Creative now king in Out of Home

Brands must go big or go home. That’s the consensus of six of Australia’s most respected marketing leaders who recently took part in the Outdoor Media Association’s OUT There video series.  

Featuring heads of marketing from Allianz, Uber, Telstra, BMW, The Iconic and Lion Beverages, the series demonstrated the evolving nature of Out of Home advertising and why it remains more important today than ever.

“The concept behind the series was pretty simple,” says OMA Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth McIntyre.

“Get some of the country’s best marketing minds in a car, drive them around to see their campaigns in the public realm, and talk about the strategy behind those campaigns to provide nuggets of wisdom for the wider industry.

“The channel is bucking the trend with sustained revenue growth, and OUT There highlights the impact, craft and strategic thinking that goes into the best outdoor campaigns in market today.”

For Brent Smart, former Chief Marketing Officer at Telstra, its strength lies partly in being difficult to ignore at a time when consumers have never had more control over the advertising they encounter. 

“It’s never been easier to avoid advertising,” he said. “The great thing about Out of Home is it just sits there, it’s big, and it’s kind of unmissable. 

“It allows you to be taken in when you’re ready and on your terms. I think it’s a really special medium and a killer way to build future demand for people who aren’t currently in the market.”

But Smart stressed that making it work requires commitment.

“You need to commit long term to the best sites,” he added. “I was super jealous that Apple had all the best sites, so when I came to Telstra I said to our media agency ‘get me the best outdoor sites you can, and I want to own them’. It’s the backbone of our whole media buy.”

For  Alex McLean, General Manager of Marketing & Product at BMW, simplicity and brand storytelling are key. 

“Brand storytelling is the best approach to Out of Home,” he said. 

“I see an opportunity to make a strong brand statement. What I don’t necessarily want to do is push a message that results in waste. I want my team to respond to the environment we’re in. 

“There are still a lot of people who don’t know BMW have electric cars, so the message can be very simple: let people know we have electric cars.”

With Alex McLean

While Telstra and BMW have plenty of physical touchpoints with consumers, digital-first businesses face a different challenge: building a tangible presence beyond the screen.

“We don’t have a physical product; we don’t have retail shops. OOH is the way we show up in real life,” says Laura Halbert, CMO at Allianz. 

“What’s really important when you’re a big brand is that you’re physically available.”

It’s a sentiment shared by fashion e-commerce outlet The Iconic and its CMO Joanna Robinson.

“I think it’s really important when you’re an e-tailer that you’re showing up in the real world,” she says. 

“You have to be where your customers are. That’s where OOH comes in for us.

“It’s really important that everything connects together, and that we’re showing up where our shoppers are.” 

For Robinson and her team, that presence also enables them to play a longer game in the battle for consumer hearts.  

“Obviously at The Iconic we want everyone to shop online, but we also know that it’s a very fragmented customer journey,” she adds.

“We want to make sure that we are building that future demand, so that we are then top of mind when they go shopping.”  

   Joanna Robinson

At Uber, Head of International Marketing Lucinda Barlow sees another advantage: forcing marketers to distil an idea to its simplest and most memorable form. 

“The way that you move around your city, the way that you get your food or your groceries is completely habitual.

“So OOH is absolutely critical, as our audience is literally on the move.

“I think it has such a power of simplicity. If you get it right, it makes all of your marketing better.

“We often start with Out of Home because it’s an exercise in synthesis, because you will be reductive to a message and to a cut-through image that’s going to stay in people’s minds,” she said.

That simplicity doesn’t mean playing it safe. Increasingly, the strongest work is being conceived specifically for its environment rather than adapted from another channel.

Lucinda Barlow

Clare Tsubono, Head of Media at Lion Beverages, recently commissioned the creation of a Trojan Stag to push the Tooheys New brand in Brisbane ahead of the State of Origin decider between NSW and Queensland.

With both Tooheys (NSW) and XXXX (QLD) in Lion’s portfolio, the execution enabled the beer brands to be part of a cultural moment.    

“OOH must be fit-for-channel; it cannot be a still from a TVC,” she says. 

“It’s become a much more sophisticated channel, and creation is key. 

“Adding digital has raised everyone’s expectations of it, and people are now leaning into it with much more creativity.”

Claire Tsubono

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To watch the full OUT There series head to OMA TV.