Outdoor bosses urge brands to move beyond gimmicky campaigns
Advertisers need to look beyond “gimmicks” and create more compelling offers to make more compelling and successful outdoor advertising campaigns, according to a panel of outdoor media heads.
In a discussion at the Mumbrella360 conference yesterday CEO of Ooh Media Brendan Cook said the medium was too-often overlooked in campaigns, adding: “I think it’s sometimes forgotten that just doing great creative and using it – whether it be three dimensional or other types of ways – is still a very important part of campaigns.”
APN Outdoor’s GM Sales Mark Fairhurst said: “Unless the offer is good then technology is meaningless because people won’t return for a second go. So we’ve got to educate consumers that it’s worth taking action and it’s only worth taking action if you get something compelling from it and you can see that directly in the tap-it results.
“I’ve done a few of those campaigns in various environments and the difference between a great offer and an ordinary offer is chalk and cheese.”
Adshel CEO Rob Atkinson said that a successful interactive out-of-home campaign needed to deliver on at least one of three major attributes.
He added: “It’s either got to be personalised to the individual who’s going to do it, or an experience – which obviously means some kind of gamification -or it’s got to be convenient so it’s got to be made easy for the consumer to engage. If you get one or two or all three of those combined then I think you’ve got a successful campaign with NFC or QR or any other technology.”
JCDecaux CEO Steve O’Connor said that the proliferation of tap-and-go payment methods could accustom consumers to near-field technology: “The tap and go payment technology that’s available at the moment will get more people used to using that time of engagement mechanic with the advertising sign.
“When you look at QR codes and SMS that’s probably flattened out a bit. I think that the effort you’ve got to go to download an app to engage with the sign is very limiting.”
He added that solid creative was still the driving force behind a successful campaign.
“One thing I’d like to see happen is to challenge the creative community about doing better quality ads to drive more people online, regardless of whether there’s an engagement mechanic or not,” he added.. I don’t think you necessarily need a mobile device to facilitate engagement. Everyone’s got smartphones so I’d like to happen more often.”
The panel also shared their favourite outdoor executions, which included British Airways’ highly technical #lookup campaign and Dare Iced Coffee’s speedy billboard response to Eddie McGuire’s on-air slip of the tongue.
Jack Fisher
