Enigma Rebrands As DOOH.com
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
We had an interesting interview Thursday (April 16, 2015) with Andrew Newman, CEO and co-founder of the 13-month-old London agency Enigma that’s become the innovation arm of DOOH.com.
Newman let us know that Enigma had paid a six figure sum into acquiring the domain name DOOH.com, a move that was led by the shifting marketing landscape away from outdoor print media to digitally connected advertising. Enigma remain the innovation department of DOOH.com.
“We’ve had tremendous success, an absolutely amazing year working with dozens of clients,” said Newman. “At this point, we’re getting calls from companies worldwide, including North America, interested in our help.”
With sights set on international expansion, Newman wanted to create a brand that both simplified the industry and announced its intentions by investing significantly in its future.
“We already have offices in France, Mexico and Brazil, and, yes, we are looking for investment,” said Newman.
DOOH.com is part of the six-year-old CURB Media Group, which is majority owned by Anthony Garjou, co-founder of DOOH.com. Also under CURB Media are: CURB, an experiential company; Visualise, a virtual reality agency; Titan, which produces expensive, high level TV screens; and more.
DOOH.com (as Enigma) is a production agency that’s been responsible for such noteworthy campaigns as that for Skoda whereby commuters could see themselves seated in a ŠKODA Fabia they’d customized themselves from 90 different possibilities in real time on Waterloo Station’s largest advertising screen via a 3D camera.
DOOH.com promotes itself as fusing digital, mobile and social to help clients create linear, interactive and dynamic integrated campaigns across digital out-of-home. Under the name Enigma, it was responsible for creating the first advertising campaign for London Gay Pride as part of Pride Week 2014’s #FreedomTo message, delivering images, videos and real-time supportive tweets to ad space across London in real-time.
It also managed the first and largest traveling video wall on a double decker bus for a month to launch the new TV channel London Live. Activity included mass auditions, UK’s biggest self Selfie, geo-located tweets, invisible bus and a product launch for channel sponsor L’Oréal.
That’s only a few of many, and we understand that next week will see the launch of another big campaign which we understand is for another car company.
“The industry now sees that there are real opportunities for digital out-of-home, although more education and innovation are needed,” said Newman. “As for us, we’re showing that we can offer an innovative, affordable, efficient campaign with real reach. And we can move quickly. We’ve been able to go from briefing to screen in two weeks.”
Newman claims that he’s been working with virtual reality for 20 years. He worked with TV live for 10 years and the worked on producing TV commercials before launching Enigma. Among his ‘achievements’, he produced Madonna’s largest Internet broadcast in connection with one of her record launches.
“I believe that DOOH.com is answering a need in the market to be transparent in terms of that efficiency, affordability and reach,” he said. “The industry needs to be more accessible and transparent. DOOH has every reason to show that it can be quick and innovative. And if it’s efficient, companies can spend more to achieve more reach and increase their ROI.
“DOOH marketing is still in relative infancy, but having grown into an industry said to be worth £1bn by 2020, our investment in DOOH.com is a drop in the ocean to what is coming next for brands.
“For us, our rebrand isn’t just about changing our name. It’s about making the incredible technology at our fingertips easier to understand, more accessible and more affordable.”
And it’s not just for the big brands, Newman said in a release announcing Enigma’s name change.
“We want to also reach the middle market brands that are intrigued by and could benefit hugely from a more connected digital approach to outdoor advertising, but aren’t sure where to start. Ads on DOOH are more efficient, can run real-time content from videos to social media feeds, can be delivered quicker, can be changed in an instant – and, unlike its print cousin don’t have to cost the earth.”
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