Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Well, the OAAA/TAB Convention and Expo is officially over for 2015, and I am sure, that just like everyone else, I met many interesting and smart people and just like at other good convention and trade shows, I continued to learn about new developments in the industry.
#AmplifyOOH attracted a hugely international audience; here we see left to right; Andreas Soupliotis (Ayuda Media Systems, Montreal) and Neil Morris (Grand Visual, London)
First, a word about the hotel: the Manchester Grand Hyatt. It has some of the most polite, helpful and generally all-round pleasant staff that I have dealt with in any of my business travels.
The same goes for both the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and Traffic Audit Bureau staffs, both top and down.
And as for the exposition part of the show, I’m sorry that time permitted me to only see some of the exhibits and not all – couldn’t it have stayed ‘up’ a wee bit longer, Ed?
But on to the convention itself, with its mix of news, gossip, events, awards, deals, new and upcoming products and the industry in the future!
Gossip, yes: Who made a $350 million deal recently? What network is owed $20 million that it’s unlikely to ever recover? Who has been involved in a two-and-a-half-year legal battle with a city government to get its display up? I’ll let you figure those ones out.
And, oh yes, I heard that there was considerable criticism of a sponsor who used an event to make a lengthy sales pitch.
Deals, yes: I witnessed the parties in two different deals in heavy discussions that seem likely to go ahead, and I expect that they were the tip of the iceberg with many more underway without my actual witnessing.
Personally, I spent much of both Monday and Tuesday in individual meetings with companies that I wanted to know more about, and I’ll be writing about a few of them over the next few days. Suffice to say, for now, that I’m mightily impressed about what beacon companies, like the well-established Gimbal and the up-and-coming AdMobilize are offering; about the new traffic measurement of INRIX (see earlier article here); about the expansion plans of Vector Media with its double decker bus signage, taxi tops, and solar-illuminated kiosks; with FlipHound (see earlier article here) and its ways to help make media buying for the OOH and DOOH sectors easier; and about the major investments being made by Screenvision in the digital sector that will make the second-largest theatre chain in the US more highly competitive.
New products coming or already out: tools for ad blocking (advertisers won’t like); or how about a screen that will recognize not only your face but what brand you are wearing? No, it won’t be able to tell the difference between a real Gucci bag and a knockoff!
I was lucky to be one of about 125 guests to enjoy the beautiful gourmet dinner at one of the best restaurants in San Diego as the guest of longtime friend François de Gaspé Beaubien, head of Zoom Active Lifestyle Marketing (winner of this year’s Crystal Bell award) where I as able to chat with many old and new faces.
Adrian J Cotterill jointly presented three awards at the OBIE Awards during #AmplifyOOH
Talking about awards, I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t terribly impressed by much of the creative at the OBIE Awards.
I’ve seen, have written about (and even judged) advertising creative for most of my career, and most of what I saw at the OBIEs left me a little cold.
In fact, in one or two cases, I was totally turned off by what I saw as rather vulgar content. (Others told me that for them it was shocking, too.) True, I certainly wasn’t in the target audience for these ads., but nevertheless….!
One long-experienced person I spoke to post-conference (and who agreed with me) told me that he thinks part of the problem is in the judging.
“The judges are all senior executives,” he said. “They should get a couple of young creatives on the judging panel for fresh eyes.”
I’ll admit that maybe I’ve become a bit jaded now that I’ve been seeing some incredible creative in recent years in the digital space, but several people I spoke to post-conference agreed with my views on this year’s OBIE creativity, so let’s leave it at that.
I also got a feeling that there’s some fear by people in the traditional OOH sector of getting into what is inevitable: DOOH. If they’ve been making their money with traditional OOH, why switch? Yes, digital will initially mean a heavier cash outlay, but with more advertising possibilities it can be made back quickly.
I spoke to Mark Boidman, managing director, Peter J. Solomon after he gave his speech Wednesday morning and, in his view, the OOH industry could be the next, of all media, to be hit should there be another economic downturn.
And to hear Andy Lippman, associate director, MIT Labs, talk Wednesday morning, the world has gone digital. In fact, his team is now working on technology that lets companies explore the emotions that connect us. I really enjoyed his whole presentation.
It seems to me that the OAAA is going to have to start separating DOOH figures from OOH in its quarterly reports. However, unless it came up for discussion in a private meeting with the Board of Directors, I don’t think it’s yet up for discussion.
I guess the only two topics of which I heard very little mention during this convention were programmatic buying and problems with governments in terms of installation locations.
But you can’t fit everything into two-and-a half days. So kudos to OAAA’s Nancy Fletcher, president, and Steve Freitas, chief marketing officer, and staff for a most interesting experience in the beautiful city of San Diego, and welcome to Kym Frank, the new president of TAB.
We’re already looking forward to Boca Raton in 2016.
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