Mark Leone, partner at Madclarity, writes that while the launch of the OMA’s MOVE 2.0 might not have been perfect or the silver bullet, it’s a move (sorry) that might win the war for out-of-home.
I was going to start this week with a bad pun like… the only way out-of-home advertising will reach its full potential is if everyone is Move-ing in the same direction. Apparently, you don’t need to be a dad to tell bad dad jokes.
Many of you will be aware of the recent launch event of Move 2.0. I wanted to be there but unfortunately couldn’t attend. I had prior client commitments out of town that couldn’t be changed. But many agency people I have spoken to in the last few weeks have been keen to chat about it.
There was a quote attributed to Magna Managing Director, Lucy Formosa in the industry press calling it “a bit of an own goal”. This is the politest version I have been given. The comments I have heard from agency people about the delays ranged from “disappointing” through to “a disaster”.
So, where do we go from here?
There are undeniable facts. Out-of-home advertising can be a great medium. The last few years has witnessed some of the most impressive growth relative to the market that I can recall. We are not surprised. It seemed the logical broadcast medium to benefit as TV audiences fall. We have also been investing to help us better measure and advise on out-of-home. We could see advertiser demand for support in this area would grow.
Another fact is… it is a bloody difficult channel to measure. Audiences… reach… contribution to campaigns… all the things that agencies, advertisers and those advising them, want to know, are difficult to measure. There are no central platforms that audiences access. When it comes to out-of-home advertising, it is located everywhere, and the people seeing it are also found all over the place. The task can be somewhat akin to working out the whereabouts of all your neighbourhood cats at any point in time. Good luck!
Yet the systems we’ve had to date have given us a decent indication of what campaigns have delivered. Enough of an indication to give advertisers the confidence to increase investment.
Yes, there are shortcomings. It’s true of measurement in every media channel. In fact, true for all marketing. Those who disagree are either evangelists or delusional.
I have said it before and will say it again. For some reason, our industry seems to focus on the shortcomings of out-of-home measurement way more than the benefits. How many media channels down-weight their reported audiences to compensate for any poorer opportunities to see? Move already does this. If some other media channels did this, their reported audiences would plummet. There would be next to nothing left.
But, when the imperfections of out-of-home measurement are discussed, many see it as a waste of time or treat it with absolute cynicism. These are often the same people that accept today’s self-reporting from platforms and never question it. Even with widespread evidence of fraudulent inventory, fake user accounts, and clearly contradictory data used as the basis for precision marketing. What?
We have watched the TV networks ferociously compete with each other, all whilst their share of the advertising pie dwindled year after year. Efforts that would lead to the greater good of all players seemed, at best, a secondary priority to winning share.
I have heard conjecture about the reasons for the delay. I don’t really know what the issues are. One thing can be learnt from the experience of TV. Self-interest must come second. A battle or two may need to be lost on the way to greater success.
