The inaugural Locus Awards for out-of-home advertising is officially opening its call for entries, and the environment is ripe for a number of great campaigns and strong competition. That’s because the latest PwC Outlook has shown that since 2010, the OOH sector has been on a continual growth spurt, and it’s forecast to carry on through to 2017.
Despite this, there are no overarching awards for the OOH sector, something which AdNews is rectifying with the introduction of the Locus Awards. The awards will feature 19 categories including a Best of Show, and will cover everything from automotive to travel/transport/tourism, retail outlets to ambient campaigns.
Industry experts have been called in to populate the judging panel, with multiple Cannes Lion winner Luke Chess acting as chairman. Chess, along with Jon Foye (art direction) and Kerry Mc of Cranky Mermaid (retouching and illustration) were also responsible for the creation of the Locus Awards design and promotional campaign.
“Outdoor is such a broad category now, covering paid and unpaid media, standard prints, special builds and digital, plus constant new ways of integrating it into wider campaigns,” Chess said. “As a result, we had to search hard for that one thing that binds all outdoor together and differentiates it from other media. Outdoor executions occupy a space, a place, a location. A delve into the hazy memories of schoolboy Latin later, and we had ‘Locus’, meaning position or location.”
Helping Chess on the panel of judges will be Outdoor Media Association chief executive Charmaine Moldrich. “We are in very exciting times, in terms of innovation and the potential for technology to work with, and enhance, our medium,” Moldrich said. “With a steady upward revenue trajectory and a 5.2% recorded growth for the second quarter of 2013 we are growing in every sense.”
The inaugural Locus Awards is sponsored by Posterscope with supporting sponsors Val Morgan Outdoor, Adshel and Independent Outdoor Media. Entries for the awards (which count towards the AdNews Rankings, by the way), close 12 September at 4pm. You can download your entry form now from: LocusAwards.com.au
This article first appeared in the 12 July 2013 edition of AdNews, in print and on iPad. Click here to subscribe for more news, features and opinion.
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