31 May, 2022

POLY Leads Advertisers and Agencies On A New Journey Full Of Out of Home Creative Opportunities

By Alex Anyfantis

oOh!media has launched POLY, a creative and content innovation hub that sets out to push the creative boundaries Out of Home, and help brands maximise their marketing return on investment by capturing consumers’ attention when they are on the move.

B&T caught up with POLY CEO and chief content, marketing and creative officer of oOh!media, Neil Ackland and POLY’s new creative director, Peter Galmes, who shared their insights on why it’s time for POLY.

“We have experienced a profound shift in collective behaviour and mindset over the last two years. We have been forced to be very inward and introspective in our worldview, huddled in our lounge rooms, on our mobile devices, TV’s and computers, primarily concerned with things like health and family.

“But now, we’ve arrived at an exciting moment where things are flipping back the other way, we are changing our focus from inwards to outwards. When we say ‘things are looking up’ we mean it, both figuratively and literally. People are starting to look up and look out, they’re getting out of their houses, they’re exploring their local areas, they’re travelling domestically, they’re travelling internationally again, airports are busy, shopping centres are busy, people are on the roads, they’re getting out and about.

“We’re super excited about capturing that moment, a moment of change in collective attention. Which is why launching POLY right now felt like such a really perfect time to do it,” said Ackland.

The POLY CEO gave some examples of how the newly developed creative hub will partner with agencies and marketers to push the creative boundaries in Out of Home.

“With digital Out of Home really taking off there are a lot of complementary synergies between social media and Out of Home. We’re starting to think a lot more about how we connect the dots between all of those mediums creatively, whether you’re trying to catch someone’s attention when they’re scrolling through the feed on the phone, or when they’re out and about on the bus, or travelling to work. And we’re really excited about being able to explore those creative parallels and really figuring out how we can bring the connection between those mediums even closer.”

POLY creative director Peter Galmes said the technology and tools now available in Out of Home means those brands that develop creatively engaging campaigns will see a return on marketing investment.

“The proliferation of digital Out of Home has changed the medium and we don’t think brands have really tapped that opportunity yet and that moment between social and digital Out of Home in particular is a very unexplored area,” he said.

“As we see more people out and about, creativity needs to be simpler and cleaner to get consumers’ attention on the move. The creative toolkit in OOH is expanding with things like 3D anamorphic screens, full motion, QR codes, location-based data, hyper local content and being able to update creative in real time based on your location and environment. These things are available but only a small percentage of agencies, creatives and brands are using them to any effect,” Galmes added. “There is an information and education gap, but also an inspiration gap, but now because of the scale in digital in Out of Home, the return is now there to warrant the effort.”

Ackland pointed to research showing how much creativity drives return on investment. “Digital OOH is growing because it’s been able to demonstrate how it delivers ROI and at incredible growth rates. But what we’re actually seeing in studies we’ve done with Analytics Partners is that over 40 percent of the ROI in Out of Home comes down to the creative message. As the market leader in Australia and New Zealand, we felt that if it’s going to make up 40 percent of the effectiveness of what we do, we needed to take a leadership position here. Ultimately, this has to come back to ROI.

“Really, for us, this is about category leadership, it’s about leading the market. And we want to be the best at delivering creative messages that are going to deliver better ROI for our customers.”

On how POLY will work with partners, Ackland said: “We’ll be working with agencies and marketers in a number of ways. That could be media agencies, to help improve the creative responses in their briefs. Then we’ll also be going out to work directly with creative agencies and running education workshops, and engaging our clients to help them to understand how to use the medium better. “Ultimately, for us, it’s all about bringing more innovation and creativity into Out of Home.

So, for all those agencies, creatives and marketers hoping to push the creative boundaries of Out of Home and squeeze out every bit of ROI possible, POLY has arrived to answer the call and capture some attention whilst doing so.

For more information visit polycreative.co

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creative hub Digital Out of Home Neil Ackland oOH! Media Peter Galmes POLY