September 2011 Newsletter

Advertisers & Agencies|Media Sellers

Jump to: Feature Story  •  Product Spotlight  •  Word on the Street  •  DO the Math

Feature Story

The IBAA is a Proud Parent of a Teenager!

14th Annual Indoor Billboard Advertising Conference Oct. 13-16, Las Vegas

Article By: Article by John Koenig, President, IBAA

The Indoor Billboard Advertising Association is a proud parent of a teenager! Next month at the 14th Annual Indoor Billboard Advertising Conference, indoor advertising companies, sponsors and vendors will gather at the retro chic Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on October 13th-16th, 2011.

Like most 14 year olds, our teenager has been into “social media” years before his parents had awkwardly friended him on Facebook to keep tabs on his exploits.

Indoor Advertising is Social Media.

Some core members of Indoor Billboard Advertising Association (IBAA) have been sending advertising messages during “social interaction” settings at bars, restaurants, nightclubs, health clubs, sports arenas and other venues for nearly three decades.

One type of indoor media, restroom advertising, captures the attention of the young and affluent 21-35 year old demographic*. Often referred to as non-traditional advertising, restroom advertising is widely recognized as an extremely targeted, well-received advertising medium.

IBAA members build businesses on the basic foundation that reaching a captive audience while they engage in social situations, in an uncluttered fashion, can amplify their client’s advertising message.

Unlike the opt-in model of web based social media (Facebook, Yelp, Four Square, Insert the Next Craze Here, etc), indoor advertising is drop-in media. Viewers drop-in on indoor advertising in a commercial setting in which they are actively involved with friends, comrades, co-workers, and Monday Night Football. They’ve made the decision to drop-in to a venue that suits their lifestyle, gender, or sports team preference, adding to the impact of the targeted message.

Sure, we’re a “place-based out of home medium,” but we’ve also been leaders by utilizing our unique position of reaching the audience while they are eating, drinking, exercising or being entertained.

In addition, indoor advertising reaches consumers from an uncluttered, captive, eye-level vantage point, for example in the washrooms/restrooms, making it unavoidable - burning into the viewer’s retinas and magnifying the impact of the message.

If you combine the optimal social setting for advertising and the unavoidable nature of indoor, the takeaway from the message then becomes framed in the favorable light of the venue and the socializing in which it is placed.

Let’s face it, the audience is out having fun, and unless their football team is losing, they are in a positive social state of mind and more receptive to messaging.

While as a group, the IBAA has reached that teenage benchmark; some of our members have long been tech savvy pioneers, quantum leaps ahead of many out of home media options. We’ve been adding ancillary technology to our offerings for nearly a decade, utilizing QR codes, text messaging, blue tooth, and digital displays; as well as the more obvious brand extension ideas like branded coasters, napkins and glassware.

In October, like the IBAA Conferences of the past, we’ll network, recreate, share ideas, and glean additional “golden nuggets” of wisdom from speakers. We will also look at new ancillary aspects to our indoor offerings.

The IBAA invites your organization to become part of our Las Vegas event and we’re hungry to hear the next service or product that we can add to our mix. Whether you offer an “add on” items, digital display ideas, mobile marketing services, inventory software (or the next Facebook), we’re excited by possibilities.

A few openings remain for attendees or sponsors on a first come basis and there is still time join us in Las Vegas.

Conference dates are Oct 13th-16th with a “Welcoming Reception on Thursday evening followed by meetings/presentations on Friday. Saturday events are for IBAA Indoor Firms and we welcome new members.

At the IBAA we’re already saying “What Happens in Vegas, Won’t Stay in Vegas” as we’re certain you’ll soon be seeing more new ideas in Indoor Advertising at a venue near you. Join us.

About the IBAA

The IBAA is the first stop for advertising agencies, entrepreneurs and businesses looking for the most cost-effective, targeted way to advertise their product. Since 1998, the IBAA has served as the information clearinghouse, promotional arm and regulatory agency for restroom advertising companies throughout the United States and Canada. 

Restroom advertising captures the attention of the young and affluent* 21-35 year old demographic. While sometimes referred to as "non-traditional" advertising, restroom advertising is widely recognized as an extremely targeted, well-received advertising medium.

*Source: NEWAD Media; Indoor Billboard Advertising Association (IBAA)

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Product Spotlight

Looking to reach the health-minded, mobile, affluent demographic? Whether your message pertains to college students, seniors, mothers or business people, health club media provides many effective touch points for your target consumer.

