Out-Of-Home:NOW 2016 with Jeremi Gorman and Clive Punter
The Advertising Club of New York is excited about our upcoming conference OOH:NOW, Contextual Connections! It’s our biggest event of the year and we hope you will be joining us. If you haven’t already registered, click on this link. To help put you in the OOH mood, we’ve asked participants to respond to a variety of questions about out-of-home, one the fastest growing ad mediums. Check back for more as we continue to post. If you see something you like, tweet away! @AdClubNY #OOHNOW #ADClubNY.
Jeremi Gorman | Head of North American Sales | Amazon Media Group
How does/can digital drive OOH?
My career has been primarily in digital, so it’s very exciting for me to see OOH and digital drive each other. For instance, digital marketing can be very data driven. This is great in that we can deliver the right message to the right customer, but it can also hold marketers back from reaching broad audiences to introduce a new category or brand, which is something OOH does very well. Personally, one of the most rewarding parts of working in digital is the speed at which we can adapt. When we see a piece of creative resonating particularly well with customers, we can help the marketers double-down on that creative, either by serving more of that specific unit, or by taking the key elements of that creative and making new assets. With the advent of digital billboards, combined with real time feedback from social media, OOH has the ability to do the same. If a particular creative is popular, marketers now have the ability to iterate on their creative mix in OOH.
Out-of-home is everywhere but a lot of consumers are focusing on something else – their phone, diving…what should marketers do to maximize out-of-home reach?
This can be a little frightening for an industry whose purpose is to engage customers. When they are distracted, it is difficult to capture that attention in the same way OOH used to. However, these same distractions, phones, streaming music, tablets etc., can also be used as tools to make OOH even more engaging. Instead of having a quick impression of a brand, marketers can use these distractions to their advantage to deliver deeply relevant experiences to the customers. Customers can aim their phones at an ad and have a secondary visual or audio experience with the brand, plus take buying actions. To take advantage of the OOH reach, lean in to technology, create these second experiences, make the “impression” last longer than the time it takes to drive by a billboard or wait for a bus. While it may be concerning in the short-term, in the long-term, the fact that customers have little computers, cameras, scanners etc., all in a single device at their fingertips, will help propel many industries forward.
Imagine it is the year 2026; tell us how out-of-home is being used and what impact it is making?
At Amazon, we look to the future all of the time, but instead of focusing on what will change, we focus on what will not change. Customers will always want fair prices, convenient delivery, and vast selection. We innovate on these three pillars to ensure we are focused on the long-term. In advertising, what will never change is that customers will want great content, relevant experiences, and reliable information. In 2026, I can foresee much more interactive experiences in OOH. This is a very exciting time for the space. Great content will change from engaging static images to an interactive experience where customers will be able to explore products, have second-screen deeply personal experiences, and buy right from OOH, even more so than they can today. Technology is getting less expensive, so it’s not hard to imagine a time when all transportation advertising is touch screen, allowing each customer to have their own unique experience with the brand. This will allow OOH to “complete the loop” at scale, and gather new data about the efficacy of OOH advertising. Lest we forget self-driving cars (I still would like to see the Back to the Future flying car version). When people aren’t focused on actually driving their vehicles, think how much more immersive OOH will be!
You’ve been asked to star in an OOH ad; what celebrity is your co-star and what are you doing?
John Stamos. Smooching. No self-interest in this answer at all, of course. It’s all for the betterment of the advertising industry.
Clive Punter | EVP, Chief Revenue Officer | Outfront Media
@clivepunter
As out-of-home continues to evolve, combining the art and science of technology, what is it that excites you most about out-of-home?
What excites me most is that OOH advertising truly represents the convergence of art and technology – big brand canvas + location based audience targeting with contextually relevant content.
I’d argue, as the media world has moved to from impression to expression – OTS to social context, OOH is now the last and best demand generation medium. With the advent of geolocation audience data, mobile and social amplification, OOH has the unbeaten combination of big brand demand generation plus consumer activation and intent fulfillment. The art + science is now means OOH is the medium of the future.
What do you think about the present state of out-of-home?
OOH is in great shape. Continued investment, innovation and consolidation are driving growth. We need to make our medium easier to plan, buy and execute. We need to fully utilize and connect digital technology and OOH. We need to make the most of data and we need to tell the story better for OOH with brands and agencies.
What do you think excites consumers the most about out-of-home?
Consumers today are attracted by all things social and interactive in real time. The connection of OOH, mobile and social allows for the type of interaction most consumers crave. Whether it’s a campaign employing a funny meme to grab their attention or a clever retailer’s survey to invite them into the social conversation. Brands like Snapchat are even starting to deploy ways to give consumers a sense of exclusivity. Through the use of their new Snapcodes, which are similar to QR codes, Snapchat is providing a way for consumers to unlock new content via their smartphones viewing an OOH ad.
Other advancements like full-motion video, app connected sound, etc. make the attention grabbing nature of OOH exponentially higher in comparison to static imagery. In the age of streaming and 24/7 content, I think our brains have become wired to watch and get sucked into witty and viral Internet content, especially in video and GIF form. OOH recognizes that this type of content attracts consumers and they’re rolling with it.
How does/can digital drive OOH?
The ability to deliver relevant content natively has always been the strength of outdoor. Thanks to the technical innovations that forever altered digital advertising, OOH is reinventing the media landscape. Real-time “trigger” based contingent activations, automation, and programmatic are gaining momentum within the outdoor world. Digital signage are giving brands the best of both worlds — the control and insight of digital combined with the immediacy and real-life experience of outdoor. Just imagine if, at the gas station while you pumped your DB Export bio-fuel, the fuel pump’s surface advertised another green product relevant to you enriching your experience further. This kind of immersive brand experience is possible today and is the bold future of OOH.
From a traditional sense, it’s one of the oldest forms of advertising, but it’s in the midst of a major renaissance period due to new innovations, which enables OOH to feel more relevant across all generations. With the rise of digital spurred by the internet and smartphones becoming ubiquitous, I’d argue that OOH advertising is more impactful than ever — there’s no way to ad-block something in real life, it’s unavoidable.