Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
This month we welcome Luc Quétel, President, Astral Out of Home, Bell Media in Montréal.
- Please tell us a little about your personal background and how you became involved in the Out-of-Home and Digital Out-of-Home sector?
I have more than 20 years of media industry experience, mainly in advertising technologies, and am currently the President of Astral Out of Home. For almost my entire career I have been involved in digital OOH advertising. It started in 1991 with the first LED on-board advertising network financing a PIDS (passenger information display system) in Montréal’s subway, with a company called Télécité. In 1998, I founded Passeportmedia, one of the first advertising companies in the world to adopt plasma screen technology, and in 2005 I sold the company to Astral.
Prior to becoming President of Astral Out of Home in July 2013, I held a number of positions in the company, including General Manager of Airports; Vice-President, Technology and Real Estate in Québec; and Vice-President, Business Development. Over the course of my career, I have worked with advertising networks in the rail transportation sector in Montréal, Hong Kong, and Paris.
I am also currently Chair of the Board for the Out-of-Home Marketing Association of Canada (OMAC).
- Astral was founded and grew in Montréal but was bought by Bell in mid-2013. What has been the biggest change in Astral’s OOH/DOOH business since then?
Acceleration. Bell is Canada’s largest communications company and Bell Media – the division that Astral Out of Home is part of −is Canada’s premier multimedia company with leading assets in television, radio, out-of-home, and digital media. So we have accelerated our business plan to grow the company to match the positions of Bell and Bell Media in our own media segment, out-of-home.
- You offer horizontal and vertical posters, superboards, murals, backlits, street furniture, and transportation (airports, commuter trains and stations). What percentage of your properties are digital? How many digital ad faces do you have?
We were the first company in Canada to introduce a network of digital large format faces, in the 14’X48’ superboard dimensions. It started in Québec in 2009 with the conversion of static billboards to LED technology, and then we were able to expand across Canada.
We are big believers of maximum impact and this is why we have more than 70 faces in large format. We also have other DOOH formats now at the street level with digital columns and digital TSAs as well as digital posters for a grand total of 154 faces. We were the first to introduce digital in street furniture, again in Montréal, back in 2011 with the LCD technology.
So, we love digital and we are proud to put innovation at the forefront of our strategy. We have more than 13,500 faces and while the digital faces represent only a small percentage of our inventory, they generate a solid amount of revenue.
- We attended the launch of Astral’s spectacular digital billboards years ago, but after they were launched, Astral’s DOOH product line seemed to grow very slowly, mainly just with some street furniture. How does the company view DOOH, and how is growth moving under Bell?
We have launched and acquired a number of digital assets across Canada – digital columns, digital transit shelters, and, following our acquisition of Macdonald Outdoor in Edmonton last year, we added 18 large format digital boards to our inventory in Alberta.
Our Transport division is focused on developing a strong new digital offering. In airports, a multitude of digital networks will be deployed to reach specific airport zones to maximize dwell time, frequency, and impact. Digital landmarks are being developed, which provide clients with great flexibility and the opportunity to own the entire loop to promote their brand.
We strive to offer modern technology that will offer maximum possibilities to our advertisers and deliver results while paying close attention to the assets we are deploying in the market and focusing on quality of structure, location and network coverage. We’ve seen new companies emerging in the market over the last few years with different products or offerings, but at Astral Out Of Home, we’re focused on accelerating only where we believe it makes solid business sense.
We have been innovators in DOOH before 2013 and we are lucky to be part of a company like Bell that supports acceleration of our DOOH presence.
- When you were purchased by Bell, it seemed that Astral’s broadcast properties were the most important and there was speculation in the industry that Bell would sell off Astral Out of Home. However, Bell kept it. Why? What are the company’s plans for it in the long run?
While there may have been speculation, it was never Bell’s intention to sell Astral Out of Home. Two years after the deal, we continue to enjoy tremendous support from Bell, as confirmed by the two acquisitions we have made in Edmonton with Macdonald Outdoor and in Toronto with Strategic Outdoor. Bell values Astral Out Of Home not only for our performance but for the countless synergistic opportunities it brings to the company, including Bell Media.
We are able to deploy additional telecommunication coverage on some of our billboards for Bell Media. AeroTV (information screens in the airport departure lounges) is a perfect example as the network broadcasts Bell Media content in all airport concessions where we operate, including the recently won Halifax, Vancouver, and Ottawa airports.
- Has Astral OOH undergone a major restructuring as part of its acquisition by Bell?