Numerous advertising opportunities exist at fitness clubs, including digital displays, indoor panel posters, yoga mats, sampling/giveaways, sponsored music, backlit displays, branded weights and floor mats - just to name a few. An advertiser can utilize these various media types to target consumers in the classroom/studio, locker room, restroom, cardio room, weight room, lounge or reception area.

Benefits of the Medium

Health club media tends to reach a more active, affluent demographic. Recent trends have moved the age of the demographic from younger to more moderate. For example, people in their 40’s and 50’s are seeing the benefits of fitness clubs, and many gyms have begun implementing programs for active seniors. In fact, according to American Demographics, over 17% of gym-goers are aged 55 and over. However, health club media is still very effective for reaching the 18-49 age group as well.

Advertisers can engage specific groups of consumers with health club media due to its flexibility of delivering many different types of messages. Targeting additional demographic segments simultaneously with a full club campaign is easy as well.

Another benefit of health club media is the opportunity to associate a product with a healthy lifestyle. By including fitness centers in a campaign, the advertiser connects with people who are interested in taking care of themselves and want healthy products.

How It is Used

To target different demographic and lifestyle segments with health club media, advertisers can use location, health club type, program and time of day.

Geotargeting

Geotargeting is common strategy to reach a specific demographic segment. Look not only at the demographic make-up of a particular market area but also at the surrounding areas as well. For example, check to see if the club is located in a heavy office area (white collar workers), school/college area (college students or mothers) or affluent neighborhood.

Health Club Type

When targeting by behavior or lifestyle segment, the type of fitness center can make a big difference. For example, gender-specific clubs and family fitness centers are going to have quite different consumers. Incorporating specific health club types into a media plan is a great way to target specific lifestyle segments.

Health Program

Targeting by program can be a great way to get your media in front of the senior, college students, mothers-to-be and business people demographics. For example, express workouts, yoga/Pilates and personal training sessions draw different types of consumers, making niche targeting simple.

Time of Day

Reach consumers during different times of the day using specific media products that allow for daypart scheduling. For instance, the younger demographic typically works out later in the day, while seniors work out in the morning. Many digital networks allow this type of scheduling. Other options might include providing the front desk with coupons to be given out at a certain time or scheduling a promotion to hand out samples to specific groups at specific times.

How It is Measured

Currently, there aren’t any robust standard guidelines for measuring a health club media ad campaign. Club membership and traffic numbers are often used. Also, an advertiser could incorporate sampling, couponing, or QR codes to track interactions. Health club media can also be measured if it directs the consumer to a particular website. In addition, the Out-of-Home Digital Video Display Study conducted by Arbitron broke out health club statistics, and Nielsen is monitoring ongoing audience measurement for some of the health club network providers for both digital and static displays.

Markets Available

You can find health club media in any market in the U.S. If you aren’t aware of the companies covering a health club type or location, you could contact one of the many companies on DOmedia that provide health club advertising (see below).

New Technology

Digital screens are becoming more prevalent in health clubs. Some networks are operated by satellite feed, while sponsored music can be piped into locker rooms and workout studios. Other innovative technology can be seen around the club, such as water-activated shower floor mats.

Who Provides the Products

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Word on the Street

MediaPost: Starcom MediaVest Taps DOmedia for OOH Buys

Erik Sass

MediaPost covers DOmedia’s relationship with Starcom MediaVest and explains how it will affect the out-of-home advertising industry. We’re excited this relationship is gaining momentum.

Originally posted by Erik Sass on MediaPost.com

Starcom MediaVest Group Exchange, which aims to make media buying more efficient with greater use of automated tools, announced that it is expanding its relationship with DOmedia to include out-of-home media-buying services -- making it the first major agency to partner with DOmedia for OOH transactions.

The announcement follows a year of consultation and cooperation between StarCom MediaVest and DOmedia, during which DOmedia built its automated media buying platform with extensive input from StarCom MediaVest and their clients.

The new DOmedia OOH buying platform is now integrated across all parts of SMG's media-buying divisions, including Starcom, MediaVest and Spark Communications.

Previously, SMG had signed up for DOmedia's "free to post, free to search" service -- a forerunner to the OOH media-buying exchange, which allows OOH vendors large and small to post available inventory in markets across the country, and OOH buyers to browse that inventory and research OOH assets.

