Gold On Both Sides Of The Coin

9 out of 10 times we are talking about creativity on the agency and brand side of the business. Great examples of D/OOH campaigns keep coming at a steady pace and generating a lot of well deserved attention. However, that's only looking at the Out Of Home gold coin from one side.

Creative Surge

Ocean Outdoor's annual Digital Creative Competition (DCC) is celebrating Out Of Home creativity in its purest form; the creative idea. This year saw over 500 original ideas submitted in 6 markets. In comparison the Cannes Lions which is a global competition had roughly 2 400 entries if I'm not mistaken.

What stands out - apart from the # of submitted ideas - with the DCC is that the whole spectrum was represented. Entries weren't limited to being submitted by the agency side alone. Ideas were coming from big ad agencies, media agencies, in-house agencies and marketing departments.

If this isn't a very strong hint of there being a surge for creativity within Out Of Home I don't know what is.

Flipping The Coin

If you flip the D/OOH coin you'll realize that innovation and creativity within location and site development has been evolving drastically over the last 10 years and in 2023 we're seeing some mind blowing Out Of Home locations come to life.

Not really an Out Of Home location per se, it is impossible not to mention The MSG Sphere at The Venetian which is boasting the world's largest spherical shape with a fully-programmable LED exterior. For more on that, check out the video.

A closer to (Out Of) Home location that was just launched by Ocean Outdoor Sweden is The Halo. Located at Westfield Mall of Scandinavia - the largest shopping mall in Scandinavia - this is one of the most comprehensive and innovative DOOH installations in Europe in 2023.

Spanning across three floors it features 2 massive LED halos and 3 floating mid air digital cubes including downward facing digital screens. Moreover it presents a world's first 6 x DeepScreen? where all sides of the cubes are combined. To top it off a physical brand experience area is integrated beneath allowing for a seamless audience experience.

Brands Harnessing The Ops Of The Medium

Coca-Cola gets it. As part of the 'Best Coke? Ever?' integrated campaign they ran a number of activations including one in Copenhagen that I personally found to be one of the best DOOH + brand experience combos I’ve seen in a very long time.

#Creativity is at the heart of everything here. It runs through every aspect in the same way that the pipes connecting the DOOH screen with the physical experience.

A very high level break down of the elements worth checking:

???? How the DOOH creative is seamlessly connected with the physical place

???? How the physical activation is looped back to the DOOH-screen

???? How the location - the place - is a crucial pillar of both the idea and the execution. The place matters

???? DeepScreen?? is proven to create emotional connection with humans and it makes for content in its own right which makes the creative travel across the media landscape, extending the value of DOOH.

???? Perfect example of #IntegratedOutOfHome

A different kind of solution that utilizes longevity association to one location is this mural in Stockholm, Sweden. Netflix were quite street smart when they booked this large wall overlooking one of the busiest streets in the city for several months at a time. The cleverness here is that they are using insights from their service to make informed creative decisions and then repainting the wall with a new hyper relevant artwork each week.

Talk about a digital and analog match made in heaven.

No matter which side of the coin you choose, they are both gold.

Until Next Time.