Mendi Robinson, Creative Director at Lamar Advertising Company, shared her wisdom on how to make an audience look at a brand’s out-of-home advertising. There are two sure-fire ways to accomplish the task: ads that are simplistic and ads that stand out from others. 

Simplicity

Negative space, as Robinsons called it, is the key to making people look and read what’s there. Instead of being flooded with too much text or overpowering images, brands should rely on negative space to captivate the audience and force their eyes directly where the brands want them.  The Big League World Series mastered this art of simplicity in their 2016 OBIE award-winning billboard. With just a baseball player in full swing, and black, open space behind him, the billboard utilizes negative space, forcing eyes onto the baseball player and the short message reading “Heads up. July 28 – Aug 4. #BLWS”. The billboard is simple in copy and imagery, but striking to the eye.

Stand Out Ads

OOH’s power is the creative freedom it posses. Today, we have billboards killing mosquitos that could potentially carry the Zika virus. Kraken Rum featured a bus stop with Kraken-like tentacles coming from the sides. And Coke created an interactive ad that gave Coke in exchange for a smile. All of these are examples of the creative freedom that other media cannot provide. An audience will be captivated and engaged with unique, creative ads. OOH is able to connect and push that engagement into other advertising mediums, such as social or online, making OOH an essential part of successful campaigns.

True power and possibility rest with brands who effectively pair the simplicity of art and the creative capability of OOH advertising. It’s not an easy feat, but can be exponentially rewarding when executed correctly.

Check out this year’s OBIE Award winners. These brands seamlessly marry simplicity and creative and serve as motivation for brands across the globe.

Proposal Generation, one of our newest products at DOmedia, lets media vendors create beautiful, interactive proposals in minutes. Simply saying it’s awesome is an understatement! Here are some of the top benefits to using Proposal Generation:

Our mapping tool is unparalleled and now maps can be integrated directly into proposals! Each map includes information about every inventory location, as well as updated photos.

• Searching High and Low– While mapping inventory, users can search for any locations indexed by Google. The locations are plotted on map alongside your inventory, and are viewable to anyone with access to the proposal. Many media sellers use this tool to quickly overlay client (or competitors) locations.
• Category Buddies – Specific inventory categories, such as bulletins or wallscapes, are identified and segmented in proposal maps. These categories can be turned on or off at any time. Demographic shading is also available, encompassing a wide range of target audience characteristics such as household income, gender or race.

Proposal Generation provides a unique link allowing the proposal to be shared with anyone. This includes agencies not registered in the DOmedia system!

• Attachment Friendly – Our system allows attachments to be uploaded into a proposal. Once the attachment is saved in the system, it can be attached to any future proposal.
• Export Away – Proposal Generation can export the proposal into an Excel file, perfect for users more comfortable with using spreadsheets.
• We <3 Photos – Our proposal system automatically generates photos for the proposed inventory, pulling from the listing in the DOmedia database. Users can also upload any photo sheet that is not already in the system.  

Proposal Generation is designed with our customers in mind. DOmedia strives to make the proposal generation process as efficient and stress-free as possible.

• Changes are Welcome – The Proposal Generation tool is built in the could, meaning whenever changes are made, clients and collaborators will see them instantly. The original link used to share the proposal does not change, however. This removes the need to update buyers with new links and grids, keeping the process efficient and eliminating mistakes.
• Custom Made – DOmedia’s logo, located in the top right corner of the proposal generation, can be changed to any company’s logo. Other parts of the system can also be white-labelled to meet specific clients’ needs.

Proposal Generation’s built-in analytics provide powerful data to better understand the success of past proposals.

• Fun Facts – The top of the proposal includes: page views, map views, time on page and time on map. Basic information is included as well, such as start and end date, total cost and status, among other facts. Together, they work to keep sales people informed and effective.
• History Buff  – At the bottom of the proposal generation is a grid listing when the proposal was created, viewed, issued, approved and moved to a contract. Vendors are updated on client activity without speaking to the client directly.

Proposal Generation can save your sales team endless time and energy – energy that can be put to use when closing deals. Click here to learn more or schedule a  personalized demo.

Moderne Communications is a non-traditional communications agency that has recently been named a Top 100 Agency for the 9th year in a row. Joe Mastrocovi, President, sat down with us to discuss his company.

I founded the company in the late 80’s. I was previously the publisher of Nightlife Magazine in the late 70’s and 80’s, and that got the company into the event world. Originally we were Moderne Promotions. The company started in nightlife events and quickly grew all across the country with a broad range of event types. Then in the late 90’s, I developed another arm of what is today Moderne Communications, called Moderne Mosaic. Moderne Mosaic was our own media network. We started with a couple thousand Neighborhood stores in Chicago and it has grown to over 100,000 media networks today, spanning coast to coast. In 2006, we developed our third arm called Moderne Interactive, which brought us into the digital and interactive world. Soon we realized we needed to bring our three arms under one name. In 2007 we formed Moderne Communications. Today, we offer over 66 non-traditional marketing, experiential, media and interactive services. Our motto is “non-tradition is our tradition.”

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