Scaling the Summit Using Digital Out of Home

The daylong event which historically pulls in top industry speakers once again featured leading CMOs this time from brands ranging from Yahoo to Uber agency CEOs and expert vendors each offering valuable lessons for our current media environment including of course how they also each incorporate Out of Home advertising OOH to reach the right people While all are available to revisit via the DPAA Summit page six of those impactful sessions from a DTC marketer on up to the No 4 company among the Fortune 100 are summarized here along with a taste of the very tasteful and atcapacity eventIn Part 1 Fresh Direct Microsoft and Wolverine explain how they embrace innovative creative follow the customer and navigate omnichannel storytelling Part 2 covers how Adidas Claire39s and CVS have approached the Metaverse the changing retail landscape and generational marketing tooThe Stars of OOHAfter years in the media industry DPAA CEO Barry Frey pictured at top understands the power of entertainment so he made sure to surprise and delight the crowd at Chelsea Piers with a special performance by no less than the stars of Broadway hit Hadestown with songs themed to quothow the world could bequot Frey leveraged his trademark affability in introducing keynoters at the Summit for compelling conversations that kept the audience quotleaning inquot The interviews were interspersed with shoulder rubbing among marketing quotstarsquot during coffee and cocktail breaks throughout the dayEqually impressive in their own way were the presentations by the range of companies each making it clear how OOH contributes to a successful omnichannel marketing mix for their respective goals And literally running on the Broadway line and beyond Fresh Direct showed us how to appeal to busy New YorkersFreshDirect A leading but regional online grocer FreshDirect is owned by the larger food retailer Ahold Delhaize The brand is familiar to many Northeast residents and Vice President Brand Marketing Katie Zapata shared how FreshDirect fully followed their customers from underground in the New York subways to their front doors via shoppable OOH messaging that delivered for its omnichannel marketing strategyOOH Having a MomentThe DTC grocer used heavy OOH in a unique way by teaming up with Outfront39s quotMomentsquot culturally relevant original content themed to different interests and served to different transit digital media formats reaching millions of daily commuters FreshDirect39s branded integration featured realtime New York City weather conditions paired with different recipe suggestions for a dynamic campaign across stations and incar liveboards during key commuting momentsThe OOH content was made shoppable via QR codes that deeply linked customers into a curated shopping experience featuring the recipe ingredients on freshdirectcomThe results The trifecta of contextually relevant messaging branded content and shoppable OOH not only earned attention for FreshDirect via creative that was endemic to New York39s irreverent style but increased overall customer acquisition and consumer engagement throughout the campaignPer Zapata quotMany would assume that digital would be the way to go for us as a digital company But we need all the channels to work together so Out Of Home is really an important part of our mix especially here in New York City where we39re always on the goquotThey didn39t stop in their tracks though Since Zapata also credits OOH with driving 7x more social activations than other media per dollar spent Comscore they connected the dots from a social media comment about a recipe to an IRL surprise delivery to that customer adding good PR to the campaign ingredientsMicrosoft Illustrating how a global brand can benefit from OOH on a regional level Microsoft Chief Brand Officer Kathleen Hall walked the Summit audience through how she keeps things personal at scale and embraces innovation in leveraging digital out of homeMarketing Through ComplexityIn introducing Hall Frey applauded Microsoft39s recent Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year win and acknowledged the complexity that must go hand in hand with marketing such a massive brand quotIt39s kind of mindbogglingquot Hall admitted quotespecially when you consider our old choices were just about the media mix Now exponentially layer on top of that your measurement opportunities amp8230 and the matrix of options you need to consider in designing a marketing plan amp8230 But my agencies are totally attuned from day one on the business outcome we39re trying to drive to Then things fall away as you follow that true northquotPart of that direction is to include OOH in the omnichannel mix especially for its brandsafe offering amp8220Itamp8217s a very sensitive environment right now so itamp8217s very difficult to thread the needle both on messaging and on tone without offending someone somewhereamp8221 But the magic as Hall calls it happens when you can amp8220align the social movement or trend with the brand truth amp8211 or valuesamp8221A brand truth for Microsoft Innovation Hall wove in the example of how they launched Surface and Windows 8 exactly ten years ago with the firstever Times Square takeover quotYou have to think bigquot she said quotAll the digital boards were linked to work together to act as a giant touchscreen When we saw all of those Times Square boards light up and just the bigness and power and community There39s something