Apparently, the answer is “a lot” (for those at my table and the populous at large).  According to the Organic Trade Association’s 2010 Organic Industry Survey, total US food sales grew a modest 1.9-percent in 2009. However, organic food sales grew a whopping 5.9-percent. Not bad for a recession.  What’s even more interesting is mainstream grocers accounted for 54-percent of organic products sold.

Not surprisingly, there has been serious investment by packaged good companies looking to both capitalize both on this pervasive interest in health and wellness, and in projects hoping to be the next big health craze. PepsiCo, with dwindling soda sales is also putting some serious dollars into its health and wellness portfolio; its expected to triple to $30-billion by 2020.

Look for new ways in which iconic brands start to introduce the fruits of such investments. Starbucks now has a product line-up specifically for grocery stores. With 3,000-plus licensed stores inside grocery environments, sampling of those products only makes sense.

With so much happening, consumers will no doubt become even more bombarded with conflicting messages and competing product information. These same mainstream grocers and mass retailers now use in-store networks to communicate and educate their customers, capturing them while in a “shopping” frame of mind.  Customers can become aware of an in-store cost savings initiative or added nutritional information for a new product on screen, and then try it out at a sampling kiosk. Why not add further incentives when “checking in” using Foursquare or Gowalla? Communicating these vital messages is more relevant in this environment then when the same shopper is at home, whizzing by ads while watching a favourite (pre recorded) program.

We recently launched Adcentricity Health – an awareness initiative aimed at agencies and clients on how to best leverage their campaigns in a relevant, contextual and cost-effective manner. Now that we know where your clients are putting their development dollars, following suit with environments that best aligns with the resulting products only makes sense.

Adcentricity Health reaches over 48MM health conscious consumers across North America each month in Pharmacies, Fitness Centres and Doctors’ Offices, just to name a few. We’ve put together a media kit where we’ve outlined some key category statistics, audience demographics and results of some interesting case studies. You can download our media kit here. Good luck and good health!

On his post here: http://www.millwardbrown.com/Global/Blog/Post/2011-02-07/Can-you-really-tell-sheep-from-shepherds-online.aspx he explores and questions what is really meaningful to measure in online/social marketing/media when 90% of the people out there don’t really participate and are more “sheep” than “shepherds”.

He uses a quote I got a kick out of:

If we’re really going to advance this field, we need to figure out how to identify not just influential people, but also influenceable people. We need not just shepherds, but sheep.

Which I completely concur with as it applies to DOOH.

He then asks a question I would also agree with and we at ADCENTRICITY ask all of the time about assembling and extending some of the digital programs into a broader reach to influence consumers in real locations…especially if those locations happen to harbor Digital OOH:

To what degree is what we observe online in any way representative of the important influences on an individual’s behavior? My suspicion is that all too often we end up measuring the tip of the iceberg and our actions are informed by what is measurable, not by what’s truly important.

Why we at ADCENTRICITY get a lot of enjoyment from the creative uses of the Digital OOH medium is that we are not an amorphous entity that can’t be observed and many times the results are directly tied to influenceable consumers who perform real actions, knowingly or unknowingly – many times directly tied to sale of product.

The objective of this Creative Reference Guide is to address basic elements of DOOH advertising considerations. This initiative has resulted in over 10 hours of on-camera interviews, dozens of creative and multi-media samples, and the firsy edition of ADCENTRICITY’s Digital OOH Advertising Creative Reference Guide.

Please visit ADCENTRICITY’s website to download the paper, see contributors profiles and watch the on-camera interviews.

We welcome any questions or feedback.

Below you will see the great creatives for each campaign and the strong messaging that can be portrayed in a short but effective 15-second ad. Each campaign was hyper-targeted using ADCENTRICITY’s platform ADVenue and are currently playing on hundreds of screens across North America, reaching their desired audiences on the go!

ADCENTRICITY is pleased to announce the first edition of an internally developed quarterly Digital Out-of-Home Market Review.

The ADCENTRICITY Quarterly Digital Out-of-Home Market Review is an overview of RFP and purchasing activity across our almost 100 network partners and 200,000 screens for each quarter.  The objective is to inform and educate on activity levels in the space; which advertiser industries are active; and where the media dollars are being placed by venue category and geography.  The paper also serves as a review of identified challenges and sets the stage for the next quarter.

ADCENTRICITY’s platform, ADVenue, tracks all activity that happens across the DOOH landscape as it occurs.  Because of this, we can bring you a true snapshot of growth, spending and insight that is unmatched in the industry.  We understand that you need clarity and transparency in the Digital OOH space and hope that this report will help deliver these insights to you each quarter.

Some of the key findings we came across through the development of the market review include:

• Networks operating in retail venues are dominating DOOH spending, following the same patterns as traditional media spending – with automotive, financial services and telecommunications by far the biggest categories
• Packaged goods and entertainment brands are not yet moving as aggressively into the DOOH space, owing to traditional caution, demands for extensive testing, and with entertainment, a need for more education on how good creative will overcome cases where audio is not used
• Retail locations (grocery, pharmacy, c-store, coffee shops) were the winners by actual spending through 2009. Of the 70 environment types available across 100 networks, the top six categories accounted for approximately 30 percent of all media dollars and they were overwhelmingly retail
• While mainstream agencies have DOOH on their radar, and are allocating dollars, digital agencies haven’t yet adopted or fully understood this medium’s capabilities. Ironically, there’s a digital divide where there should be a natural fit

Download a copy of the 2010 – Q1 Digital Out-of-Home Market Review.

