'A paradise full of opportunity': is this the beginning of an OOH renaissance?

"It is perhaps unsurprising that, when we gather six experts in out-of-home (OOH) and experiential advertising to talk about the medium, they are enthusiastic about its capabilities and possibilities. But the group is positively rhapsodic about a channel that, as agency TRO's Sulmaan Ahmad sums it up, is (compared with "saturated" channels like social media and with a hint of knowing hyperbole) "an open paradise, full of opportunity and very unsaturated"."

"Our panel's list of the bounties in this idyll is long: that OOH is "the most creative channel", as Posterscope's group innovation director Katy Hindley puts it, custom-made to deliver creative and copy "to make the heart sing", as in British Airways' recent campaign. Or that it's the ideal channel for the kind of (as Kinetic's chief client officer Nicole Lonsdale puts it) "humanizing experiences that post-pandemic audiences are clamoring for"."

"Or that it's (as Wasserman's Anup Daji says) "fostering a new wave of interaction", including the emerging fields of programmatic OOH and shoppable OOH and other integrations, from augmented reality to virtual reality and haptic peripherals. Or that OOH and experiential just might be the unsung heroes of 'social value' in the marketing toolkit, and a natural solution to some of advertising's ills."

Out-of-home advertising functions as an open, unsaturated channel offering extensive opportunity. It operates as a highly creative medium, custom-made to deliver creative and copy that "make the heart sing". OOH enables humanizing, post-pandemic experiences that audiences seek. OOH integrates with data to add utility for brands and customers, enabling smarter, more refined, outcomes-focused targeted broadcast. Emerging formats foster new waves of interaction, including programmatic OOH, shoppable OOH, augmented and virtual reality, and haptic peripherals. OOH and experiential can provide social value and address advertising's ills. Concerns about carbon costs of digital outdoor media are driving cleanup and sustainability efforts.

Read at The Drum