients on the extensive OOH opportunities by tapping into richer behavioral and location insights, in order to quantify the channel’s true impact across the customer journey.

We look forward to working with the IAB GCC stakeholders to build on the digital OOH and programmatic conversation” said Chadi Farhat, Managing Director Talon MENA.

Talon Outdoor, a leading, independently owned global Out-of-Home (OOH) media agency, has signed up to the IPA Media Climate Action Charter, as part of the company’s commitment to environmental sustainability.

Joining other leading media agencies, including Havas Media, MG OMD and PHD Media, the charter provides agencies with the tools and resources to support their transition to a zero-carbon future.

Talon Outdoor Joins IPA Media Climate Action Charter for Sustainability

We are in a climate crisis. As outlined by the IPA, even the most optimistic climate scenarios are fraught with uncertainty and potential catastrophe. As we begin to rebuild and recover from the disruption brought about by COVID-19, now is the time for the advertising industry to define a new path for how we become better custodians of the world we live in and begin to take meaningful action.

As part of Talon’s commitment to sustainability, the business has enlisted a “sustainability squad” including members from different departments across the business. Whilst ensuring that Talon meets the highest standard of social and environmental impact in all aspects of business, this squad will also be focusing on becoming Ad Net Zero certificate ambassadors and collaborating with selected sustainable partners.

At Talon, we take our responsibility for the planet very seriously and by joining the IPA Media Climate Action Charter we hope to play our part in accelerating the journey to a zero-carbon reality within the media industry.

If you read our previous collaboration with Orb, you’ll know that over the last few months we have collaborated with some of our media partners to take a deeper look into the different areas of creativity in OOH. This month, we teamed up with XL Media and turned our focus to the enduring power of a special build.

Talon’s research shows that special builds not only position a brand as exciting and innovative but positively influence consumers’ purchase behaviour. In 2018, Talon UK conducted a special build campaign effectiveness research study whereby they compared those exposed to special builds vs those that were exposed to standard OOH formats. The results showed a +15% increase in positive impression of the advertising, +17% increase in consumer action and +35% increase in purchase consideration.

Before the pandemic, there would be no denying that the demand for special builds was low. However, the tides have turned and since 2020 we have seen a marked increase in appetite for creativity. Brands are looking to interact with and encourage consumers to remember their OOH ads – while also hoping for that share on social media. With all the new creative briefs hitting our desks, we sat down with Jeff in XL Media to take a look back at some of our favourite out-of-the-box moments.

As we’re entering a new era of creativity in OOH, looking back what campaigns stick out for you & why?

I very much liked the special that we built for White Claw. Mark Anthony Brands wanted to create something memorable around the New Year’s Eve celebrations, so we built a large freestanding ‘2022’ installation, with each number made out of real White Claw cans. White Claw has 4 flavours, so each 2022 number was built from that flavour can. We further reinforced this with 4 custom programmed LED colours for each number, representing each flavour. These LEDs pulsed individually for each flavour and then simultaneously at the end of the sequence. From a rigging perspective, this was above a canopy and footpath so plenty of behind-the-scenes work had to be carried out to ensure a structurally safe installation without causing any damage to the building. The main reason I like the campaign is because of its simplicity and that it looked as strong both during the day & the night.

Another campaign I liked was the launch of Lucozade Alert. Suntory wanted a giant oversized can, to literally pop from the billboard. My concern with these types of builds is that often, products when enlarged never look like the real product when finished and sometimes look a little cartoonish. Our goal for Lucozade Alert was to provide a very premium looking can that looked identical to the real product in terms of proportions and finished look. For the build, we scaled the cans support frame from a real can and worked from there. We were delighted with how this one turned out.

What are your thoughts on the future of creativity and what advice can you give to brands who are looking to find the best route to take, e.g., special build, murals etc?

Creatively, there is always something good brewing with numerous great ideas being regularly proposed to clients. However, in terms of deciding on the best route to take, I would advise you to work hard on the creative and the tag lines. Identify an unusual element of the creative (that ideally has never been done before) and build that into your OOH special. More than ever, as consumers, we are being bombarded by messages fighting for our attention, good OOH campaigns need to, not only be clear & simple but, incorporate a clever attention-grabbing twist with the standard printed message which results in increased audience engagement and ensures that the campaign’s message not only registers but STAYS with them.

About XL Media

XL Media Ltd is a Dublin-based OOH advertising company specialising in quality one-off builds & installation. We seamlessly connect a diverse range of skills, experience & craftsmanship to deliver premium OOH projects to the highest professional standards. Visit www.XLmedia.ie

With the world’s most anticipated sporting event of 2022, the FIFA World Cup Qatar kicking off in November this year, and the final game set to take place just a week before Christmas, the advertising sector is gearing itself up for a very busy Q4. Without a doubt brands and advertisers need to put their best creative foot forward and tackle this quarter head-on. And Out-of-Home advertising (OOH) is the ultimate creative canvas for brands to capitalise on consumer interest for this once in four-year opportunity.

