In the lead up to the event, I’ve had the chance to speak to my co-panelists and, as you can imagine, we all had different points of view on where we are organizationally (as an industry), how our models differ from that of OOH. What has changed and how technological advancements will change the space now, and five, ten years from now.

It’s interesting to me that in 2011 we’re taking such a hard look at organization and structure in DOOH. Perhaps that speaks to the robustness of platform offerings or that different technologies really are starting to coalesce in such a way that could be tricky if we’re not careful. If the sheer volume of the product offerings in the social space (most of which can be integrated with your average DOOH platform) is any indication of where we are going, then tackling all the nagging misconceptions out there about buying and planning for DOOH will be even more challenging.

It’s a tough spot to be in when the same “spot” is chock full of unbelievable innovation. At the same time, it’s a place where a lot of confusion and complacency on both the supply and demand side exists. With all these technological innovations and the varying market needs they meet, it’s simply impossible to fit DOOH into the old model of buying and planning. DOOH gets to a level of targeting sophistication that requires extra steps and work from a planning point of view.

So until we also reach some kind of happy medium (hey, maybe we’ll get it sorted during the panel) this just begs for further discussion…like what kind of model are we talking about anyway?

Stay tuned….

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.

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!