about that communal experience amp8230quotIn a low tech but quotpersonalquot touch using out of home when Microsoft launched Surface they gained consumer attention and ad community recognition for creating chalk painting messages on sidewalks amp8230 quotand then the Survival billboard for XboxTomb Raider using live humans and earning multiple awards which is one of the best examples of creative amp8230quot The industry needs to keep doing things like thisWolverine Worldwide Ben Aronson is Vice President Consumer Marketing for a billiondollar portfolio of 13 trusted and beloved brands ranging from Merrell39s to Keds He and Meghan Grant President US Media Havas Media discussed what a holistic marketing plan looks like and what media channels unlock the right results for the lifestyle and apparel company Ultimately the goal Aronson said was to connect marketing and media quotto that meaningful nature of what is a brand a representation of our feelings about it and all the products and categories you can fulfill within thatamp8230 but it all should be omnichannel and channel agnostic to a certain extent Looking at it truly holistically builds better resultsquotInnovative Vs Iconic The Challenge For Meaningful MindshareThe challenge of things being omnichannel Grant added is that it quothas to be balanced with trying to capture audiences who are bombarded with more messages than they39ve ever been bombarded with in their entire livesquot So how do you balance brand fidelity and the ethos with things that are channel specificEchoing Hall39s refrain about today39s complexity in media and marketing choices Aronson said quotIt used to be media and marketing got the brief to work on together Then I needed a social campaign Then I needed a TikTok campaign amp8230 by tomorrow amp8230 What we need to do more often is say I39m not answering that TikTok brief if we don39t have a social strategy amp8230 I realize TikTok matters to you and it might matter to your audience but doing an innovative thing for a moment does very little to build a lasting brandquotSo how is Wolverine building meaningful mindshare Through consistency quotIconic brands are not iconic because of random tactics but because of consistent and repeated behaviors building towards a specific sense of emotion and perception of the brand over timequot Aaronson noted While that seems selfevident Wolverine sets up structures that can ensure consistency especially in an era when brands have an average of seven different agenciesquotDo we all understand what an audience segmentation is supposed to look likequot he asked quotThat audience segmentation should influence every agency the same way amp8230 Then a brand like Merrell our biggest brand can flex into channels that other brands can39t or do something different than a smaller brand like Keds can do But it39s rooted in a foundation of rigor and operational structures that provide for consistency It39s not sexy talking about who gets to sign off on what or having brand guidelines that actually means something but that is how great brands are built and how iconic brands are builtquotLinking Media And CreativityquotCreative agencies fly to the South of France and drink a lot of champagne when our creative is interesting but we never saw the hard number business resultsquot Aronson quipped with seriousness quotOn the media side we have access to far more data that informs our decision making and now when you have a 20 channel plan and know Instagram is different from LinkedIn and a national out of home plan is different than a regional my perspective is everything should actually start with your media strategy after you have your brand principles and your audiencequotThe reason he explained is that quotyour creative agencies should know where everything needs to run and what metrics it39s being measured against before they develop a creative idea It39s like the saying 39Give me the freedom of a tight brief39 It will be better and more effective versus using the excuse that 39Oh that creative was never really meant for here39quotThe Place for Out of HomeAronson explained the appeal of OOH as part of Wolverine39s plan quotFor somebody whose job is technically to drive the digital and DTC growth of our company I39m oddly bullish on out of homequot he said quotThe outdoor space really is a full funnel even if it is a traditional funnel The fact that it39s actually addressable now and it really is that sort of last bastion of true viewability makes it I think incredibly special and I think a place where those opportunities for the magic of creative and media to come together makes it a great place to startquotOut of home placements are almost like retail spaces in the sense that they can give a premium nature to a brandquot he continued quotThere is scale that impacts us mentally and emotionally in ways that digital which is so small just doesn39t do And we39ve seen statistical studies that lift awareness and perception metrics tied to OOH For some people that ad on Thompson Street will be an awareness ad because they39re not in shopping mode But for other people it39s going to be a conversion ad as a last second reminder to go buy That39s massively interesting about OOH and its proximity power to the stores where you arequotIn Part 2 Moss covers the takeaways from marketing leaders of Adidas Claire39s and CVS Click the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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