Feel the Real
I’ve consulted with the OAAA, the national trade association of the $8 billion outdoor advertising industry, for over four years, helping to reposition out of home advertising (“OAAA”) from old-fashioned billboards to dynamic digital displays. Out of home advertising is booming, and unlike all other media except digital and cable, has grown revenue for 20 consecutive quarters.
One of the core strategies we’ve used is to hitch our wagon to digital advertising, especially social media and mobile, the fastest growing sectors in all of advertising. This strategy can also be called “follow the money” because it’s where most of the ad dollars are being allocated (and some would say “dumped”) today. Nielsen research has proven that OOH is the most effective ‘accelerator’ of social and mobile advertising, and is the best overall medium at driving digital engagement and clicks, whether on a mobile device or online at home. It follows that OOH should be a core part of any buy that includes digital, because of the strong supporting role it plays in an integrated advertising campaign.
Recently, we developed a national advertising campaign targeting media planners and advertising professionals to tell this story, and to get them to ‘think different’ about out of home advertising. The big idea was to point out that, unlike digital advertising where 50% of the budget is wasted on click fraud and non-viewed ads that humans don’t actually see, OOH is real, is highly effective in the real world, and is really good at driving digital advertising.
The campaign “Feel the Real” was born. It launched in NYC at Advertising Week, and then rolled out nationally in major advertising agency cities like Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Detroit, Seattle, and Miami. I ran the agency search for the campaign, and we selected the young and highly talented Partners + Napier New York (PNYC) to develop the campaign. They hit it out of the park.
The campaign has generated tremendous PR value, has gone viral, and most importantly, has achieved its main objective: raising the profile of OOH and driving advertising professionals online to learn more about “Feel the Real”.
Lee Rafkin is a branding, marketing, and communications consultant based in New York. In addition to advising leading brands like Discovery Networks, Estée Lauder, Medtronic, Nestlé, and Pepsico, he named and branded the U.S. out of home organizations OUTFRONT, Geopath, and Boldsite Media. Lee can be reached at lee@rafkin.com.