Archive for April, 2017

For part four of our Notable Billboards series, we’re bringing you a couple international billboards from Vienna and Stockholm!

1) Adidas Ferris Wheel

Stationed in front of Vienna’s giant 212-foot ferris wheel, this creative billboard from Adidas is impossible to ignore. The arms of the pictured goalie Petr Cech mimic the ferris wheel while also playing off of the imagery of an impassable goalie. Installed right before the 2008 EuroCup, the audience the billboard reached was as perfect as some of Cech’s saves.

2) The Day After Tomorrow

In this case it’s the placement rather than the billboard itself that makes this ad great. Taking the idea of Day After Tomorrow being an apocalypse film, the agency’s decision to put the board in the middle of the ocean is rather fitting. It definitely earned some second glances, because who expects to see a billboard in the ocean?

3) Apolosophy Subway

Though it’s not exactly a billboard, this digital sign in Stockholm was too cool for us to leave out. Sensors in the sign sensed subway trains’ arrivals and reacted by sending the model’s hair flying. The ad draws attention to her hair and makes the message, about hair product, extremely relevant. It’s a really cool DOOH installment which obviously turned some heads, as you can see in the video below.

Want more stunning billboards? Check out past posts in our series here.

Back in 2011, Coca-Cola initiated its “Share a Coke” campaign in Australia. They started with just 150 names, and it has grown to be one of their most memorable and successful campaigns. Every summer since, Coca-cola has revamped the campaign by adding names, expanding to more of their products, going beyond names (such as nicknames and song titles), and making an online store where people could customize and order their own Coke bottle. This summer, Coke is bringing the campaign back with two new twists. Last names will start being available as well as variations that are popular vacation spots.

The vacation destination part of the campaign is perfect as we enter summer. Not everyone can afford to pack up and head to Ibiza, but a Coke with the city’s name on it is as close as some of us can hope to get. It plays on the summer wanderlust and pulls us in.

The addition of last names is genius for two reasons. First, it brings back the excitement of trying to find your name on the shelves. Second, people will want to buy two Cokes instead of one. Since first and last names are on separate bottles, consumers are encouraged to buy two Cokes and make their full name. Who knows, maybe people with middle names will buy three.

But, what makes this campaign so successful? Personalization and connection. Consumers can find part of the brand that is, in a sense, theirs. It’s a “look that’s me!” factor. At the DOmedia office, we searched for our names every time we bought a soda. And, we bought more sodas that summer than usual. It just added to the Coke experience. Relating back to the consumer is huge in today’s marketing environment, and Coca-Cola has continued to be an outstanding example of hard-to-achieve success.

Creative campaigns like these are what brands need to aim for to get their message heard. But, planning complex campaigns requires sophisticated tools. Initiatives like this inspire our team to keep pushing technology forward so that advertisers can focus on strategic thinking and creative execution. Want to learn more about how DOmedia powers agencies, brands and media vendors to be “OOH heroes”? Contact sales@domedia.com

The ANA’s two-and-a-half day Brand Activation Conference will be held in Chicago from today to the 21st. Leaders from top companies such as Ford, Coca-Cola and AT&T will be addressing the difficulties in getting a brand message heard and how to combat them.

ANA’s annual REGGIE awards will take place the first night of the conference, recognizing some of the year’s best ad campaigns. Music artist James TW will perform, and food and drinks will be served. This recognition of excellent advertising campaigns highlights the best and brightest of our industry, and we love to celebrate their success.

During the conference attendees will have the opportunity to learn from the marketing triumphs of industry leaders. How does a brand shine through in an age where consumers are oversaturated with marketing messages? What contributes to a successful ad campaign? Some of the most pressing questions will be answered at this year’s Brand Activation Conference, and those not in attendance can keep with with #ANAActivate on social media.

At the beginning of April, Instagram rolled out their Stories ad platform globally. This is another development in the rivalry between Snapchat and Instagram, as Instagram’s Stories ad platform closely resembles Snapchat’s. The rollout was just a short time before Snapchat’s IPO, and was seen by many as a directly competitive move.

Given recent studies which have shown how OOH and mobile advertising are highly complementary, we keep a close eye on development in the mobile advertising space. Snapchat is even incorporating billboards directly into their campaigns through image recognition. For OOH agencies looking to complement location based campaigns through local ad-buys. Here’s our take on where this development will lead.

Instagram first tested the platform back in January, giving access to just 30 companies. Airbnb was one of these companies. They gave favorable feedback on the platform, reporting a significant increase in ad recall. The ads ads are full screen, play between Stories, and have sound on automatically. Photo ads are 5 seconds long and video ads can be up to 15 seconds. For users who wish to ignore the content, the ads are skippable by simply swiping to the next Story.

Instagram’s ad platform uses its parent company Facebook’s ad management to track and optimize campaigns. This gives it a clear advantage over Snapchat’s platform, which does not yet have the same tracking capabilities. Over 150 million people use Instagram’s Stories, and that number continues to grow rapidly.

Is Instagram giving Snapchat a run for their money? It’s a back and forth battle and neither platform has a clear advantage. Companies also look to broaden their reach and utilize every platform available, so it’s possible that firms may simply add Instagram Stories to their advertising repertoire, rather than shifting away from Snapchat entirely.

We can expect to see both sides continue to create and mimic new features, as competition drives innovation.

Last month, the Media Rating Council (along with the Digital Place Based Advertising Association) issued the Digital Place-Based Audience Measurement Standards, taking a step towards the unification and standardization of all marketing measurements. Generating DOOH audience data has been a continuous challenge for the industry. These new guidelines will help remedy this issue. The guidelines were generated with a heavy amount of input from media buyers and sellers, advertisers, and measurement services to ensure that they met the needs of all sides of the industry.

The MRC states that these guidelines are phase one of a two-phase initiative. The goal of phase two is ultimately to produce “a common core of metrics that can be applied across the full expanse of out-of-home media.” Working on unifying these standards is essential to the growth and improvement of the OOH industry. Advertisers will be able to more clearly answer important questions such as how effective their campaigns are, what audiences they are reaching, and when they are reaching them.

The MRC expects these standards to change and evolve as improvements are made and the industry itself continues to change. The goal of reaching unified measurements across OOH that can compare to measurements of other forms of media is a daunting task. But the MRC and DPAA, as well as other leading groups such as Geopath, have worked tirelessly to overcome obstacles in the digital OOH sector.