Generative AI is going to quickly provide many opportunities for brands of all sizes to supercharge their out-of-home creative, especially when it comes to digital OOH. What excites me the most is the potential for how generative AI can breathe new life into dynamic DOOH, making campaigns more effective through powerful creative optimisation, speeding up the overall creative process and potentially making it less cost prohibitive to advertisers.

We already know that dynamic DOOH is an effective strategy; with the potential to drive +32%* increase in brain response when displaying the most relevant content at the right moment (*Clear Channel, JCDecaux and Posterscope: Moments of Truth). However, it is an underutilised one, with only 8%* of UK DOOH campaigns being dynamically enabled (*Posterscope). How can we get brands to increase adoption and get more excited about dynamic DOOH along with its clear benefits? I believe generative AI is the answer.

A typical dynamic campaign comprises a sequence of creative triggers, typically linked to event outcomes or changes in weather conditions. During these moments, the artwork is replaced or updated to align with specific occurrences. Currently most brands would only run a very small number of triggers due to budget constraints and the extended time it can take to create the additional copy. Generative AI will be able to significantly speed up this entire process by almost instantly generating large numbers of varying creatives for a single campaign.

Future dynamic campaigns could be optimised through constant minor adjustments, such as subtly modifying colour saturation to stand out better in varying weather conditions. It could instantly create new artwork based off user-generated social content, which could add another level to social media-based competitions. In the long term we will likely see generative AI integrated with real-time programmatic DOOH buying, where creative will constantly change based on the expected demographic of the audience viewing the screen.

Whilst there is great potential for success, there are questions that brands must address when considering a generative AI dynamic DOOH campaign, particularly if they are early adopters pursuing a test-and-learn approach. The most important of these is how they will carefully moderate the content being generated. This could involve relying on a human to sift through and discard any undesirable outputs or it could be exploring the option of an automated content moderator capable of filtering according to a set of predetermined rules. Excluding content moderation could result in a potential nightmare PR scenario, which may involve legal and compliance issues, as well as negative and harmful content.

As with most new media trends, I suspect we’ll start to see a few more exciting generative AI campaigns appearing on our social media feeds in the near future. The less risk adverse brands will benefit greatly from the added press and innovative thinking, whilst others wait to see how the technology develops before taking the leap. I’ll be watching out for how the creative optimisation develops in the online space, as the positive or negative results of those tests will greatly impact how quickly we see similar strategies realised in DOOH campaigns.

Generative AI is an exciting opportunity for brands to supercharge their dynamic DOOH campaigns. It will help create diverse content quickly and undoubtably make campaigns more effective. Those who do embrace the technology will need to be cautious, mitigating the risk with content moderation to ensure some level of brand safety. We’ll see more advertisers start to take the jump with a test and learn approach, whilst others will watch and learn from afar. It’s easy to see that this mix of tech and creativity is going to reshape the advertising industry, and I believe OOH will be one of the channels that benefits the most.

Ben Rowland, Client Director

Becoming a part of the APAC team

Going back home to Singapore is always a joyous affair, despite the somewhat tedious adventure of heading to Heathrow, battling through security and immigration and sitting through a painful 14 hour journey. Because all of it seems worth it when you hear the stewardess announce, “To residents – a warm welcome home”. That’s when I slump back into my seat and sigh – I’m home!

This time though, I felt more nervous than usual. Primarily because I’d spent the past 6 months simply glancing at the APAC OOH market from a distance. But now, I was diving head-on to the madness that is the APAC OOH market. Would I be able to handle the intensity of the work? Am I built for this? My lovely manager in London, Natalia, however, said “you never enter the same river twice”, which stayed with me, and helped me understand that maybe I’m not the same person anymore. My incredible time at Evolve’s London Office layered me with the skills to understand this market, and that’s when I’d realized how much my learning curve had grown!

Frantic doesn’t begin to even describe the APAC market, but I think that’s what makes it stand out as well. It is unexpected, and very often, you find yourself in the deep end of things. Given the vastness of the region, the style of planning and formats vary from one country to another, and very rarely do you find yourself working on something similar – which makes it even more exciting!

