Blog
Projection Advertising Lights up Buildings in Most Major Markets
Source: http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com
A new form of alternative media is becoming popular as a way to catch the eye of consumers when they’re out on the town. In a recent campaign by AT&T, the company used a projector to shine its logo onto the side of the building. Movie studios have used projection advertising to run trailers on the sides of buildings, while Carnival Cruise Lines recently used the same approach in high-traffic areas of New Orleans to promote its cruises.
Projection advertising is typically used for the short-term, and is generally tied to events such as trade shows, according to Media Life. Vendors such as Alt Terrain, GoGorilla Media and Kinetic Lighting provide the service, which uses projectors to shine ad content onto the sides of buildings or ships, or any other structure that will take an image – at night.
The projected ads range in size from 10×15 to 200×300, and can be static or can include computerized graphics or full-motion video.
In many cities, permits are not required, and often the projection ads are done without the permission of the building’s owner. If complaints are made, the vendor simply runs the image on a different building. Such advertising is available in most large markets, and tends to run on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights with the goal of reaching people when they’re out and about. “Imagine your ad – 100’ tall – scrolling across a building, gushes the Kinetic Lighting website. “Now picture this scene during evening rush hour. Tens of thousands of eyes looking at your glowing ad.”
Campaigns using projection advertising are relatively new, and not much data is available on recall and other metrics. Prices vary. Alt Terrain and Kinetic Lighting charge between $3,000 and $5,000 per night, while GoGorilla’s fees are between $2,500 and $4,200 per night.
Out-of-home ad revenue is expected to be up 3% this year, according to PQ Media.
Solar-Powered Digital Billboards
The proprietary digital technology uses solar power and light-reflecting digital ink instead of light-emitting diodes Lamar Advertising is testing a new digital billboard technology that could provide a strong alternative to the digital billboards populating the country. Developed by U.K. and Israel-based magink, the proprietary digital technology uses solar power and light-reflecting digital ink instead of light-emitting diodes.
For the past few months, Lamar has operated a poster-size billboard equipped with magink’s technology in Pensacola, Fla. By April, Lamar plans to move the sign to New York to make sure it works under different weather conditions.
Because the sign uses less power than current LED billboards and reflects light rather than projects light, Lamar is hoping the technology will pan out for its recently acquired Vista Media inventory in New York and Los Angeles.
“We hope this will be less expensive to operate. The unique benefits of this technology also allow us to go into neighborhoods and areas and not have light projecting into the area,” said Bobby Switzer, vp of operations for Lamar.
Looking more like paper than a lighted sign, the technology also offers higher resolution than LED boards, offering more creative options for advertising.
“You can advertise fine jewelry or cosmetics. Flesh tones will look better,” Switzer said.
The technology just might help outdoor media companies that have faced municipal and legislative opposition to building out digital boards, such as the current controversy in Los Angeles.
“LED is a great solution for Times Square and on highways. But within denser areas there is a lot of resentment towards installed LED boards,” said Gadi Tirosh, chairman of magink.
Founded in 2000, magink first deployed its technology on smaller signage. Earlier versions had to be air conditions and enclosed in glass. Both JCDecaux and Clear Channel Outdoor have tested the second generation in London. Lamar is testing magink’s third generation, which can be scaled to any size.
Source: Mediaweek.com
JCDecaux has difficulty sustaining business model of Velib
A popular bicycle rental scheme in Paris that has transformed travel in the city has run into problems just 18 months after its successful launch.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk
Over half the original fleet of 15,000 specially made bicycles have disappeared, presumed stolen.
They have been used 42 million times since their introduction but vandalism and theft are taking their toll.
The company which runs the scheme, JCDecaux, says it can no longer afford to operate the city-wide network. Championed by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, the bikes were part of an attempt to “green” the capital. Parisians took to them enthusiastically. But the bikes have suffered more than anticipated, company officials have said.