OOH Strategies for FIFA World Cup 2022

Although the boys in greens World Cup campaign ended in Stade de Luxembourg and not in Qatar, we are a nation of football enthusiasts. 26% of the Irish population have an interest in football and that’s not including the people who generally don’t like it but suddenly become obsessed when the big games come along. Football is also the second most-watched sport in Ireland (after Gaelic of course) and as the EUROS final in Ireland received 1m viewers in the republic, OOH is perfectly placed to position brands in the heart of the action.

Our latest consumer insight piece identifies two viewing opportunities – In-home viewership and Out-of-Home viewership. 50% of respondents will be watching the matches at home with a further 27% saying they will watch some matches in the pub and a number (11%) unsure of their plans just yet only knowing that they will be watching with friends. And as they are planning to walk (34%), drive (22%), taxi (17%), bus or DART (17%) to get from A to B the opportunity for Out-of-home (OOH) is huge. With most matches kicking off around the afternoon time there is further opportunity for brands to capitalise on dynamic digital Out-of-Home (OOH) as brands can build up excitement and hype in the morning and target consumers who are out and about before the games begin.

The impact of the World Cup on consumer spending is massive and when you add Christmas into the mix although reports are stating that Irish consumers plan on cutting their spending due to Inflation concerns, our data reveals quite the opposite for this year’s tournament. 45% of respondents have admitted that they will be spending more money during the World Cup, with 47% unsure of the amount they will be spending and only a small minority (9%) saying they will be spending less.

There’s also another reality. Christmas time usually sees a massive influx in family and friendly gatherings. This year, given the timing of the tournament we will no doubt see more spontaneous gatherings than normal all accompanied by food and drink. As you can imagine Snacks (66%) and Beer (54%) are the items at the top of everyone’s list creating a huge revenue opportunity for brands in this sector. Not to mention pizza (46%), crisps (45%), wine (22%), Chinese (18%), spirits (16%) and Indian (5%).

With anticipation building, now is a critical time for brands to start planning their Out-of-Home (OOH) campaigns and gain that competitive advantage against their competitors. Here are just a few tips to remember when planning your World Cup campaigns.

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

Methodology: Bounce Insights conducted an online survey of a main urban sample of 250 respondents aged 18+. The research was conducted on the 6th of May 2022.

London, 01 August 2022: Talon Outdoor, a leading, independently-owned global Out-of-Home (OOH) media agency, has promoted Josko Grljevic to the role of Group Chief Operations Officer (COO), as part of the company’s ambitious and ongoing growth plans.

Joining the company as UK Chief Transformation Officer in 2018, Josko has been fundamental in leading Talon’s comprehensive technology transformation, overseeing the launch of its three data-fuelled technology platforms – Ada, Atlas and Plato – harnessing the capabilities for audience targeting, programmatic buying and measurement across the OOH customer journey.

Josko Grljevic Elevated to Group COO at Talon Outdoor

These tech advancements have brought game-changing opportunities for advertisers and are best-in-class examples of intelligent service-based architectures which process billions of data points, execute very complex mathematical models and provide real-time insights – ultimately, reducing the time taken to plan and execute an OOH campaign by up to 95%.

Following the successful launch and integration of the platforms in the UK, Josko exported Ada, Atlas and Plato to the US market and is leading the rollout across MENA and APAC.

As part of his new role as Group COO, Josko, who was recognised in the CIO 100 list in 2020 and recently shortlisted for Campaign’s Tech Pioneer of the Year award, will continue to grow the remit of technology and data across the business to drive data-driven organisation and measurement on a global scale reporting directly to Group CEO, Barry Cupples. Owning the day-to-day running of the business, he’ll execute on the company’s strategic business objectives, continue to advance Talon’s adtech to deliver best-in-class solutions whilst helping to further develop a culture where belonging and sustainability runs through each pillar of the organisation.

To further aid Talon’s global expansion, a raft of further senior promotions has been made.  These include Anant East to the position of Group CTO, Sophie Pemberton to Group Chief Strategy Officer and Amy Horton to Group Transformation Director. This new structure will support Talon’s next phase of transformation and growth across multiple markets.

Barry Cupples, Group CEO, adds, “During one of the most challenging times in our business when the OOH industry was facing severe setbacks, Josko has been instrumental in driving Talon forward, developing the best proprietary tech the sector now offers and driving real change into how the media is delivered.  He’s been central to Talon’s transformation and I look forward to seeing him continue this success globally as we drive forward the renaissance of Out of Home.”

Josko Grljevic, Group COO, said: “Over the last four years, I’ve been committed to developing tech that has enabled both our company and the wider OOH industry to bounce back from the challenges of the pandemic with incredible strength. As part of my new role I will be ensuring our business strategy focuses on further transformation with a leading global market presence powered by our adtech suite, whilst ensuring the culture at Talon continues to evolve so we retain and attract the very best talent in the industry.”

Talon Creative Solutions Joins Grand Visual

From today, Talon’s award-winning Creative Solutions team will join industry-pioneers Grand Visual to offer a full suite of Out of Home (OOH) and Digital Out of Home (DOOH) creative services to advertisers, media agencies and creative agencies through the Grand Visual brand.

