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September 2008 - Strategy Magazine
Media

Do marketers dream of electric screens?

by Jesse Kohl
page 32

Philip K. Dick's tale Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the basis for the movie Blade Runner, portrayed the future as a place with many screen-based communication devices for advertisers. Then came Minority Report, another flick adapted from a piece of Dick fiction that really got marketers' attention with its digital outdoor advertising messages calling Tom Cruise's character by his name.

Is that vision for the future annoying? Sure. Controversial? You bet. Is it where we're headed? We're betting you don't need us to answer that one.

There's no question that digital out-of-home (DOOH) is growing. PricewaterhouseCoopers reports that the out-of-home advertising market in Canada will hit $507 million by 2012, thanks largely to the power of digital networks in offering advertisers targeted, entertaining content. ZenithOptimedia Worldwide has noted that, despite a drop in overall ad spending in the U.S. and gloomy economic headlines, out-of-home continues to see annual growth in the double digits.

The Out-of-Home Marketing Association of Canada, following another healthy forecast by Nielsen's Ad Expenditure Report, was quick to note that digital is a big reason why OOH ad revenue grew 12% from January through May over the same period in 2007.

No doubt about it, the DOOH options are diverse. There's tactical, where you're buying a captive audience in an elevator or on a subway platform, and mass-targeted screens such as the ones hanging over Toronto's Dundas Square, conveniently located near every known retail establishment. And with lower production costs using digital templates for creative, the potential ROI is something you'll be hearing more about.

So what are advertisers doing to take advantage of the rapidly expanding roster of screens across the Canadian media landscape?

As this issue hits the stands, Random House of Canada (RHC) is pondering the initial results of its first foray into DOOH with short video content. In partnership with

Toronto-based Onestop Media Group (OMG) and Art for Commuters (A4C), the book publisher launched three one-minute films, produced by artist Lesley Loksi Chan, to promote the Aug. 5 launch of Andrew Pyper's new book, The Killing Circle. The "book trailers" concept is not necessarily a new vehicle for the publisher, but DOOH is a new medium for getting the message out.

RHC VP and director of online sales and marketing Lisa Charters points out that subway platforms are a logical place to target book readers in Toronto, the author's own city, which is also the setting for the book. The publisher is rounding out promotion for Pyper's book using online tactics that have proven successful over the past year, such as spending on Google AdWords and Facebook Social Ads to cover online promos and a Facebook page that gets users uploading snapshots of the book's cover to enter a contest to win signed copies. But August marked the marketer's move into DOOH, and it's a strategic step.

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