We welcome any input and feedback from the market to improve these reports going forward and encourage your comments.

Send us an email.

Another notable campaign was Canwest’s Global News. The Canwest Global campaign focuses on increasing viewership and awareness of Global National News evenings at 5:30 pm.  A cross section of 6 venues types hosting digital out-of-home screens were optimized in select markets.  Multiple cities in multiple provinces were identified as priority markets where media reach was not maximized.  With the use of its hyper-targeting capabilities, ADCENTRICITY was able to fill the gaps in order to extend more audience reach in these important markets to enhance awareness and influence viewership of Global News.

Below you will see the creatives from returning clients GM and Heart & Stroke as well as new client’s Janes Chicken and Scotiabank. These campaigns are playing on thousands of screens and venues throughout North America targeting their chosen audiences.

Stay tuned for our February flights!

There were some very innovative uses of the medium in terms of geo-targeting and creativity. The Evian campaign sparked mass buzz amongst consumers in the age bracket of 25-49 through a number of viral channels like YouTube, Facebook and demonstrated that the DOOH medium can indeed spark innovative creative. Verizon and Bank of America demonstrated how the medium can be used for hyper geo-targeted and demo-targeted capabilities. Verizon wanted to focus in on consumers with a certain income threshold, while Bank of America leveraged the medium to hone in on the Hispanic population, both campaigns delivering stellar results against the campaign

At Adcentricity, we decided to look back at the past year to see what campaigns really resonated within the marketplace with consumers, as well as helped to achieve marketing goals for the brands that put them forth.

Here are Adcentricity’s top 5 favorite campaigns of 2009 based on campaign objectives, creative work and the execution meeting the business needs of the brand.

Verizon Wireless

- Telecommunications

Zenith Media set out with the goal to target male “blue-collar workers” with an average household income greater than $40,000 looking for a cost-effective alternative to a wireless “Push to Talk” service.

Over 3,000 screens in convenience stores, gas stations and quick service restaurants within the zip codes of the top 10 DMA’s that had a higher than national average of “blue collar workers” with an average HHI greater than $40,000 were selected. The platform helped to cross-section the target profile with the venue types, occupation, age, and household income.

The results from the campaign determined that digital out-of-home screens were the number one noticed advertising vehicle within each selected venue amongst ten other advertising mediums displayed. Further, 79 percent of consumers noticed the digital screen within the environment. The Verizon Wireless campaign effectively reached the targeted consumer within each market and venue in which it ran. 46 percent of all respondents were within occupation, age and household income target profile. The campaign was to serve more than 17,000,000 played ads, with an audience impression of 8,562,768.

Evian

- Consumer Packaged Goods

Evian, Danone’s leading bottled water brand is the latest innovative marketer to join in on an emerging trend of “digital where you are” – digital out-of-home advertising and merchandising programs within the store, just when a consumer is looking to make a planned or unplanned purchase.

Using brilliant digital creative, Evian has tapped the digital out-of-home medium alone in launching its new “Live Young” campaign, extending the reach of their viral creative with point-of-purchase media – the ultimate in Shopper Marketing. The new global creative, developed by France’s BETC Euro RSCG, is intended to reach cosmopolitan 25 to 49 year-olds making $75,000 or more, leveraging Internet and Social media tactics including bloggers, YouTube and Facebook.

Since the campaign release, more that 30,000,000 consumers have viewed the video. DOOH was the only additional advertising vehicle used to “spread the good word” – a first ever, national initiative promoting the creative on in-store digital out-of-home screens in convenience stores and grocery chains.

Michael Thouin senior brand manager for Danone Waters North America said: “It really allows us to get our creative in a place where consumers are making their purchase decisions. This is the first time we’ve done this and we’re really excited about it.”

Bank of America

- Financial Services

Bank of America recognizes the power of the emerging Hispanic Market in America. Lead by Starcom USA the campaign objective was to target Hispanic Americans living within the zip codes of the top 10 percent most highly concentrated Hispanic regions in the US. Supporting a national integrated campaign, digital out-of-home was chosen to reach and influence Hispanic adults.

1,500 screens in various convenience store, gas station, grocery, health care, hospitality and shopping center locations within the zip codes of the top 10 percent highest concentrated Hispanic population were chosen. This campaign involved four different creatives based on various “life moments”, which rotated in the selected locations depending on venue type.

The campaign resulted in 66 percent of the audience noticed the digital screens within the venue. The campaign effectively reached the targeted consumer within the venues, with 57 percent of the audience being Hispanic. In addition, 37 percent were current Bank of America clients and 40% said they would likely recommend Bank of America to a family member or friend. The campaign was set to serve more than 3,244,131 played ads, with an audience impression of 91,962,676.