Search results are filtered by various criteria, as part of their campaign planning. To date, DOmedia has signed up approximately 500 OOH vendors and a similar number of buyers for the "free to post, free to search" service, which is still active and growing. They include most of the national OOH companies, as well as local and regional competitors. However, SMG is the first agency to integrate DOmedia's new platform for conducting actual transactions.

DOmedia CEO Rich Langdale expressed hope that the new media planning and buying platform might become a standard tool for the media industry, due to the efficiencies offered by aggregating OOH vendors, some of which might otherwise fly under the radar. "We have hyper-local buying tools that allow them to reach audiences at a national -- but localized -- level," he said. (DOmedia was originally founded with the mission of aggregating the numerous digital out-of-home media networks, but has since expanded to include static inventory.)

Indeed, both partners said that widespread adoption of a standardized, automated platform for buying and selling OOH inventory could boost investment in the medium, whose fragmentation and diversity have previously presented significant barriers to large-scale spending.

John Muszynski, chief investment officer for the StarCom MediaVest Group Exchange, said: "We are equipping our associates with the best analytical tools to make intelligent media-buying decisions for our clients."

Muszynski added that handing logistical and transactional responsibilities to DOmedia would leave SMG buyers and planners free to focus on the more strategic aspects of media buying, thereby delivering greater value to SMG clients: "Everyone's busy and everyone's trying to do more with less. This allows us to streamline the RFP process, the vendor gathering and data gathering parts of the process, and allows us to think more strategically."

Langdale agreed: "The 'secret sauce' of buying media has nothing to do with aggregating all the media vendors. We simply corral all the data together in one place -- then the media companies can put their secret sauce in."

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DO the Math

88% of Shoppers See Outdoor Ads in Last Window of Influence

Latest Research from Outdoor Media Centre Says Outdoor Can Influence Shoppers

According to the latest research from the Outdoor Media Centre, 88% of Shoppers See Outdoor Ads in the 30 minutes preceding the start of shopping, aptly named “the last window of influence.”

Of those seeing or hearing ads in the run-up to shopping, the vast majority (88%) see outdoor ads. 72% of shoppers can be swayed towards a product by recent outdoor advertising. Only 13% stick to a pre-determined shopping list.

The latest research from the Outdoor Media Centre is “The Last Window of Influence”, commissioned through Helen Harrison Associates, and conducted in July 2011. It investigates advertising “Recency” and specifically the 30 minute period immediately before shoppers begin shopping: this is the last window of influence for advertisers to place brand messages in front of consumers.

A total of 604 shoppers were recruited in 4 cities, and intercept interviews were conducted in situ, in both high street and shopping mall environments. The sample was structured in such a way as to cover weekday and weekend, south and north, men and women, young and old, at the point of beginning to shop. Further quotas covered the types of retailers shoppers were planning to visit.

Shoppers answered questions about their mode of transport to the shopping venue, their shopping behaviours, and their likelihood to be influenced by advertising.

Using showcards, interviewers probed which media each shopper had been exposed to in the 30 minutes leading up to the start of their shopping experience. 40% of shoppers recalled seeing an outdoor advertisement. Other media fared less well. 8% of shoppers had heard a radio ad, 4% each had seen a TV or internet ad, 3% a newspaper ad and 2% a magazine ad. Of all the 274 respondents who said they had seen or heard an advertisement in the half hour preceding shopping, 88% had seen outdoor advertising.

Respondents were then asked whether seeing an outdoor ad for a brand in the run-up to shopping would be likely to make them more interested in finding out about the brand or buying it. 72% said they could be influenced in that way, indicating the importance of a recent advertising message as a means of nudging shoppers towards a purchase. Only 13% of shoppers stuck religiously to a pre-determined shopping list.

Across the store visitors groups analysed, those intending to visit mobile phone stores, banks, fast food outlets, chemists and fashion stores were especially likely to be influenced by recent outdoor advertising. Demographically, ABC1s and 16-24s were the most outdoor ad aware.

“This is pretty definitive evidence that you can still influence shoppers as they head for the stores. There is indeed a last window of influence,” says Mike Baker, CEO of the Outdoor Media Centre. “We are not talking about point of sale advertising here, but the whole customer journey to the store itself, which begins the moment shoppers leave their homes or offices. That’s when they step into the Outdoor space.”

Click here to download the presentation.

Further information:

Mike Baker (OMC) 07968 567827 or Helen Nassey (Propeller) on 07506 121999

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