The best online is OOH

Published in Aurora by Dawn, May-Jun 2018

How OOH is set to bolster digital marketing in Pakistan.

I abhor sweeping statements, but this is one exception. And the reason I am compelled to make use of one is simply to nullify the digital hypnosis on fellow marketers so they can see what a honking, quivering, over inflated bubble online advertising really is. David Ogilvy once said “Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon”. But the very premise of the digital advertising industry is built on such jargons we’ve learnt to throw around and everyone just has to trust or, to put it more accurately, believe in it! Forget all the scandals around hidden margins, dubious metrics of #viewability and useless bot traffic; the founding principle has always been “reaching the right person at the right time with the right message is an effective way to advertise”. So based on trust (fueled by fashionability), an increasing amount of advertising money is flowing away from traditional advertising into the coffers of digital advertising in Pakistan. But while Google and Facebook have committed to Gold Standard and cleaning up digital advertising, the party could end abruptly if our advertising industry doesn’t commit to its own gold standard. While there are no easy answers to the challenges we are facing, clever marketers around the world are looking at the bigger picture, at new and creative ways to brand build and drive sales where issues such as ad blocking and viewability don’t apply. And their unanimous response is simple: The best online is offline… and out of home!

Till not so long ago, out of home (OOH) media was globally perceived as expensive, lacking in measurable data and generally difficult to enter, but that has drastically changed over the past few years. In the developed markets this shift has been fueled by the advent of automated trading platforms in the OOH sector which have significantly lowered the threshold to entry and swept away the old barriers to access. As a result, OOH media became more efficient, easy to purchase, transparent and available in real-time. The shift is visible when you see fantastic OOH campaigns that make use of digital technology and linking social media campaigns with on ground activations. (Case in point the Visa 'Nearby' campaign, or the McDonald's 'Catch The Goodies' interactive billboard)

Digital OOH screens in particular, are of most interest as they offer a raft of new ‘broadcast’ opportunities, enabling the OOH industry to become much more sophisticated, measurable and deliver new routes to market.

From live social media feeds to vehicle and facial recognition, audio enablement and geo-targeting to temperature triggers and day part targeting, the possibilities with OOH media are growing. 

The campaign by Renault uses real-time activation that allows for dynamic delivery based on an environmental trigger. This means the advertiser will only pay for play-outs when a target vehicle is stationary at the traffic lights.

Connecting digital to OOH simply gives you targeted messaging at a different level that translates into the ability to provide smarter, more relevant content to viewers. This encapsulates the original intent and thinking behind advertising: to engage with people and provide useful information to the public. Yes engagement, oh engagement… what crimes on digital have been committed in thy name!

Here’s my favorite pick though, an excellent example of integrating digital campaigns with OOH. Al Rajhi is a leading Islamic Bank in Saudi Arabia, they was promoting Laki, a card offering personalization for women with the promise of being unique to you. So instead of creating another ad hiding women behind the veil, FP7 Riyadh set out to show how the card was actually unique to each woman by creating the first outdoor ad in Saudi Arabia with women on it, without breaking any rules (Showing women without Burqa was forbidden, due to strict cultural regulations). Their idea was simple… use mirrors on MUPIs with a camera linked to an NFC device, a Bluetooth beacon and a simple message: “Discover a card that's unique to You”. The beacon inside each MUPI sent notifications to passers-by and invited all who were women to check what they had in mind for the card.

As women walked up, they saw themselves in an Al Rajhi Bank ad that was unique to each one of them. They could grant permission to get a picture taken, get it sent to their mobile and then share it with their world. Each share became an ad for the bank. Using the beacon notification, a link allowed women to contact the bank directly and start the application process. And just like the card, each ad turned out to be unique to each woman too.

This presents a major opportunity for creative folk and media planners alike. Globally, the emerging digital-out-of-home market is groundbreaking in its interactive technology, but it's also a return to advertising's roots and the original purpose around advertising: to provide an engaging and useful experience. Something our industry is in desperate need of right now!