Grand Visual’s offering expands – from a unique production agency providing creative services for DOOH – to include creative and experiential executions for static OOH and DOOH, whilst continuing to dominate environments and turn OOH campaigns into truly immersive experiences generating a unique social amplification opportunity.

Under the new structure, Grand Visual’s team of creative, technology, production, project management, storytelling and digital marketing experts will be led by Jay Young and Dan Dawson as Chief Client Officer and Chief Creative Officer respectively. Ric Albert stays in role as Creative Director, with the entire Talon Creative Solutions team moving to Grand Visual.

Grand Visual’s services will integrate Creative Solutions offering and their existing services into three categories delivering added value to existing and future clients offering the best in creative and digital OOH concepts through one funnel:

Solutions 

Digital 

Experiential 

The Talon Creative Solutions team will move to be contactable via Grand Visual, with email structure firstname.lastname@grandvisual.com. Please update all contact details and look forward to receiving an extended response to briefs soon.

Grand Visual was acquired by Talon Outdoor in 2019 and is part of the Talon family.

Talon’s CEO on Growth and Collaboration

“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!

With 26% of Brits saying they won’t watch linear TV again, how can brands evoke excitement and build anticipation without a 30-second TV preview?

Out of Home (OOH) of course! With its broadcast capabilities and ability to reach 98% of UK adults every week, OOH is a strong contender for the launch and promotion of TV shows.

When our TV shows are launched using OOH, our favourite character’s worlds and our worlds collide in real life. This excitement leads to the social amplification of OOH campaigns – unique to the medium – with pictures and videos taken and shared on social media, earning the campaign hundreds of thousands, if not millions of additional views.

A bold statement we know, however, we’ve had the privilege of working on many of these viral campaigns. Keep reading for a behind-the-scenes look at two campaigns that were executed by our Creative Solutions team:

Killing Eve (Havas Media UK & BBC)

A beloved British spy thriller television series, the final season of Killing Eve aired in March 2022 and was met with mixed reviews about its ending. To celebrate all four seasons now available to stream online via BBC iPlayer, we worked with the BBC and Havas Media UK to bring the stylish and hugely popular outfits from the show to lead actress Jodie Comer’s home of Liverpool. 

Taking over Lord Street in Liverpool ONE, we filled a shop front with both Villanelle and Eve’s iconic outfits. Quickly gaining traction, the installation received over 824.1k views on TikTok and around 1.4 million potential impressions on Twitter. 

*Potential Spoilers* However, the biggest surprise came from the actions and emotions the installation evoked. Upset with the ending of their favourite show, fans began to lay flowers at the site of the shop front. One bunch quickly turned into many, with fans in London laying flowers on London Bridge too. For fans overseas, one fan created a GoFundMe page so that they could pay for flowers to be laid too. The GoFundMe page managed to raise over 1.9k euros.

@fictionalhannah an update video!! #killingeve #killingevebook #killingevebooks #villanelle #villaneve #evepolastri #oksanaastankova #killingeveedits #lukejennings #liverpool #killingevecollection #thekillingevecollection #oxananoskova #oxanaastankova #killingevefan #jodiecomer #sandraoh #lauraneal #fyp #foryou #foryoupage Tell Me (Feat. Saoirse Ronan) – Johnny Jewel
@ts.emilyy attention killing eve fans!!!! #killingeve #villanelle #evepolastri #killingeveedit #jodiecomer #liverpool #trending #fyp #villaneve #wlw #sandraoh Tell Me (Feat. Saoirse Ronan) – Johnny Jewel

Peaky Blinders (Havas Media UK, BBC, GSA) 

Another popular British crime drama series, Peaky Blinders has taken the world by storm. Spanning six series, the show has gained a cult following and secured its spot as one of the BBC’s biggest ever drama series. Over the years, we’ve worked with the BBC, Havas Media UK and Global Street Art to drive excitement for the series and to re-engage fans. 

For series five, we leveraged social media to create a call to arms for fan art with over 1,200 pieces submitted and 16 chosen for a nationwide poster campaign. Two final designs were turned into stand out murals, resulting in fans travelling across the UK to take selfies with the work. The campaign gained widespread PR coverage and launched to an audience of over 6.2 million. 

With murals proving popular with its fans, we would do the same for the final season but with a twist… 

Spanning over 42ft tall, we unveiled a mural of the Peaky Blinder’s patriarch Tommy Shelby in his hometown of Birmingham. The mural, by street artist Akse, would announce the previously secret broadcast date of the show’s final season. 

Gaining traction quickly online, the mural gained widespread PR coverage in the UK as well as Portugal, Germany, Spain and Greece. A video shared of the mural by the BBC across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram went viral, gaining over 2.7 million views and over 802,000 likes.

The power of OOH advertising for our favourite TV shows has garnered incredible results and emotions from fans around the world. There’s a huge range of mediums, locations and creative ideas that we can use to create an even bigger affinity for TV shows with their fans as well as future fans. 

If you’d like to work with us or enquire about your future OOH campaigns, don’t hesitate to get in touch. 

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.