In my 3 months (almost 4) of being here I have already met with vendors, worked on several immediate briefs, and learned skills like negotiation that’ve kept me on my toes. Quite simply put – I’ve been pushed into the deep end more times than I can imagine, but I truly think that’s what led to a growth in my skills and abilities as a planner. It of course goes without saying that none of this would have been possible without the watchful eyes of Joanna (my manager and a fountain of wealth when it comes to APAC OOH.

APAC’s growth in the global economy is second to none, and I have seen this a great deal in the OOH market. Key corporations and MNCs are eyeing consumers in cities like Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo and many more where the PPP is rapidly increasing as we speak. This trend is also rising greatly in developing economies such as Indonesia and India, which I think is a message that the world needs to watch out for Asia, because it is a region that doesn’t seem to stop growing (Knock on wood)! This is always good news for us because OOH advertising is such a key channel to target the right set of consumers at the right time.

Another key observation I have made is the strong influence of culture, and its importance in OOH planning. Being Asian and having grown up in this culture, I was able to best utilize this when speaking with vendors and clients alike and foster new relationships – a key component of our business at Evolve. Although several Asian countries are heading rapidly towards development, they are also deeply rooted in their customs and traditions, and it is important to strike a balance of both when planning and negotiating.

On a personal front though, what good is coming back home, without talking about the food and weather? For starters, it feels great not having to layer up every time I leave the house. Singapore has consistently been hot – maybe a bit too hot at times, but it is a great contrast to me rattling in my bones just a few months ago. I will say though, on the days it gets extremely humid, I do miss Britain’s cold drafty weather. And the food? Where do I even start. So far, I have spent my evenings and weekends visiting my favorite spots and relishing the ever-iconic Chicken Rice, Kaya Toast, Laksa, Sliced Fish Congee, Ming Fa Fish ball Noodle, and Roti Prata, amidst a sea of Singapore’s scrumptious local offerings. Trust me when I say that there is absolutely no dearth of good food here – be it Chinese, Malay or Indian.

Looking back, I wouldn’t have anticipated my stint in Singapore to be filled with so many lessons and challenges, and both instances have greatly enhanced my learning curve. I can’t even begin to imagine what that would look like – but trust me when I say that I’m all geared up!

Srika Nambiar, Client Executive

As anyone who has had the opportunity to travel by air this year can attest, 2023 has undoubtedly been the year of airport recovery. According to leading air travel insights company ForwardKeys, in the UK we are on track to see 89% of pre-pandemic traffic volumes by the end of 2023, with more than 269 million passengers forecast to arrive or depart through a British airport. To put this into context, nearly four-times the population of the entire country will be moving through UK airports this year. Globally too, a similar picture is emerging, with air travel forecast to be at 93% of 2019 numbers by the end of 2023, before fully recovering to pre-pandemic traffic levels in 2024.

One of the final pieces of the world travel puzzle is, of course, the return of the Chinese traveller. Since imposing some of the world’s toughest travel restrictions in March 2020, we have been waiting with bated breath for the Chinese government to lift its zero-COVID policy so that international travel can resume in and out of the region. China finally lifted quarantine requirements for inbound travellers and resumed issuing visas for overseas travel from 8 January 2023 and from 15 March, foreign offices could start processing applications for tourists wishing to visit China.

According to the Chinese Traveller Sentiment Report by Dragon Trail International, “more than 60% of survey respondents said they wanted to travel outside of mainland China in 2023. This group expressed high expectations about the freedom of cross-border travel this year. Survey respondents said they were excited to relax, as well as to experience scenery, food, culture, and shopping overseas.”

However, despite restrictions easing from the start of the year and a strong appetite for leisure travel to overseas destinations, demand for flights out of China has outpaced airline capacity. A lack of available routes and extremely high airfares on the few seats available limited recovery in Q1 and Q2, however as we enter summer, both airline and airport staffing / infrastructure is set to be in place to ensure significant growth across Q3 and beyond.