Although reorganizations are often inevitable in any multi-billion dollar transaction, Astral Out of Home’s situation was somewhat different as it was a new media platform for Bell Media, so only very limited restructuring was necessary. With our current growth plan we in fact have been hiring across all business areas.
- Is Astral OOH/DOOH into programmatic buying yet? What are your thoughts on programmatic?
Astral OOH is not currently in the programmatic space, but we are extremely excited about it. The ability to automate the buying and selling process and overlay it with meaningful data that allows us to actively target specific audiences is a big part of our road map for the future.
Our inventory in digital is very limited with prime locations and audience; therefore we need to manage our inventory with the greatest care.
- What are the next areas of business and physical locales in which Astral OOH/DOOH would like to expand?
As long as it makes business sense, there are no limits to our expansion plan in Canada. In addition to our more traditional markets in Ontario, Québec and BC, we now have new concessions with the Vancouver, Ottawa, and Halifax international airports; a great digital outdoor network in Edmonton, our first digital faces in Calgary, and we will continue to expand in more markets with more new products, always with the innovation for which we are known.
- What is/has been the main obstacle in Astral’s growth?
We have been winning many new concessions and launching a lot of new products – and we must continue to execute our strategies effectively to match or exceed each business goal.
This requires that we recruit the right people, which is also one of the biggest challenges. I am lucky to have a talented team, but as we expand, it does take time to hire the right candidates and train them properly.
- Do most clients tend to buy campaigns on Astral OOH/DOOH properties alone, or are they usually integrated with other Bell Media properties? Please explain.
We have dedicated sales teams for both national and retail sales across the country that focus solely on Astral Out of home properties, and yes, this tends to result in the majority of our sales revenue.
We also have a Bell Media Mix division that supports multimedia strategies for our clients. OOH/DOOH is a great medium for amplifying campaigns and fits easily into the Bell Media cross-platform strategy. We see both national and local clients creating integrated campaigns in OOH/DOOH, TV, radio, and digital.
- We know that you are now working with Ayuda Media Systems, which we know is a very progressive company with a lot of integrated offerings. What are you using from Ayuda?
We were the first major outdoor advertising company to use Ayuda in the Canadian market. We had our internal system but decided that it was time to move to a platform that could support our tremendous digital growth with a development team that serves different clients around the world. This allows us to ensure our sustainability in this area.
Ayuda brought us new functionalities and a more convivial system, but our internal system was already very powerful. For example, all Amber alert messaging is made available to different public organizations as needed which also supports our goal to be socially responsible.
- Advertisers and agencies really want to know about metrics on advertising properties. What kind of measurement tools do you use, how, and why?
Astral relies on certified circulation audited by COMB, the Canadian Out-of-Home Measurement Bureau. A stringent methodology sanctioned by COMB’s Research Committee calculates the number of people aged 5+ with a reasonable opportunity to see an advertising face during a 24-hour day. Vehicular traffic counts are attributed to specific outdoor advertising faces based on COMB-approved distance visibility criteria and then adjusted using statistically-reliable local variation factors, to represent traffic volume on an average day of the year. These factors include the average number of passengers travelling in a vehicle, the illumination factor, and may include some pedestrian counts in high foot traffic areas.
Beyond circulation, we believe the success of a good out-of-home campaign relies on strong creatives. In out-of-home, audiences are mobile and advertisers only have a few seconds to grab their attention. This is what our Visual Optimization service MARK VO developed by 3M allows you to measure. Exclusive to Astral, advertisers can validate the attractiveness of each visual element in their ad and make adjustments before it hits the streets for increased efficiency. The predictive accuracy of this service against the actual behaviour of the human eye is greater than 90% based on eye-tracking studies
- How much are you using things like 4K, gesture, touch, 3D, and other newer technologies?
We have an innovative team focused on special projects that will make sure we implement and ‘play’ with all the newest technologies.
Our technical team and master control work directly with clients to create very innovative campaigns, many that have won awards. More recently a campaign was developed for Reno Depot for which a camera device was installed directly on the structure of the digital board with an active app capturing the color of the sky in real time. The colour matching app replicated the exact colour instantly on the digital board while displaying the name of that Sico paint colour. This specific campaign in addition to having gained several media award in the Canadian industry, also won the “Gold Pencil” at the One Show in New York.