Vélib extreme
Hung from lamp posts, dumped in the River Seine, torched and broken into pieces, maintaining the network is proving expensive. Some have turned up in eastern Europe and Africa, according to press reports.
Since the scheme’s launch, nearly all the original bicycles have been replaced at a cost of 400 euros ($519, £351) each.
The Velib bikes – the name is a contraction of velo (cycle) and liberte (freedom) – have also fallen victim to a craze known as “velib extreme”. Various videos have appeared on YouTube showing riders taking the bikes down the steps in Montmartre, into metro stations and being tested on BMX courses.
Remi Pheulpin, JCDecaux’s director general, says the current contract is unsustainable. “It’s simple. All the receipts go to the city. All the expenses are ours,” he said. The costs, he said, were “so high that a private business cannot handle it alone, espcially as it’s a problem of public order. If we want the velib set-up to keep going, we’ll have to change the business model,” he told Le Parisien newspaper.
Customised
The original contract gave the advertising company a 10-year licence to exploit 1,600 city-wide billboards in return for running the scheme, plus a share in the revenue, estimated at 20m euros for the first year of operation. City hall has recently agreed to pay towards the costs of replacing the stolen or trashed bicycles but is refusing to bail out the company. Not all the bicycles receive rough treatment however. One velib repairman reported finding one of the bikes customised with fur covered tyres. The scheme was modelled on one in Lyon, which appears to have been less troublesome, and has been extended to other cities in France. It is also being copied overseas with London, San Francisco and Singapore all intending to set up similar schemes.
PARIS CYCLE SCHEME IN NUMBERS
20,000 bicycles
1,250 stations
Cost 400 euros each to replace
7,800 “disappeared”
11,600 vandalised
1,500 daily repairs
Staff recover 20 abandoned bikes a day
Each bike travels 10,000 km a year
42 million users since launch
Source: Velib
All-in-One Digital Signage Board with Face Recognition Technology
Eye flavor enables advertisement distribution through effectiveness analysis
Tokyo, January 28, 2009 — NEC announced that it has developed Japan’s first all-in-one digital signage board called eye flavor. The new product, which is comprised of a large-size LCD display, camera, streaming controller, and effectiveness analysis software, enables easy installation of digital signage and can help companies measure the results of targeted advertising programs. Using NEC’s face recognition technology, eye flavor can distribute targeted advertising content according to the customer’s gender and age range.
NEC conducted a trial of the eye flavor’s effectiveness at the Granduo Tachikawa, a commercial facility in Japan. Specifically, NEC’s eye flavor was set up at the front entrance on the first floor of Granduo Tachikawa for 21 days in October 2008 The number of viewers, as well as viewing duration of advertising contents, was measured in terms of time period, gender and age. In addition, the distance between the display and the viewers were measured. Unlike commonly used survey methods, the effectiveness of the outdoor advertising was obtained on a timely basis with quantitative results that were more detailed.
Because of its portability, the eye flavor’s installation and removal are simple and flexible according to the environment. The target market for eye flavor is across various industries and NEC expects to achieve sales of 500 units in three years.
NEC’s eye flavor, which began selling and shipping in December of 2008 in Japan only, starts at 2 million yen. Currently, the face recognition technology applies only to Japanese faces but trials are ongoing as an advanced application solution.
About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation is one of the world’s leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of a diversified global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. For additional information, please visit the NEC website at: http://www.nec.com.
A very big client for Digital Out-of-Home
This post is a reprint from Mediaweek (Plough’-ing New Terrain Schering sets biggest digital OOH buy via new MPG unit), written by Katy Bachman on 26th January 2009. We have published this because it gives a serious signal that large advertisers are taking the digital out-of-home medium very seriously.
Paving the way for new respectability in the digital out-of-home space, health-care and packaged goods advertiser Schering-Plough plans to place the industry’s largest paid buy, estimated to be close to $10 million. The campaign, set for second quarter for a number of its brands, is not only gutsy, it could also be the kind of buy that will help move the medium into the media mainstream.
