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.

Pizza Hut tied into the spirit of March Madness by creating an intriguing marketing campaign. Ever wanted to order pizza with just the push of a button? With Pizza Hut’s Pie Tops, that’s possible- and the button is in a pair of shoes.

Teaming up with “Shoe Surgeon” Dominic Chambrone, Pizza Hut’s team created the white and red pair of sneakers, sporting the brand name on the ankle strap and company logo on the tongue. Under the logo is where the magical pizza button lies.

It’s not exactly magic. Using the Pie Tops app on a smartphone, users set up their profile and make a default pie. After that, any time a pizza is desired users simply have to press the tongue of their shoes and Bluetooth connections send the order to the app. Within minutes, a fresh Pizza Hut pie will be delivered to your location, which is tracked through the shoes.

Don’t get too excited; chances are you will never own a pair. Only 64 pairs of Pie Tops were made (to match the number of teams that begin the tournament), and the majority went to media influencers. However, Pizza Hut did give a few lucky fans their own pairs.

The primary goal of the campaign is to emphasize how easy it is to order Pizza Hut pizza online or through their app. The buzz that the shoes created brought tons of publicity to the company, and gave everyone a laugh after a few moments of disbelief. Will we see more clothing with ordering capabilities in the future? Possibly, and maybe next time a company will decide to sell the merch to the general public. In the meantime, here’s a clip to help explain how these shoes actually work.

Réno-Dépôt worked with Sid Lee Montreal to come up with an extremely creative way to advertise paint. While the concept itself doesn’t sound particularly fascinating, the tech that goes into the bus stop ad is pretty impressive. A sensor captures colors within the view of the bus stop, and pulls up a corresponding SICO brand paint swatch in real time. From the colors of people’s clothes, to cars driving by, to the trees across the street, the camera captures any color within its view. As Reno-Depot boasts, “If it’s on the swatch, it’s on our shelves.” They clearly convey that they have a wide selection available. A color-changing panel in a bus stop is sure to draw attention, as people wait for the bus and simply need something to occupy their time. This innovative OOH campaign is sure to turn some heads. See the advertisement in action here.

Want to see more? Here are some other posts about OOH campaigns we loved.