DailyDOOH

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

Despite our plans to meet at #dse2016 in Las Vegas last month, Nicolette Onsley, director of marketing at Val Morgan Outdoor, Sydney, Australia, and I kept missing each other, so we finally got caught up by telephone last Thursday – or, for her, last Friday, in Australia – as that 14-hour time difference was difficult to coordinate.

And the first thing I discovered was that we really shouldn’t be saying Val Morgan any more because the company rebranded and repositioned as VMO in March, unveiling a new logo and new website, as well.

VMO, a division of The HOYTS Group, a major media and entertainment company, wants to strengthen its position as Australia’s strongest 100% Digital Outdoor operator. Founded by Anthony Deeble, managing director in 2003, the company had been merged into The HOYTS Group in 2008.

“We had sort of been rolled in with the cinema network, but since then had acquired a lot more digital out-of-home products and services, so it was the time to step back and assert our own brand,” said Onsley. “We had acquired a number of companies including PumpTV (now On-the-go TV). In Nov./14, we launched DART, our exclusive digital audience in real time measurement system. And we are the only DOOH company in Australia that’s 100% digital – all the others have static as well.”

At the official rebrand launch, Deeble had said, “The time for us to evolve our brand is now. Digital outdoor has experienced enormous growth over the last two years and is a structurally advantaged advertising medium, positioned for further growth. Our relaunch is critically timed to support category and company growth, and prepare the business for further expansion.”

The challenge was to transform the brand into an inspiring, youthful brand that captured the innovation and technology in the products and services, while simplifying the product suite. VMO focuses on path-to-purchase environments with ‘VMO Shop, which includes 1,500 digital screens in 400 shopping centre environments; ‘VMO On-the-go’, which covers a growing network of 2,500 digital formats in over 350 gas station locations; ‘VMO Work’, the new and growing New Zealand-based business of digital screens in working environments; and ‘VMO Lab’, which offers creative digital solutions that bring ideas and innovation to life in meaningful ways.

Further, DART (ie. Digital-outdoor Audience in Real Time) offers advertisers anonymous audience analytics that demonstrate who has actually viewed a campaign and how long they are engaged.

“VMO needed a brand that would pull all of its products together and make it easier for buyers and creatives to understand our verticals, formats and capabilities,” said Onsley. “We wanted to do that through highly visual images of our sites and really emphasize our 100% digital nature while appealing to our audiences. We’ve placed a strong focus on creativity and innovation. We want to emphasize our desire to work with advertisers on their campaigns so that they can best use the medium for impact and engagement with their audiences.”

At the brand launch itself, Deeble had added to his earlier statement with, “We feel we’ve created an exceptional strong, contemporary brand that leverages the FIERCE nature of our internal culture and a compelling brand that doesn’t look or act like others in our category. We want to be a world leader in digital outdoor using best-in-class technology and innovation that reflects the business we are today, and what we aspire to become tomorrow.”

VM had seen a 70% increase in network size in Australia over the last 18 months leading up to rebranding and repositioning the business

A few days prior to the rebranding, the company had introduced VMO Work, a new product, specifically to the New Zealand market. This media platform connects advertisers to a valuable audience by playing full motion video but also up-to-date news and sport, financial information, weather and directory information – designed to create an informative and engaging media channel while people move through their place of work.

With screens in the lobbies of office buildings, VMO Work is initially found in 22 Auckland and fringe locations with a further 40 in the pipeline for 2016. Plans are for 250 screens in premium office buildings in major cities in both North and South Islands by the end of the year.

“We’re trying to carve niches,” said Onsley.

Total investment in the New Zealand network by the end of 2016 will equate to more than NZD $2million.

VMO has also launched DART, already in Australia, to the New Zealand market. By mid-2016 DART will measure 15,000 NZ viewers on a weekly basis.

Gordon Frykberg, VMO’s general manager, New Zealand, says, that the product is market leading and he is excited “about the investment program we have planned.”

At the end of 2015, Val Morgan Outdoor in collaboration with Carat, Posterscope and Amnet for Mondelez, launched a digital out-of home campaign for Cherry Ripe across the PumpTV network. The programmatic digital OOH campaign was the company’s first full-network campaign to use real-time audience measurement to drive live, time-targeted ad-serving in Outdoor.

Using DART, the company able to identify the target demographic and deliver a time-targeted DOOH solution that provided Mondelez with less campaign wastage and a highly targeted, contextual messaging opportunity. DART uses facial analytics to assess if the viewer is within the target demographic, and this functionality combined with 12 months of historical data determines when the target audience is most likely to be engaged with PumpTV. Delivering for the advertiser a qualified audience and charged only for serving the ad to the right demographic, it allows the delivery of great accountability and efficiencies for VMO clients.

Mondelez’ DOOH campaign represented a significant advancement for VMO in the way outdoor can be planned and bought, driving a pronounced increase in efficiencies, accountability and delivery of the most valuable audience. The campaign for Mondelez was forecast to run for two weeks across the PumpTV network, ending when the target audience was reached.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 4th, 2016 at 13:44 @614 and is filed under DailyDOOH Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.