What Advertisers Really Want from Outdoor (and from Digital Outdoor): OAAA Forum

November 5th, 2007 Nurlan Urazbaev

Digital outdoor media was  further defined and validated as a new and unique medium by outdoor industry visionaries at the Out of Home Advertiser Forum in New York last month. Their analysis was summarized in today’s OAAA newsletter as follows:

• Digital outdoor is not mobile television:
As such, it shouldn’t be used like or created
as television. The message is clear: outdoor
creative requires a unique perspective
and recycled print or television ads
just don’t cut it.

• Digital media’s greatest value is as an ad
delivery device: The speed and flexibility
digital allows enables advertisers to use
outdoor in targeted, time-sensitive ways.
It’s a perspective advertisers have never
had before, and it adds depth and
breadth to their marketing tool kits.

The above are the conclusions CBS Outdoor, Clear Channel and JC Decaux executives came to during a panel discussion at the Out of Home Advertiser Forum, hosted by the OAAA, TAB and ANA, as Nancy Fletcher reports in the newsletter “Outdoor Outlook.”

Answering the question what advertisers really want from Outdoor, another panel stressed the importance of metrics and good content:

• The need for qualitative and ROI research:
Panelists expressed regret because too few
outdoor companies offer research testing
as part of their proposal. Given the sketchy
metrics available for many non-traditional
formats, advertisers have to rely even more
heavily on performance evidence to support
media usage.

• The need for creative assistance:
Advertisers know how hard it is to design
compelling outdoor creative and they want outdoor
companies to assist in this regard, even including
it within a proposal.

According to OAAA’s Nancy Fletcher, the forum participants also reiterated the usual wish list: outdoor media space should be easier to plan, easier to buy and be more accountable.

“The panel consisted of notables – led by ANA President & CEO Bob Liodice, and including David Verklin, CEO of Carat Americas, Doug Checkeris, CEO of Mediacom USA, and Silvia Alvarez, Media Director of Zubi Media,” said the newsletter.

I find that the forum’s insights are highly relevant not only for the digital component of the outdoor media (billboards), but for the digital signage industry as a whole. I would like to emphasize the following three statements in particular:

- Digital outdoor media offers the speed, flexibility and targeting “advertisers have never had before.”

- In the absence of other metrics, advertisers have to rely “even more
heavily on performance evidence to support media usage.”

- Advertisers want assistance in producing good content that will not be recycled print or television ads.

Entry Filed under: Digital Signage ROI, The Big Picture, Uncategorized