Let’s go outside!
…the story so far
According to Kinetic Ireland, 2012 has been a slow start to the outdoor market.
This wasn’t helped by cycle one starting on December 26th 2011 – which advertisers stayed clear of despite reduced prices. Saying that, the advertisers traditionally associated with January were still out in force, namely the insurance, pharmaceutical and car brands. We have also seen movies and FMCG advertisers increasing as quarter one progresses.
Point of purchase, Adshel 6 sheets and transport formats are performing the best which is mainly from the advertisers that have been active , with FMCG particularly dominating the point of purchase space. Large format outside main urban areas are suffering to the overwhelming focus of point of purchase for so many FMCG advertisers with it being a vital space for this category.
Who’s been creative!?
Despite the slow start to quarter one, creating ‘stand-out’ has been on a lot of advertiser’s agenda. We have seen a range of outdoor innovations for advertisers who are looking for further engagement with their audience. We’ve seen the likes of Heineken Rugby who used EL 6 Sheets and 48 Sheet Specials to promote their association with the Heineken Cup, BMW 3D large format builds to announce the new BMW 3 Series, Nescafe Gold Blend 48 sheet lighting special and Jameson using 2D golden squares with lighting and illuminated letters to support the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.
With outdoor innovation certainly on the increase we will be able to avail of further developments which we can look forward to this year;
1. Growth in Digital OOH formats – both CBS Outdoor and Bravo Outdoor are expected to invest further in Digital OOH. CBS are expanding their dPod format to the Pavilion S.C. Centre in Swords installing 20 screens in ten locations throughout Pavilion’s Mall. Bravo are looking at rolling out their Transvision screens to regional transport hubs in Q1 2012 and are also potentially looking at digital bridge formats.
2. Increase in interactivity technology & OOH – Interactivity is becoming a more established part of the OOH opportunity. Consumers want to interact with brands outside of the home and with the rise in smartphone penetration this is now a very possible opportunity. Kinetic launched iTagged in late 2011, which allows consumer to interact with mobile content by simply entering a word or tag into the app. A general awareness campaign ran with over 1150,000 games played. Furthermore, campaigns for Audi Q3 and Heineken Rugby have also run and have really connected with their target audiences.
3. Innovations in Outdoor - OOH has become more innovative in the last couple of years with the advent of new technologies and more creative thinking. Bravo Outdoor announced a number of welcome innovation across the DART portfolio last year with wrapped trains, wrapped carriages, door branding and internal innovations now a possibility. We expect to see more campaigns including innovation as part of their brief
As quarter one continues and when we enter into quarter two, we can definitely see an upward turn for outdoor. With strong performing formats being booked up in advance and availability becoming tighter we hope to see this as a good sign of things to come for the outdoor market in 2012.
However, there is one challenge the outdoor industry faces in 2012 and has been in the news and that’s the potential ban on all outdoor advertising by alcohol brands as recommended by the National Substance Misuse strategy, 2009-2016. The report was issued in early February 2012 but no decision has been made at present.
Image by _Tophee_ on Flickr Creative Commons
