It’s hard to believe that another OAAA STAR Showcase has come and gone. DOmedia made its industry debut at the same event last year and what a difference 12 little months made! While we followed the same itinerary as ’07, everything was bigger, bolder and better in ’08. Continue reading →
The past two months have been a whirlwind here at DOmedia central. New people. New office space. New clients. And one big media launch. Hitting the highlights, here’s what’s been going on in our corner of the world…
New DOmedia President – Jeff R. Lamb
Jeff joined the DOteam as head captain back in June. He has a comprehensive technical background combined with ad agency experience, most recently playing the Chief Technical Officer position for Cincinnati-based Northlich. In addition to being able to talk all of the geek-speak, he is also a strong leader. To be honest, keeping all of us on the same page when everyone is moving at 100 miles an hour isn’t always easy. Needless to say, we’re glad he’s here.
New Office Space > 274 Marconi Blvd. Suite 400
We also moved from our comfy garage/office location on Price Avenue to much larger digs in the Arena District. The extra space means we can continue adding much-needed associates without having to share desk space anymore! The new office area still has a very cool vibe, while giving everyone the tools we need to support the rapid growth DOmedia has been experiencing. Check out more pictures of the space, the folks here at DO and our company bicycles on our Flickr page.
New Space = New People
Now that we have more desks, computers, chairs and the like, we’ve been adding to our staff. Clint Lucas has come on board to manage business development with advertisers and agencies. Matt Warholic left the intern ranks following his graduation from Ohio State University; he is now heading up our account support efforts. Bud Budrejko joined our motley crew as lead web application developer…he pretty much does all the technical stuff the rest of us don’t understand. And most recently, Aaron Szabo jumped at the chance to do all of our interactive design work.
Official Media Launch
Last, but certainly not least, DOmedia officially launched to the media today, issuing this press release this morning. Following months of work to build our database of media listings and improving the user interface, we are finally ready to throw back the curtains and welcome the world to our doorstep. Our timing couldn’t have been better, posting our news just one day after VSS issued their Communications Industry Forecast 2008-2012 which predicts increased spending on alternative media:
Brands are expected to continue shifting budgets from traditional to alternative advertising and marketing vehicles in 2008 and 2009. Spending on alternative media will climb 21 percent to $81.67 billion in 2008, and account for 17.7 percent of total advertising and marketing spending, up from 6.9 percent in 2002.
Obviously we have always believed this industry is poised for substantial growth and all of the numbers to date have certainly supported this prediction, but further confirmation is always nice. Our goal is to make sure we support this growth and continue to ease the pain points for everyone sourcing, buying, selling, executing and measuring an increased number of alternative media campaigns.
Given that all of this has happened in just the past 8 weeks, imagine what the next 8 will bring. Here’s to the future…
I’m writing this week from one of my favorite cities outside Ohio, Boston. I’ve made the trip east for this year’s HOW Design Conference…an amazing collection of designers and others associated with the business of being creative. For a few days, we get to disconnect (at least a little….full disconnection in an age of wireless internet and PDA’s seems virtually impossible, but that’s another topic) from the day-to-day tasks and learn new skills, refuel our creative tanks and think of our businesses in a while new way.
The event officially opened last night with a keynote presentation by Jeremy Gutsche, the brainchild behind TrendHunter (incidentally, if you haven’t paid the website a visit, I highly encourage it). As you might expect, Jeremy is in the business of scouring the globe, interpreting the trends and predicting what will be cool next. His topic to kick off the next few days was Creating a Culture of Innovation. I won’t even try to regurgitate his presentation here, but it covered a lot of the things we typically know, but rarely get around to implementing.
But one of the things that really struck me while I was listening to his presentation was the number of times he used out-of-home executions as examples of breakthrough ways to engage your customers, creating a memorable link to your brand’s message. While we all tend to hear so much about the power of the Internet to deliver highly targeted, personalized messages (which is absolutely true), viewing Jeremy’s examples last night reminded me of the power our physical medium possesses, when applied in a creative, relevant way.
I’ll post as many of the examples from last night as I’m able to find. Hopefully it will help drive some conversation, provide some creative inspiration and give us yet one more reason to be glad we’re in the business we’re in. Cheers!
Special congrats to Columbus’ own Pete Scantland and the entire team at Orange Barrel on their 2008 OBIE win for their Nationwide “Paint Spill” wallscape. Who says Columbus isn’t on the cutting edge of advertising! Way to go, guys!!
It’s been a busy week for us here at DO. Nick, Kim and I headed south to the 2008 Traffic Audit Bureau Eyes On Out-of-Home Media Conference and Marketing EXPO (try saying that 3x fast!). Meanwhile, Dave headed west to the ad:tech conference in San Francisco. Coming out of both conferences is a renewed enthusiasm for the alternative and out-of-home media segments. There’s so much innovation going on right now. And the creative applications of the opportunities presented by the medium are truly inspiring.
After spending several days in seminars and meeting industry professionals in the various segments (buying, selling, supporting, measuring, etc.) there seem to be a few key themes hitting the OOH media channel right now. Continue reading →