Samsung – Omnia

- Personal Electronics

Highly targeted plan that focus’ on urban influencers made a splash with creative work that provided an excellent sense of the user experience of the mobile device. Consumers were influenced to participate in the free form flexibility of the Omnia operating system and interface.

Samsung hired Ontario-based Pattison to research the level of impact that using digital out-of-home had on purchase consideration among the target market. Using intercept studies conducted in downtown Toronto around TD Centre, Eaton’s Centre and The Bay Centre at Bloor, Pattison found that the campaign helped Samsung achieve brand-awareness levels in the high 90+% range in the case of aided recall; and unaided brand awareness was 73%, or a whopping 49% more than in the previous year. In addition, 41% of those polled-and 47% of those polled that recalled the campaign ad-said they would consider purchasing a Samsung cell phone.

Adcentricity along with our network partners were able to over deliver in ad plays with a total of 837,691 plays and 1,111,060 audience impressions.

The success of this campaign inspired Samsung to dedicate 90-95% of all media to digital out-of-home for new wireless-product launches (according to David Mear, Cheil Communications). The company has already used the medium to promote previous launches including the introduction of its Slide and Instinct models.

General Motors

- Automotive

GM may have surprised you as developing new channels of advertising given the monsoon of challenges the company has faced in the past year. Stripped down and tricked out, the fact is however GM brands are climbing back in the driver seat as market leaders. Delivering powerful creative to engage consumers on a one to one level in environments where not only automotive consumers but tax payers spend their personal time starts to make a whole lot of sense.

Starcom USA lead the way to challenge digital out-of-home as a competitive advantage in order to enhance consumer brand awareness and the Cadillac image utilizing a creative full motion medium.
• Increase awareness surrounding the launch of GM’s 2010 Cadillac models
• Enhance the consumer perception of the GM brand
• Increase the amount of new Cadillac drivers and retain existing brand loyalists

The campaign is currently still active but a mid-campaign study of the Cadillac campaign was developed in order to determine screen notice, brand and message recall, purchase cycle, campaign influence and basic audience demographic. The study determined that the proportion of respondents who noticed the digital screens in the surveyed venues was 72%. Among those who noticed the screens, the Cadillac spots had a 27% percent recall, the highest of all ads shown on the screens. Furthermore, 28% of those who saw the Cadillac ad and intend to purchase or lease a new vehicle in the future were either very positively influenced by the advertising.

The campaign is expected to serve more than 6,320,079 played ads, with an audience impression of 152,425,510. *(Results not available at time of publishing).

There is growing excitement and currently real business flowing through digital out-of-home with all the signs of a powerful 2010 for the medium. We look forward to featuring many more national brands and creative campaigns throughout the year.

Below you can see the great creatives from American Express, Samsung and Amtrak which are currently playing on hundreds of screens across North America reaching people on the go!

Cheez Whiz - Best of Show

The Canadian media world was decked out last night for the 2009 Media Innovations Awards was held last night at the Toronto convention center. Co-Chairs Lauren Rirchard, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group and Jack Tomik from Tomik2 Inc. kicked off the show announcing that there were over 400 overall submissions this year.

Lead by MediaVest, Best of Show went to Kraft’s Cheez Whiz for the integration of the product placement in the CTV show Corner Gas picking up over 3 minutes of air time during the episode. They also picked up awards to two other categories. My personal favorite for the show among those who won gold was the work done by M2 Universal with the Microsoft Office

2007 “Real Life Tools”. Utilizing Microsoft software visitors to the URL were able to create personalized covers to Roger’s magazine publications. The program realized over 10,000 consumer creating and sharing their customized mag covers. A good demonstration of letting the consumer be “in-charge” of the brand and content.

From a digital out-of-home perspective, there were no campaigns that took home any hardware this year, surprisingly I must say. I know that there has been a huge shift in the number of campaigns that have included DOOH as significant medium. As well there have been a new found creative utilization of the medium in both outdoor and placed base DOOH. The Lexus program that OBN ran this year is a prime example. Not to say that DOOH was not involved in any of the recognized campaign last night as it did have a presence. I putting money on DOOH taking the stage at the 2010 Media Innovation Awards.

The other Gold winners from last night included:

Radio: Banque Laurentienne du Canada for Les Visites Libres Banque Laurentienne by Astral Media

Magazine: Microsoft Canada for 2007 MS Office for Real Life Tools by M2 Universal

Magazine: L’Oreal Canada for Garnier Hair Colour’s Dare to be Blonde campaign by Zenith Optimedia

Experiential: Zulu Alpha Kilo for Thinking Inside the Box (agency self-promotion)

Digital–Single Platform: Rogers Communications Inc. for Fido–Twitter Feed Branded Content by BOS

Multi-Channel: Mazda3 for 33 Keys Alternate Reality Game by Doner Canada

Women: Unilever for Do One Small Thing to Love Your Heart by PHD Canada

Red Carpet at the MIAs

Great to see everyone last night and congratulations to all the winners. Keep innovating and remember to include digital out-of-home as an effective and diversified medium to create your programs.

Cheers.

Jeff Atley