By Josh Gurgiel, Head of Creative - POLY (oOh!media’s creative and innovation hub)
In today's fast-paced world, ‘efficiency’ permeates every aspect of our lives, from the way we work to the way we consume goods and services.
Need proof? I didn’t actually write that opening sentence. Chat GPT did.
It is kind of expensive to be human right now, especially if you are a coffee drinker with digestive issues. I paid $6.10 for a small almond latte the other day and almost called the ACCC. Between inflation, interest rates and the general cost of living, humans are needing to tighten the belt and build in efficiencies at every opportunity; got leftover mince and mash from last night’s dinner…that’s tomorrow night’s shepherd’s pie. The question for marketers in times of economic adversity (but also, always) is how to maximise the value from their marketing mince and mash? Most media agency traders will answer in the same way: “GET MORE FREE STUFF FROM SUPPLIERS!” But I’d like to propose a slightly more creative suggestion, one that is actually grounded in ‘creative’ itself.
We know the whole point of advertising is to reach as many light category buyers as possible to build mental availability for a brand to ultimately drive some sort of physical action (aka “sell more stuff”). This suggests that to maximise efficiencies in times of uncertainty (but also, always), we need to find strategic ways to reach more light buyers and capture more attention. This is where oOh! motion – oOh!media’s powerful motion-enabled Out of Home network – comes in.
When it comes to reaching as many light category buyers as possible, you’re going to want to use a broadcast media, preferably one whose consumption is on the up. Whilst I literally get paid to say this, we can’t deny the fact that OOH is the only broadcast channel that is currently growing, experiencing 3.1% YoY growth so far this year (SMI, YoY change % 2022-2023). But as the recent ‘Attention and Effectiveness: To ESOV and Beyond Pat II’ highlighted, reach is only one part of the equation, as co-author Karen Nelson-Field stated: “Reach assumes that 100% of the impressions you plan and buy are watched by 100% of the audience for 100% of the time, which is not the case.” Whilst no media channel can guarantee 100% engagement by 100% of the audience, the greater the opportunity to engage and the lower the barriers to engagement, the greater the potential attention - or as I like to call it - ‘Pottention’. You’re welcome.
OOH cannot be skipped, blocked or switched off; that is quite clear by now. Whilst many OOH environments also facilitate high levels of ‘Pottention’ due to their strong average dwell times – ranging from eight seconds in retail centres to forty-three minutes in airport lounges – it is the creative possibilities that exist in these environments that represent the greatest opportunity for advertisers to maximise efficiencies. The secret to unlocking these efficiencies lies in the use of motion.
We have known for a while that full motion digital OOH creative increases impact by up to 2.5x that of static digital creative (Ocean Outdoor, 2018). This has recently been reinforced by oOh!’s POLYGRAPH Creative Effectiveness Study - using transactional data from 130 OOH campaigns to identify creative attributes correlating to the highest shift in sales performance - that showed brands that used the full motion capabilities of the oOh! network saw +187% increase in buyers (vs those that used static digital only)*. And when it comes to the full motion capabilities, basically ‘if it has a roof, it can play full motion’ (except Street Furniture, which technically does have a roof). So whether it be retail centres, rail stations, airports, office towers or universities, if advertisers are not using motion then they are not capitalising on the full ‘Pottention’ of these environments and their creative is not working hardest for them.
The good news is, when it comes to developing high-attention creative for OOH, most advertisers are already doing this, they just don’t realise it. Digital video alone accounts for almost a quarter of overall media spend, let alone TV which, whilst declining, still makes up 34% of spend (SMI, Share 2023). A huge proportion of advertisers are already creating video assets that can easily and efficiently be repurposed for and amplified through full-motion-enabled OOH assets, extending their utility into a high reaching medium full of genuine ‘Pottention’.
So, if you are hungry for some strategic efficiencies, or just craving some shepherd’s pie, be sure to maximise attention at every touchpoint by utilising the full (motion) potential of the media formats chosen. In times of economic adversity (but also, always), every impression counts.
Source: *oOh! Polygraph, uplift in buyers and proportion of new customers over campaign period for brands using motion creative vs. brands that ran non motion creative, 15 campaigns, Polygraph analysis based on bank customer spend data from CommBank iQ
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