Insider’s Note: Nick Coston has been writing opinion pieces for the OOH industry for 10 years now. His weekly pieces also appear on Substack where you can view the last 2 years worth. Full-time, Nick is the VP, Sales and Sales Strategies for Moving Walls, the Singapore based media and ad tech giant, here in The America’s.
By Nick Coston
As I write, the top OOH advertising categories are personal injury lawyers, telecommunications and entertainment. In fact, love him or hate him, John Morgan, the name behind Morgan & Morgan, will be a headline speaker at next year’s OAAA OOH Media Conference in Dallas. His behemoth law firm was one of the first to really pound the use of billboards into their ad buys, especially at busy intersections where most accidents take place. Years to follow, other PI firms followed suit. In droves. Drive on main roads now through Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, California and Illinois and you’re likely to see, at the minimum, 50% of the advertising devoted to PI firms.
So much for good creative driving new billboard users.
But with the increasing growth of digital signage just here in the U.S. alone, and with a hearty 50% avail rate on anything DOOH, I’m being very generous on that percentage, maybe we need to look outside our DOOH comfort zone to fill space that truly garners audience attention, especially displays that allow full motion.
With all that talk about AI at the recent OOHNYC week which included a robust DPAA Global Summit and an OAAA/4A’s afternoon symposium, seems like a prime time to leverage more artificial intelligence (AI) that can accomplish two tasks: raise cultural awareness among global issues while getting more eyeballs looking at our screens. Instead of seeing repetitive ads and filler spots, why not utilize AI for some mesmerizing visuals to fill that empty space, making your display not only a rotating advertising carousal but something that really catches the eye, stopping and training audiences to really look at the displays and not walk by them as mere background noise.
I love this quote by Vilas Dhar, the president of the Patrick J McGovern Foundation – a philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing AI and data science solution; ““AI is not just a tool for innovation; it’s a force that can reshape how we see our planet, reconnecting us with the beauty and fragility of nature in ways never before possible. Refik Anadol’s (renowned media artist) brilliant vision allows us to use technology to engage the senses and spark a deeper emotional connection to our natural world”.
We speak often about using our big canvas creativity to boost ad sales and in turn boost our overall capture of total ad budgets. Maybe it’s time we turn it up a notch and include some cutting-edge visuals, whether incorporated into paid/sponsored ads so there’s revenue involved or simply bringing attention that lonely screen you walk by every day. You want to stand out.
AI-powered media arts, recently on display in NYC at United Nations HQ by the above mentioned Refik Anadol covered whole walls of stunning digital art during the UN Summit of the Future, giving us a glimpse of how what we could accomplish. More eyeballs, bigger audiences, more ad sales, higher revenue. It’s not brain surgery.
Playing off the UN displays, another most major out of home show at Grand Central Terminal was the “Dear New York” art installation by Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York, which ran from October 6-19. It even received a mention at the DPAA Summit. This large-scale exhibit replaced all advertisements with digital screens, 50-foot projections, and works from New York City students, celebrating the city’s humanity. For the holiday season, the New York Transit Museum will be hosting a miniature electric railroad exhibit. This immersive original art exhibit used over a whopping 150 digital screens within Grand Central.
We can do better with our digital assets, leveraging their tech into much-needed attention-grabbing visuals. Maybe it gets a passerby enough time to realize they too could be advertising right there.
DOOH displays are our biggest assets. It’s not rate cards, CPM’s, programmatic or direct buys, it’s how we look and appear that makes all we do more attractive and effective.
If you are interested, here is Nick’s Substack LINK
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