Published: August 14, 2008
MADISON AVENUE is having an out-of-home experience.
The ardor to reach consumers
outside the home — and outside the realm of traditional media like
television — continues to grow among marketers. They hope to fight back
against technologies like digital video recorders, which make it easier
to avoid conventional advertisements like commercials.
Out-of-home
media was once commonly known as outdoor media, reflecting its roots in
billboards, posters and signs. The term has been changed to reflect the
expansion into places like airports, offices, malls, schools and health
clubs, where the ads are inside but not inside the home.
That has also inspired another advertising term, place-based media.
The
new places for ads — as well as the addition of digital and video
capabilities to signs, bus shelters, phone kiosks and other sites — are
among the reasons ad spending in the out-of-home category are second
only to online advertising in growth.
The goal is to engage
consumers “during the course of their daily lives in places they go on
a frequent basis,” said Rick Sirvaitis, president at StoreBoard Media
in New York, which puts ads on the security pedestals at the entrances
and exits of retail outlets like drug stores.
“In 36 years in
advertising, for the first time I can look people in the eye and
guarantee every consumer will be exposed to the message,” Mr. Sirvaitis
said, referring to a StoreBoard sign, “because you can’t miss it.”
StoreBoard has deals with chains like CVS, Duane Reade and Longs Drug Stores,
where ads appear for brands that the stores sell, like Nexxus hair care
products, as well as for nonstore advertisers like Broadway shows.
“We’re
always looking for places where ads are not expected,” said Greg
Corradetti, director for account services at Serino Coyne in New York,
an agency owned by the Omnicom Group that is buying StoreBoard to promote shows like “A Chorus Line” and “Mamma Mia!”
“The
feedback we get is mainly that it’s noticed, maybe more than other
things we do,” Mr. Corradetti said of the ads. “You walk in the store,
and before you even get inside it’s right in your face.”
That
brings up a common concern about out-of-home media: crossing the fine
line between pervasiveness and intrusiveness. The more that ads creep
into new locations, the bigger the threat that consumers will be
reminded of ad clutter on TV and in other mainstream media.
“The
consumer will let us know when it’s too much,” said Wally Brewster,
senior vice president for marketing and communications at General
Growth Properties in Chicago, which owns more than 200 shopping malls
in 45 states. The company displays ads on sites like the “You are here”
kiosks in common areas.
“With our in-house research, we’re always
engaging our consumers to make sure our environments are relevant and
productive for them,” he added.
Beginning on Saturday, General
Growth will introduce at 150 properties a promotion called UR Votes
Count, aimed at the teenagers who shop at — and hang out in — malls.
Exhibits, created by Grand Central Marketing in New York and Los
Angeles, will include mock polling places where youngsters ages 13 to
17 can cast ballots in the coming presidential election.
•
Sponsors
of the promotion include Discover credit cards, SoBe beverages, Chip
& Pepper apparel and CosmoGirl magazine. The exhibits are scheduled
to remain through Sept. 21 and the vote tallies are to be released.
There is a Web site for the promotion (urvotescount.com),
also created by Grand Central Marketing, and a tie-in with Declare
Yourself, an organization that encourages civic participation among
younger Americans of voting age.
In trying to avoid alienating
consumers with too many ads outside the home, “it’s all about balance,”
said Ron Greenberg, senior vice president for digital media and chief
marketing officer at the TouchTunes Corporation in New York. “You have
to be careful.”
Consumers will “give you permission to present your ad” he said, “as long as you’re not disturbing what they’re there to do.”
TouchTunes operates more than 35,000 digital jukeboxes in bars, restaurants and stores, carrying ads from marketers like Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the Universal Music Group, Verizon Wireless and the Warner Music Group.
In
another indication of the interest in out-of-home media, deals are
reminiscent of those among traditional media companies. For instance,
TouchTunes is planning to acquire Barfly Interactive Networks in
Austin, Tex., which operates an entertainment network that adds
sponsored messages to the TV screens on the walls of about 150 bars and
taverns in cities like Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia.
“We’re
digital, we’re interactive, we’re speaking the language of that
21-to-34-year-old” who is prized by marketers of beer, liquor and other
beverages, said Bob Weinschenk, president and chief executive at
Barfly, which will become an autonomous unit of TouchTunes under its
current management.
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Barfly has sponsorship agreements with marketers like Anheuser-Busch, Diageo
and Skyy Spirits, which are attracted by the ability of the ads on the
Barfly screens “to tell a story over time,” Mr. Weinschenk said,
referring to the length of a visit to a bar by a typical customer.
Barfly is also alert to suggestions its ads are clutter, and provides the bars with buttons that can turn off the advertising.
“When
you step into one of our bars, we don’t text you, ‘Hello, welcome,’ ”
Mr. Weinschenk said. Rather, “it’s about engagement” with consumers, he
added, which could be disrupted if they perceive the ads as intrusive.