In the UK, monthly traffic forecasts from ForwardKeys suggest that arrivals from China will ramp up from July 2023 onwards and we will see strong recovery throughout the second half of this year:

Chinese Golden Week in particular (Sunday October 1^st to Saturday October 7^th 2023) will be a key travel moment for the nation, and travel insights show that destinations in the UK will be high on the agenda once again, following three years of COVID travel restrictions limiting visitor numbers. This key week will see October reach 81% of pre-pandemic levels of Chinese nationals travelling to the UK, so is a vital period for those brands looking to target the affluent traveller from the world’s most populated country.

For us at Evolve OOH, as experts in OOH advertising globally, we regularly use the insights garnered through our partnership with ForwardKeys as a foundation for our international airport planning. However, when this data is fused with our market leading knowledge of airport advertising opportunities – and the role that OOH plays in influencing consumers – true value is found for our clients. So, if you want to hear more about how the team at Evolve OOH can help you/your clients harness the power of airport data to drive better advertising outcomes, please get in touch.

Jack’s Experience

Mastering the Art of Context with Programmatic DOOH

I attended Mastering the Art of Context with Programmatic DOOH which hosted a star-studded panel from all walks of OOH life. Lee Cutter of Hivestack, Richard Bonn of Clear Channel, Alys Donnelly of Kinetic and Ben Wilkins of Skyrise. Having someone from each part of the programmatic chain was really interesting in how each feed into one another. Each eluded to the fact that Programmatic is going to be hugely important in the OOH space in the coming years. Media owners are setting up their technology and ensuring there is enough availability in the market and seeing a huge increase in the number of requests which now tackle things more than just ‘showing an ice lolly on a hot day’ contextual relevance. Relevance was the main topic of conversation and brands are leaning on both the rich data that we are getting more and more access to via the likes of Skyrise and the expertise of location based planning through the specialists.  Richard described OOH as ‘the oldest medium with the brightest future’ which I think summed it up perfectly.

Attention, Attention… Driving Success within Live-Streaming Environments

I attended Attention, Attention… Driving Success within Live-Streaming Environments which hosted an excellent line up of Jonathan Kelly of Twitch, Erik Bognes of Lumen and Katie Hartley of Dentsu. The attention narrative is gaining momentum, but what does it really mean for advertisers? The session mainly focused around how we grab people’s attention in an attention grabbing world. Something we have to ensure we think about from an Outdoor perspective, with digital screens increasing in capability, nailing the creative has never been more important. We are time poor in a busy world and being able to reach people at multiple touchpoints throughout the day is something that OOH does so well. There is something innately as humans we love about ‘Live’, real time updates whether it be sport, fashion, world events being up to date as quickly as possible is important in day-to-day life and is something backed up by the Lumen research.

Ella’s Experience

The exciting opportunity to attend this year’s Ad Week was presented by Evolve and having attended NYC 2018’s, I knew this was an opportunity I could not miss.

‘Speed Mentoring with Global Purpose Enterprise’ was the first event I attended and it was a phenomenal way to kick off the week full of unforgettable sessions. The panel had a wealth of knowledge and experience, which they shared within a 30-minute window.

There was a panel of diverse creatives, from the Brand Director of ‘The Kick Game’ Daniel Nti, presenters Wumni Bello and Craig Mitch to Nick Jones, the founder of Soho House.

They all shared their unique stories of how they are in the creative positions they are in now, including the hardships they faced and the attitudes they had to adopt in order to be at the top of their craft and inspire a new generation of upcoming creatives within the Media field.

During the two days I spent at Ad Week, I attended many talks, some of which I knew of the panelist(s) and others, I had little to no knowledge of the topics and I found that I gained so much from attending talks where there was absolutely no bias present as came in as a blank slate.

DJ Fat Tony was a name that I wasn’t aware of, however I was eager to find out more. Tony, is a DJ, author, and a beautiful verbal storyteller. I sat down at this talk with a bag of complimentary popcorn expecting anything but the story he so generously and courageously shared with the large audience.

