• Rob Gorrie, ADCENTRICITY’s President and Co-Founder
• Jeff Atley, Co-founder and VP Marketing & Business Development
• Graeme Spicer, VP Strategic Partnerships

ADCENTRICITY is helping to kick off the conference as one of the sponsors for the Pre Show Mixer, hosted by The Preset Group. The mixer will take place Tuesday evening from 6-8 pm at the Palazzo Hotel & Casino. To date, the mixer is expected to host more than 200 attendees representing approximately 95 companies.

In addition to ADCENTRICITY’s presence at the mixer, Rob will be among the panelists of the (reportedly) highly popular “Digital Out-of-Home Buyer/Seller Face-Off: What Media Buyers Want/What Digital Out-of-Home Network Operators Have to Sell”. Along with Rob, the rest of the seminar panel includes David Drain, Exec. Director of the Digital Signage Association, Dan Levi, SVP, Digital Media & Strategic Partnerships Zoom Media & Marketing, Patrick Moorhead, VP, Director of Mobile Platforms, Draftfcb Chicago, and Gwen Morrison CEO, The Americas & Australia WPP (The Store). The panelists will be addressing the issues that the digital out-of-home industry faces as an emerging medium to deliver successful client programs. The seminar will aid attendees to understand how the emergence of digital OOH is viewed and is being addressed by both sides of the buyer/seller relationship. The panel will explore key issues that the digital OOH industry is collaboratively addressing, and will review examples of successful digital OOH programs that demonstrate ways these issues are influencing client advertising and marketing plans.

For anyone who is interested in attending the conference and still has not registered, its not too late to do so. Please visit the DSE website to register.

ADCENTRICITY is always happy to meet with new folks within the industry, if you’re attending the conference feel free to email Rob, Jeff or Graeme to set up a time to chat.

We hope to see you all next week!

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.

With over 25 years of advertising sales management and business development experience, Ian most recently worked as the Vice President - Sales, Digital Media at Cineplex Entertainment where he participated as part of the management team in the successful sale of Onsite Media Network to Cineplex Entertainment Inc. Prior to his position at Cineplex Entertainment, he was the Senior Vice President - Sales at On Site Media Network. During his tenure at Onsite Media Networks, Ian developed and executed a short term sales strategy that resulted in increased sales revenue by over 225% in just three months. In 2007, Ian as Vice-President - Sales, participated as part of the management team in the successful sale of Digital Advertising Network (DAN) to Neo Advertising Inc. Ian holds a degree from the University of Western and is a member of the Canadian Outdoor Membership Bureau, Toronto Ad & Sales Club and Canadian Association of Advertising Professionals. Other past employers include: Resort Media Group, Inc., Club Intrawest and Rogers Publishing.

We all look forward to working with Ian and hope many of you will have the same opportunity. Please feel free to contact Ian directly at ian@adcentricity.com, or alternatively at 416-597-6663. Welcome to the team Ian!

The company is doing some very good work in providing content that is suitable for digital out-of-home environments. Considerations have been made for venue types, format variations, audio and consumer frame of mind. I’ve talked to an increasing amount of emerging companies that are producing content for digital out-of-home. This is certainly a area of concentration for the industry in 2010 as we reach another level of evolution. If you have great content I’d love to see it.

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!

I would love the opportunity to put a version of this creative to work in the digital out-of-home space as we were able to do with the Evian Babies program that we ran.

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

As is typical at these events, I was able to see only some of the presentations because of hallway meetings with both current and developing partnerships. Those presentations I was able to catch were good - although the new learning at these events is pretty limited to industry die-hards. Highlights for me were the keynote from the dependably grumpy Bob Garfield from Advertising Age (entertaining, but limited in direct benefit to DOOH practitioners); and the Schering-Plough case study presented by Sean Smith from MPG and Ray Rotolo from Chrysalis.

The Schering-Plough case study was of particular interest. The campaign was coordinated through OVAB, and was promoted as the best thing to happen to DOOH back in the early spring when it was planned and executed. The presentation of the results was - err, vague - but the overall impression left was of a great success. Schering-Plough is looking at a repeat of the campaign for 2010 (but look for them to demand even sharper pencils when it comes time to negotiate price).

I appreciate these events more for the opportunity to gather many of our partners in one place at the same time to facilitate face-to-face meetings. It was good to see many friendly faces, including Jerry Hall, who is busy with the newly merged Targetcast and Ripple TV networks; Chris Peck from Arbitron; and John McMenamin, who has recently joined Touchtunes/Barfly in a senior executive role.

According to OVAB’s Ajay Durani, attendance was about on par with the previous year, which is real achievement in what has been a challenging environment economically for the media business, and a testament to the ongoing interest in DOOH amongst the agency community.

The insight, inspiration and validation gained at the ANA Masters of Marketing 2009 event is one that is unmatched in the US advertising industry. Congratulations to Bob Liodice and his team for another stellar year. There were over 1,200 CMO’s, top level marketing executives, agency executives, analytic / research companies and select vendors in attendance. Overall the attitude of marketers was positive at least a very noticeable increase over 2008 which resonated in conversations and presentations (no roof jumpers this year).

Among the presenting CMO’s and companies were:

• Verizon
• Google
• McDonalds
• Charles Schwab
• Method
• Walmart
• IBM
• Procter & Gamble
• General Mills
• Best Buy
• Fidelity Investments
• Dairy Queen
• Fender Musical Corporation
• Dunkin’ Donuts
• Dial

There has been a significant shift over the last 24 months in advertising which presents opportunity for digital out-of-home and Adcentricity. The key focus that resonated from the presenting brands and collaborative efforts from their agencies were:

• Focus on core brand philosophy and consumer needs
• Local advertising solutions
• Consumer involvement in brand direction. “Work for the consumer not your boss”.
• Multi-cultural segment focus is becoming an increased priority
• Consumer transparency and authenticity

Although traditional media has not and will not be abandoned, the real focus is connecting with consumer is a genuine and relevant manner. More and more the consumers are becoming in control of the direction of advertising, product development and how the advertising message and media programs are being developed.

The ANA Magazine also posted the Top 25 Takeaways from the ANA Masters of Marketing 2009 Annual Conference.

Thank you to the ANA for a great event and all the wonderful people who ADCENTRICITY met during the week.

Jeff Atley