Digital out-of-home is still one of those tempting, emerging media that is so new and so fragmented, it generally falls into the experimental column of the budget, (if the advertiser is lucky enough to have one of those these days). That’s why last summer, 22 networks ran a pro-bono campaign for the Michael J. Fox Foundation to demonstrate the medium’s capabilities to reach a national audience.
While all the details have yet to be worked out, Schering-Plough’s plan, developed by MPG’s newly-formed Chrysalis unit, will deliver more than 1 billion impressions over the course of the campaign. Neither the client nor the agency would comment on the estimated cost of the campaign, which observers said lands somewhere between $8 million and $10 million.
Over a period of eight to 12 weeks, Schering-Plough advertising for several sun care, footcare and upper respiratory brands will run on 17 digital networks in nine venue categories. To target consumers closer to the point of purchase, Schering-Plough chose networks that reach consumers in varied lifestyle locations from health clubs and physicians’ offices to malls, coffee houses, golf courses and airports.
The campaign is a departure for Schering-Plough, which like most packaged goods companies, has relied on traditional media. “Consumer mindsets are very different in this environment and we think it is important to explore a variety of ways to reach our target audience,” said Chris Meringolo, director of global media services and digital marketing for Schering-Plough Consumer HealthCare Products. “Digital out of home offers new touch points for communication, many of which are closer to purchase opportunities.”
Moving at least some of its advertising and marketing closer to the point of purchase makes sense for Schering-Plough. While the overall sales for its consumer healthcare products rose 2 percent in third quarter 2008 on the launch of new constipation product MiraLAX, sales of its other over-the-counter products, such as Claritin, were low. After spending about 84 percent of its media budget on TV (per data from Nielsen Monitor-Plus through November ’08), and at least $2 million for one ad in a first-time Super Bowl spot in ’08, the company may have figured it was time to try a medium that was less costly and more targeted.
Schering-Plough’s willingness to try something new and the growing interest in digital out-of-home from other national advertisers is why Havas’ MPG formed Chrysalis in November as a dedicated unit to focus on “touch point communication planning,” including digital out-of-home, event marketing and other location-based media channels.
“Traditional media doesn’t have the same power it had before in terms of reach,” said Steve Lanzano, chief operating officer for MPG, whose clients include Volvo, Exxon Mobile, Sears, Kmart, McDonald’s, Pearl Vision, Autozone and Fidelity. “When you’re dealing with ratings of 2, it’s not the mass medium it once was.”
Chrysalis, right now a small group of six people led by OOH vet Connie Garrido as president, has high hopes that the planning and execution of the Schering-Plough campaign can provide insight for other advertisers that have been nervous about harnessing the nascent medium.
Just as important as placing the dollars, Chrysalis is planning a heavy research component to gauge the success of the campaign using metrics requested by the client. Talks are already underway with a number of research providers and consultants including Arbitron, Nielsen, Acxiom, GfK Group, OTX, Millward Brown and Sequent Partners.
“TV is a safe haven because there is a comfort in the research,” said Garrido. “If we’re going to go to consumer-centric planning, we need to better understand it and make it comfortable for the advertiser to take a risk. No one has quite figured it out. There is a multitude of approaches agencies use to plan and buy alternative media.”
For Chrysalis, the planning process was a critical component in understanding and advancing the medium. Chrysalis worked with the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau to bring in scores of OVAB-affiliated network companies, which made brief presentations. To narrow down the choices, Chrysalis held another series of meetings with a smaller group of networks, leading to formal requests for proposals in late December. In the last week, Chrysalis selected the networks that made the most sense for Schering-Plough’s brands.
“Most of the vendors of new media never find out how planning and account people think,” said Mitch Oscar, executive vp of televisual applications for MPG, who spearheaded the initial meetings as part of MPG’s regular series of roundtables with different new media segments.
“This is about moving a medium forward and bringing clarity to the space.”