Reinventing out of home

"We are living in a changing world where data is the new commodity and differentiator, formats are converging and the consumer, who sits at the heart of the change, demands what they want, when they want it and where they want it," says Craig Page-Lee, Posterscope MD, South Africa.

OOH may be the oldest communication medium, but it is not what it was initially, nor is it what people think it is. "OOH has evolved. It is no longer just a billboard. There has been a fundamental change in the industry and today's OOH is about connecting consumers with brands at the right place, right time and right medium," he says.

Driving change

Three main factors that are driving the transformation of the OOH industry are:
• The change in how advertisers are planning and buying media (more and more being driven by clients and not the media agencies commissioned to do so),
• The change in consumer behaviour (the always-on, anytime, anywhere generation), and
• Innovation and new technology (allowing brands to get up close and personal with consumers).

(Image extracted from the Posterscope website)

Taking this into account, says Page-Lee, the OOH industry should be based around flexibility and a "less-is-more" approach, delivering less clutter, greater stand-out (visual and value) for advertisers, fewer types of elements, commonality of sizes, interconnected digital networks - all which enables your media and advertising platform to be planned and bought as easily as possible.

"Add to this the need for greater accountability and you have an industry that is undergoing an incredible transformation and positioning itself to gain an even bigger percentage share of voice of total advertising spend in South Africa," he says.

Digital driving change

Digital is most definitely driving where OOH is going, according to Page-Lee, particularly in the retail environment and major malls. "While we have media owners who understand this locally, it is not quite here yet, with the full impact and benefit for advertisers still to be experienced. It is, however, only a matter of time."

Digital networks will provide brands with immense flexibility and will allow advertisers to change their campaigns instantly - daily, hourly - as product demand wanes or increases. .

These networks can play a key role in directing consumers along the path to purchase. Therefore, one of the most exciting opportunities for digital OOH is in the retail sector, while outside the mall OOH drives brand awareness, leading to search. He says the medium covers the Golden Mile. "From the initial consideration to the moment of purchase and through the post-purchase experience, OOH plays a role," he states.

Retailers see the potential

Globally, he says we are seeing retailers capitalising on their owned properties by utilising their storefronts in highly effective ways through the use of interactive digital networks, often placing the consumers in the campaigns on display in the store fronts. This is not yet as prominent in South Africa as it is overseas, this will allow for exciting brand engagement experiences for consumers in the retail environment.

Interactive OOH experiences that are well placed can provide the platform for fun, tactile interactions with a brand. "People are prepared to participate and immerse themselves in the experience if they get something in exchange. For example, Red Bull dressed old vending machine as large cans and placed interactive technology on the units. That allowed consumers to play a game on it and win free products, leading to data capture as well as rewarding consumers with new product flavour variants. People queued for hours engaging in the brand experience and all had a trail of the product at the end," he explains.

And the buzzword is...

Connectivity continues to be the buzzword in OOH. "Although technologies such as NFC and QR codes have been used at the broadest level in Europe and the USA, we've still yet to see a real step-change in advertisers adopting these channels to those levels in South Africa," says Page-Lee. He adds that it will probably take the wholesale adoption by consumers interacting via predominantly NFC and other tap-and-exchange technologies in more mainstream OOH locations to make this practice more commonplace.

Image extracted from PP presentation by Craig Page-Lee, Posterscope MD, South Africa.

He says one new technology to watch will be i-beacons - unobtrusive devices providing low-energy Bluetooth connections to transmit messages directly to smartphones or tablets. "These could have a serious impact on how brands serve content to consumers within retail environments or airports and the opportunities to push relevant real-time content to passengers are obvious."

Also watch out for technology linked to advertising displays can deliver instant redemption mechanics to a smartphone or tablet encouraging the consumer to purchase.

This is only the tip of the iceberg of what OOH can do for a brand he says. "Locally we are seeing increased investment levels from media owners in the delivery of new technologies and world-class OOH media platforms.

"This is important because media owners that know how to embrace technology effectively - as consumers get smarter and technology provides a fully interactive experience - will be well placed to own a greater share-of-voice of successful delivery within the OOH industry."