Tony grew up in a South London council estate and suffered unspeakable forms of abuse growing up, developed a severe substance misuse addiction, and suffered with extreme ADHD…all whilst being on the come up of becoming a world-famous DJ from a young age.

This story was so touching for me as it wasn’t your typical success story, Tony touched on the fact that he had massive career success and was financially comfortable yet felt empty and didn’t have an overall purpose in life. The untraditional twists and turns in his story provided a sense of hope to the room and stressed the fact that there is not a direct route to career happiness and whatever obstacles life creates, you need to have a level of hope.

I have learned so much about creativity within the Media, Advertising field whilst being present at Ad Week, connected with many people at all levels, laughed hysterically and even shed a tear but my key takeaway from the week was from the Chairman of Ad Week, Matt Scheckner. “Great minds think unalike”.

Ben’s Experience

My Adweek experience can be summarized by two key insights:

1. AI isn’t coming; it’s already here. The need for upskilling in AI platforms will quickly become crucial in the advertising industry.

During the ‘Powering People and Growth with AI: How Marketers Can Embrace the Opportunity Now’ session, leaders from Google, BT, and EssenceMediacom discussed an important point: Instead of directly competing with AI for roles, most humans are now competing with others who leverage AI to enhance their work. For example, an account manager who can quickly turn vast amounts of post-campaign data into clear and concise summaries using AI will be more employable than one who takes considerably longer to do this task manually. As more tools are developed, there will be a greater demand for new skills and increased efficiencies for businesses to capitalise on.

2. Human connection is going to become more important than ever before.

While upskilling in AI platforms is crucial, as this change allows us to spend less time on mundane administrative tasks, soft skills will become even more valuable. The ability to communicate points clearly and concisely to a room full of clients isn’t something that AI will be able to do anytime soon. Furthermore, AI currently lacks the trust that humans can provide. It certainly can’t tell an engaging story like Mary Portas did during her session ‘Powering Transformation,’ where she shared multiple examples of the power of networking and how people can be the biggest drivers of business growth.

My time at Adweek has reinforced the notion that as AI continues to shape our working world, it is our ability to embrace human connection and develop a more diverse set of skills that will truly allow us to thrive in this rapidly evolving space.

Annabel’s Experience

I was lucky enough to be able to go to 2023 Ad week and it did not disappoint!

The brilliance of Ad week is the fact that it’s for the whole media industry and there are plenty of talks to go to that are inclusive of the all channels. By attending talks across the board, it allows us to keep challenging our approach to planning as well as to seek inspiration over how OOH can be used in conjunction with other channels to their full potential for award winning work.

There were 4 key talks that I feel deserve a spotlight:

DOOH x Data x Daring

Grand Visual and Talon spoke through the inspiring potential of DOOH through its flexibility, reactiveness, contextuality and ability to be optimised.

Relevancy is key, with less than 1% of DOOH campaign utilising dynamic copy, more can and should be done by brands to harness the power of DOOH to it’s full potential.

Given the huge increase in data usage since 2012 (c. 2000% increase), we should be applying the data available and being tapped into, into our DOOH campaigns.

An important reminder was also discussed in regards to the importance of needing creative that works as if it doesn’t, then your media won’t work either. We really need to be pushing motion and innovation to activate across DOOH as effectively as possible. They discussed the part that creative awards also have to play in driving brand metrics which was interesting to hear.

The talk was concluded by the message of needing to work to the killer OOH combination of DOOH x Data x Daring, and not work to these three aspects as individual components within our planning.

Mastering the Context of PrOOH

This was a brilliant OOH orientated talk to be present at with a commendable panel including Hivestack, Skyrise and Kinetic. All of their varied experience of OOH and PrOOH made it a very interesting discussion.

The old school medium of OOH has historically been media and infrastructure, however now seeing it emerge with Digital OOH and data, we’ve seen this emerge with positive disruption in the way of programmatic OOH.

The opportunities within PrOOH such as dynamic creative opportunities and trigger capabilities need to be utilised more which can be accessed through PrOOH (as well as standard DOOH).

