On July 15, Anna Bager, President and CEO of the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) sat down with Michael Rosen, Chief Revenue Officer, Intersection to have a conversation about the most surprising things brand marketers should know about OOH in the COVID-era and beyond. The following is an excerpt of the discussion.
AB: Michael, it’s so great to be with you today, and I’m so excited for this discussion. You joined the OOH industry about two years ago from a career in TV and digital. And I joined from the IAB about a year ago. So I’m curious what really stands out to you about the medium?
Well the first thing is the variety of ways you can use OOH if you’re a brand marketer. You can use it for video, programmatic, digital — it’s upper funnel, too! It’s really about telling stories at scale, so you can come at it from the creative side or the strategy planning side to bring your story to life in the real world in a way that’s totally contextual and authentic to the consumers. What’s more, we’re easily accessible across the same DSPs used for desktop, mobile and programmatic media touchpoints.
Another thing is that as cities become more important to our lives in the future, some of the technical advancements in OOH will help brands with storytelling in incredibly unique and creative ways as consumers go about their daily lives. OOH has dynamic digital formats that are now part of the ecosystem with triggers like weather and transit information that can tell if the bus or train is coming, countdowns to concert or sporting events, and on and on. We can engage with consumers right there in real-time on the street where they are and serve them an offer on their mobile phones that they can then take into a store.
And creativity doesn’t stop with digital. Buses offer brands a high impact canvas. Brands should think of buses as a network for scaling messaging to consumers in big, impactful ways that are always authentic and contextual to consumers’ lives.
AB: That is a great start to our session! I’m really interested to hear your perspective on how OOH can help brand marketers during the pandemic. One of the things that’s really stood out for me in the current COVID moment is the opportunity OOH offers brand marketers right now and beyond as we re-open.
History shows that OOH has always been relatively recession proof and while the industry is down we expect a fast rebound. Nationwide passenger vehicle travel has already returned to pre-COVID levels according to INRIX. Interestingly, in spite of the pandemic, MAGNA projects that in 2020 OOH will outperform all other traditional media competitors and that next year the industry will return to impressive growth – a forecast of 10% for OOH, even surpassing digital media growth.
So one of the things I wanted to ask you about is the role of street traffic, in particular, to help brands reach consumers during the pandemic, as I know Intersection has a tremendous amount of expertise in helping brands reach consumers in the real world via a variety of OOH formats. What are you seeing?
MB: Well one thing is that there has been a pretty widespread misperception about foot traffic during the first few months of the pandemic. In fact, Geopath, a tripartite organization made up of brands, agencies and OOH media owners, released research this spring to help the OOH industry better understand the shifts in consumer mobility influenced by COVID-19 – the report was actually encouraging for marketers seeking to reach consumers during this unusual time. New data also shows that overall mobility across the US is now at 92%, on par with the first week of March numbers before COVID restrictions went into place. So consumers are moving about again – perhaps differently than before, but the data shows their activity is springing back.
AB: You’re absolutely right. And this raises a really relevant and important issue for brands – delivering ROI. With the pent-up consumer demand created by COVID-19, OOH can generate highly effective results because it’s engaging consumers near the point of purchase and it’s frequently the last ad consumers see just prior to a transaction. What’s more, OOH advertisements reach younger, more affluent viewers, drive more consumers into stores and convert directly into store visits and sales. What’s your take on OOH and ROI in the current moment?
MR: OOH delivers ROI. In a big, measurable way. This is really one of my biggest takeaways since coming to the industry after a career in digital and TV. One of the things that’s really blown me away about OOH is the high quality of the attribution and measurement we can deliver for brands. OOH can now drive specific outcomes for the targeted audiences brands want to reach whether it’s ad recall, purchase consideration or in-store visits. The list of sophisticated measurement of attribution data we can deliver now spans things like measuring search, foot traffic, website visitation, brand affinity, brand awareness – and we can even ingest third or first-party data. This is not your parent’s OOH!
AB: One of the things that’s really struck me about OOH in the current environment of the pandemic, social media boycotts and everything else going on is that it’s such an incredibly brand safe and trustworthy medium. How does that tie in with your thinking about what the opportunity the medium provides brands and brand marketers right now?
MR: This is an incredibly important topic right now, especially with the social media boycott. For a brand marketer you need to be thinking carefully about your media decisions, your overall corporate responsibility and your authenticity – both in the short-term and in the long-term. As I’ve heard you say many times, Anna, the ad is the ad on OOH. There’s no user generated content to worry about. It’s right there and it’s absolutely brand safe. There’s no fake news. You can tell stories in safe and powerful ways, and this is particularly true in cities where a brand can tell their story from the small screen to digital OOH kiosks and other street media in ways that deepen the story along the consumer journey.
What’s more, brands can reach consumers on OOH in a seamless, contextual way that is relevant to their daily lives whether you’re displaying art, messaging about your brand or about something that is helpful to a consumer as they go about their day.
AB: To me, video is one of the most underutilized platforms in OOH, and I think we’ve just scratched the surface of what it can do for OOH. I’m curious as to your views on this?
MR: I completely agree with you. Brand marketers look at video agnostically from a platform perspective – except for OOH. We’re changing that now because marketers are starting to see how we can combine beautiful creative with video that connects consumers across a fragmented world. And what’s so surprising and impressive about video on OOH is that it’s competitive on an audience reach and impressions basis compared to some of today’s biggest video publishers like Amazon Prime and Hulu. When you combine the massive scale of impressions with the reach of OOH companies across the country, you can see that video in public spaces is a hugely underleveraged platform. I’m really excited to see how this develops.
AB: Any final thoughts to leave brand marketers with?
MB. Yes. I’d like to leave everyone with three questions that brand marketers should ask their teams about OOH – and we’ve really touched on each of these areas today:
- How can OOH be better integrated with my overall media strategy?
- Why do we treat video agnostically except for OOH?
- How can we use OOH to drive and measure the same behaviors as my other media channels?
I think these are the essential questions that every brand marketer should address that can ultimately unlock enormous opportunities for brands – not just in the COVID era – but well beyond as they seek to continue to engage with consumers in a fragmented media marketplace. OOH delivers on all of these fronts. That’s the message.
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