Recently, Steve Gurley (the relatively new VP of Marketing and New Market Development at Symon Communications) released a white paper titled “Ad-Funded Digital Signage: Is There a Future In It?”. It wasn’t clear to me when I read it whether it was an official POV from Symon or not – I’m assuming not, as there isn’t any mention of the paper on the symon.com website; and I would think that dismissing an important source of growth in the industry wouldn’t be seen as in the interests of Symon, a fairly large provider of digital signage hardware and software solutions.

I certainly don’t agree with the premise of Gurley’s paper as stated in the title, but didn’t really give it much consideration after I finished reading it. I dismissed the paper for what it was – an essay written by a single, relative newcomer to the DOOH business that when examined was little more than an exploration of the benefits of mobile technologies rather than an objective critique of ad-funded digital networks. In fact, many of the benefits of mobile discussed in the paper are valid, but not exclusive of the success of advertising on DOOH. In many cases the two media solutions are very complementary.

I also wasn’t impressed with Gurley lifting a quotation from Adcentricity’s Q1 Digital Out-of-Home Market Review and using it in a contextually inaccurate way, but others including Ken Goldberg of Real Digital Media in his digital signage blog have set that record straight in his digital signage blog.

However, something happened late last week that made me realize that these ‘prognostications’ are treated by some more seriously than warranted. I took a call from the CEO of one of Adcentricity’s network partners, who had a nervous investor who had read Gurley’s paper, and was questioning the investment he had made in what is a very sound DOOH network. We set up a conference call with all of the appropriate people on the line, and I was able to successfully explain the quotation and framed the white paper in a wider industry context.

However, it once again reminded me of a constant irritant, and a significant barrier to growing the DOOH business – our habit of shooting ourselves in the foot.

As an industry, we need to be giving advertisers reasons to use digital technologies to deliver messaging to the consumer on her path-to-purchase. We need to deliver a consistent message about the benefits of the DOOH medium, and how we are collectively getting better every day at the delivery of quality audiences to advertisers.

Let’s talk up the good stuff. Let’s be honest about our shortcomings, and work to beat them. But let’s stop creating obstacles where none exist.

ADCENTRICITY’s position on audits is that they are a necessary and beneficial practice for DOOH. However, we also believe that these audits should take place with the full knowledge and participation of everyone involved. We actively encourage our advertising clients to inform us ahead of time of their intent to perform an audit so that we can work on their behalf to secure the necessary approvals, ensuring that the audit runs smoothly from a tactical perspective. While concerns that this eliminates the element of surprise and gives networks the opportunity to “clean up their act” have been raised, if full disclosure leads to a higher diligence around campaign delivery isn’t this the end result that everyone is looking for?

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.

• 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!