We are testing touch screens right now; along with using RRS feed data, QR code and NFC technology on a regular basis. Last year, we launched 40 digital bus shelters using 4K LCD84″ screens, which is a first for Canada. Due to its nature, we find Gesture technology not suitable for out-of-home as it’s complicated for consumers to operate and not precise enough, especially outdoor. We are very proud of the expertise we have developed. In addition to making sure we are always creative, our job is to make sure we deploy permanent innovative networks that can sustain a true business case with high returns and match the needs of our clients.
- How does Astral OOH/DOOH market itself?
Astral Out of Home has a dedicated trade marketing team that supports creative strategy and communication with advertising clients. We find creative ways to engage, influence, and provide solutions to our agencies and their clients. Recently, when we launched our Toronto Digital Transit Shelters, we created an indoor street party with street food, street performers, and a working digital shelter prototype where guests could have their photos uploaded instantly to our screens.
Branding is critical for us. Our tag line ‘Show Your Colours’ launched in 2010 and supports our product pillars, Digital (pink), Transport (orange), Street (green), and Outdoor (blue). This is promoted through all our initiatives and is recognizable to our customers.
We try to stay close to creative competitions as well, both domestic and internationally. Recently we entered and won top prize at the National Sign Competition in the OOH Advertising category for a campaign in Montreal on our digital street columns. Working with renowned designer Michel Dallaire, we designed a campaign in the Quartier des Spectacles Entertainment District, where eight digital structures were equipped with liquid crystal display (LCD) screens, plus Quick Response (QR) code and near field communication (NFC) technologies.
We also market to creative agencies with an out-of-home competition called Carte Blanche.
- We noticed that this year you launched the 6th annual Carte Blanche creative competition for Canadian agencies with the winner getting a trip for two to the Cannes International Lions Festival and a CA$50,000 campaign for the winning agency’s client. Tell us about this, why you do it, and what kind of entries and growth this competition has had?
Carte Blanche was conceived and developed by Astral Out of Home in 2010 to support and reward creativity within advertising agencies in Montréal and Toronto. Highly anticipated by the creative community every year, the competition has grown to include Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary, resulting in three separate competitions and a total of six winners going to Cannes. The number of entries increases each year. We now receive around 250 total entries and we hope each one will translate into a real campaign.
The competition encourages big creative ideas in out of home and we make it easy to enter. The Carte Blanche competition is based on agencies creating and submitting a new out-of-home ad for a client. There is no creative brief required and entrants are given “carte blanche” to develop a concept. Ads are then open for voting from the creative community who will determine the Top 10 finalists in each market. A jury comprised of participating agencies are then brought together to determine the winning submissions. It’s a competition for creatives judged by creatives.
- We don’t seem to see you at any of the major trade shows such as Digital Signage Expo nor at key conferences or events such as New York Digital Signage Week, which draws attendees from across North America. Why? Will Astral start being more visible at such events in the future?
We attend as many shows as we can, but we are also busy with a growth business plan which is extremely demanding. Personally, I do attend a couple events per year making the OAAA show a priority. I am also the chair of OMAC (Outdoor Marketing Association of Canada) and we have our own event called Activate. At Activate, marketers and agencies will discuss how OOH can deliver relevant and emotional engagement in a multi-channel universe by sharing campaign strategies, insights, and results.
Also, because we are dedicated to the Canadian market, we are very selective of the international events we attend as part of our cost control policies.
- Where do you see Astral OOH/DOOH heading in the next couple of years?
At Astral we continue to push to be seen as a leader in the Canadian out-of-home market. In recent months we have won a series of concessions – the Halifax, Vancouver, and Ottawa airports, as well as various digital expansions.
We also just won the Quebec transit RTC contract with bus shelters that we know so well with our massive Toronto Street Furniture concessions. This win also includes Quebec City buses starting in January 2016. Buses are a first for us. We are not afraid to diversify and challenge ourselves. We find it all very exciting and we try to have some fun along the way.
- What are your general views on the OOH and especially on the DOOH industry and its progression in Canada currently and over the next couple of years?
I am extremely optimistic about the future of OOH and DOOH in Canada. Our country is one of the leading OOH markets in the world regarding DOOH, with so many applications by so many operators, outdoor and indoor. The OOH market grows every year, and currently ranks second after online in regards to advertising year over year revenue growth.
In my opinion it will only accelerate as OOH and especially DOOH are such a crucial part of the connected world. We are seeing more technologies coming into play, especially with display opportunities, as well as growth in transport with ongoing population growth.
At Astral Out of Home we will continue to work towards growing our DOOH assets and make innovation a priority. We strive to be seen as the most progressive out-of-home company in Canada.
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