The need for client side data to be utilised more was flagged, such as client sales data etc. The importance being that for clients to now understand the data that they are sitting on, this is making it simpler to activate highly effective and targeted campaigns.

However the importance to be careful with PrOOH was also discussed, in order to actually make it successful. The data being tapped into needs to be considered and tested to see the impact it can have for a brand.

The discussion summarised how OOH is the oldest media but with the brightest future. PrOOH is a driving factor of this ever-evolving future. With it there is a need to unlearn and re-learn to see where DOOH and PrOOH sits within the OOH ecosystem.

Powering People and Growth with AI

It was interesting to hear this talk to help to continue to build a picture of how we should feel towards AI. Did you know that Google has been operating as AI first since 2016?

There are many aspects to AI that we need to be conscious of including whether images are real of AI generated. However did you know that AI images can be identified through watermarking?

It was discussed how bold marketers use AI to lower their costs, save time and increase effectiveness. 70% of companies that used AI saw an increase in effectiveness and 28% reduction in costs.  

There was a discussion over the need to get the foundations right for any company that is looking to get started with an AI approach. The right privacy, the right legal structure are very important to unlock across paid and owned media.

There is a risk of data paralysis and so there is a need for companies to formulate data ‘spines’. So to be enriched with their own data and solutions.

It is important to remember that AI is not sudden, it has been with us for a long time, and within marketing.

BBC Click Live, AI Special

It was interesting to see demonstrations over how to work with AI creatively but also to speak through the pros and cons to it such as its unpredictable nature, and the bias of AI due to it finding patterns in data and making decisions and predictions about that data. Ultimately if data has bias and inaccuracies in it then it’s outputs will too. Humans are biased to a degree and so the data that we create will also be to some degree. This can also lead to things such as representing minority groups as stereotypes too rather than actual realities.

challenges over who owns the rights to AI generated images were discussed. The differences in legislation currently between countries and the need to hold the AI owners to accountability is certainly one to be aware of.

There has also been a rise in the need for “prompt” engineers who understand how to prompt AI to generate what you are needing specifically by understanding how to generate specific results ans images through things such as understanding the importance of the weighting of words or order of words used for questions put to AI platforms to generate results.

Equality in Motion

This was an important talk to attend due to it’s topic of equality and the importance in listening to any views and discussions around the topic.

The talk summarised the equality journey for women within sport and cricket specifically, over the years which was interesting to learn about- did you know that it was a woman that developed the over arm bowl in cricket, Christina Willes?

The discussion spoke through Fairbreak’s work in helping to tackle the gender inequality within Cricket including to give women the chance to be paid more fairly at professional levels, as well as things like overcoming the challenges of sourcing womens’ cricket uniforms!

They discussed their part in a clinical study of sport bras and how the wrong sports bra can actually cause shoulder injuries in women. Of 54 women assessed, only 4 women were wearing the correct fitted bra to give the best shoulder flection. Improving this aspect again helped to improve the standard and ability of female professional cricket players which was interesting to learn about.

It’s always important to listen and learn on the subject of equality and diversity and how to improve the challenges which absolutely still exist today. Whilst this talk revolved around sport, there are always lessons that can be taken and applied to circles outside of sport, whether it be the work place, our social circles or as inspiration for how to be more aware of what those outside of our own spheres may be facing.

Fairbreak interestingly spoke through how advertising brands can also get involved in sponsoring them. This is a great cause with important values that would greatly benefit from the support. Commendably they don’t take betting or gambling clients due to these events being linked with domestic abuse against women. However despite standing firm on this, it does make funding challenging for them. So here is a plea to any clients or people in a position to make a difference to look to the Fairbreak’s of our society to show them support!

This weekend, we celebrated King Charles the III’s Coronation. On Saturday 6th May we saw the service of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla that took place at Westminster Abbey where we saw him crowned King, followed by a concert at Windsor to celebrate the occasion, on Sunday. Throughout the lead up and during this event we saw brands using this as an opportunity to capture an even bigger audience. A marketers dream some might say… Here are just a few of the campaigns we have seen across London, including a bonus entry of our own!

