digital outdoor in 2010

I’ve just read Gideon Spanier’s article ‘Go outdoors to make a splash’ in my Evening Standard. It’s a good whistle-stop tour of how outdoor is changing at present.
But I don’t think anyone has yet grasped just how and why digital outdoor – in the face of a global advertising downturn – proved so resilient in 2009 and why 2010 will have the marketing world increasingly in awe of what is happening in this space. 

Digital outdoor will be less about advertising as we know it and more about service and experience. Digital outdoor will become an enabler, doing precisely WHAT we want for us WHEN and WHERE we want or need it. So for example, the brand that wants to reach the teenage X Factor audience won’t be spending millions in the ad break. Instead they’ll take X Factor digital posters outside HMV in shopping malls, they’ll  feature the latest X Factor wannabe and allow you to download the singer’s track to your mobile phone – with everything wrapped in an X Factor experience.
 
This kind of thing is more than merely ‘campaign integration’, this is digital recognising what we want and adding value to our lives and experiences. The only other advertising growth area in 2009 – search – similarly succeeded by adding value when delivering against our need for information. Digital poster advertisers will be out there adding value and delivering experiences and will in turn be rewarded by sales. For me, 2010 is the year when the line will blur between experiential, digital and outdoor; this is marketing meeting our needs and aspirations.
 
Retailers and their real estate will be at the vanguard of these changes. 
Last week, we were asked by a major brand to recommend ways how we could help them capitalise on consumers multi channel approach to shopping, where they research online, browse in-store and then buy online. I suspect this is a familiar scenario to many. To do this effectively, we have recommended utilising the retail store, the mall the retail store is in plus the brand’s website and critically the consumers mobile phone. Easier said than done, as traditionally outdoor and retail budgets and spaces are separate and not joined up, so it means different thinking for everyone to truly integrate the experience. But these old demarcations will break down, because what is certain is that we live in an age where consumers have more places to buy and more opportunities to shop than ever before. Retailers will have to think on their feet to be competitive …. having a premised outlet is no longer enough on its own and price cutting is both undifferentiated and unsustainable – it is the way you allow shoppers to buy which is the key. Shopping has to be an experience that people value and remember, so they open their purses there and then and later return to do so again. Retailers will themselves have to think like media owners, offering brands ‘back from the till’ brand experience programmes that sit comfortably with how, when and why consumers want to browse and buy. Soon we’ll see digital posters advertising a product, we’ll download a coupon from the poster to our mobiles, we’ll maybe go to the store, ‘play’ with the product in-store or via a kiosk, we’ll perhaps see it in 3D using augmented reality, and then we’ll buy using our mobiles to get the best discount – and if it’s more convenient the product would be delivered free of charge to our front door the next day. This is the Brave New World of digital outdoor.

Alex Johns, MD