Evian Water

Evian water have added some sparkle to the Coronation celebrations this weekend, with their latest OOH campaign. Using dynamic location callouts and weather-triggered messaging to create a variety of eye catching formats!

Location: London

Credit: Clear Channel | Evian Water

Find out more here

Burger King

Burger King have transformed their original logo to create a clever new one especially for the coronation! Removing the word Burger to leave just ‘King’ in place to celebrate his majesty. The modified logo also went live across London on Digital Billboards.

Location: London

Credit: iProspectUK | PSI | Dentsu | Clear Channel | Splendid Communications | Burger King

 

Jack Daniels

Jack Daniels wasted no time when it came to using the latest Royal event to their advantage. With the increase in tourism over the weekend, Jack Daniels used a clever play on words to welcome everyone to the city.

Location: London

Credit: Kinetic | Spark Foundry | JCDecaux | Jack Daniels

New West End

All over Oxford Street you may have noticed the “Get your royal on” government run campaign to celebrate the coronation! This included Union Jack flags to pop up installations – this was the perfect spot of a picture or two!

Location: London

Credit: JCDecaux | New West End Company 

Uber

Uber headed to the beautiful Dulwich Park with it’s very own Coronation carriage! The real perk here, you could actually go for a ride in it. In the run up to the event, for 3 days only, this ornate, gold, horse-drawn carriage offered carriage rides, fit for a king!

Locations: London

Credit: Uber

Ideas Foundation

Ideas Foundation partnered with Clear Channel to give young people aged 9 – 19, a chance to showcase their artwork! The foundations work to encourage their students to express themselves through their creatives. A great initiative to have on digital billboards around the UK!

Locations: London

Credit: Clear Channel | Ideas Foundation | Department of Culture, Media and Sports

Evolve OOH

Here at Evolve we wanted to get involved in the celebrations! Showcasing our brand on the side of a Sherbet Taxi, to congratulate King Charles on his coronation.

Locations: London

Credit: Sherbet Taxis | Evolve OOH

For any additional credits, please drop us an email info@evolveooh.com

So, the joys of January are here. The Christmas tree is down, my BMI is significantly up, and that dastardly panic inducing Elf on the shelf has been unceremoniously dumped back into the loft for the next 11 months. With the new year now whacking me in the face like an angry doorman, it feels like the right time to take a step back, reset, and launch my OOH Year’s resolutions for 2023.

Having already seen the OOH market continue to bounce back in 2022, and despite my obligatory January blues, 2023 is set to be another exciting year in OOH. It won’t be one without it’s challenges of course, given what’s happening with the global economy and energy prices seemingly going North faster than a swallow in spring, but there is also a lot to be positive about for OOH. Whether that be the continued channel growth, the increase in innovation and accountability, or the simple fact that people are once again embracing the great outdoors, OOH is in for another positive year. My OOH Year’s Resolutions for 2023 therefore are focused on embracing this positivity to help drive even better outcomes for our clients, partners and people.

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1: GET OUT MORE

What’s not to love about the fresh air, fresh ideas and fresh experiences that come from stepping outside of your front door? And the latest data has shown that it’s not only OOH advocates like me that love the great outdoors either, it’s everyone, and not just on a local level, but globally too. International travel is set to increase significantly again this year, with key markets across APAC expected to more than double, whilst Northern Europe (+25%), North America (+33%) and the Middle East (+32%) are all seeing huge growth in airport travel. In fact, nearly every market across the globe is set to see international travel increase significantly once more, so in 2023, OOH needs to champion the return of the international traveller, showcase the amazing Airport opportunities that this provides for clients, and embrace the chance it provides us to forge and cement relationships around the world.

2: TRY SOMETHING NEW

I don’t think there’s a more innovative media channel than OOH. I mean where else can you be walking down the street and suddenly be swiped at by a giant 3D tiger coming out of an iconic global landmark, like what happened in Samsung’s Piccadilly Circus campaign in 2022? In 2023, we therefore need to encourage our clients to continue taking these creative risks, embracing new ideas and turning heads. When you live in a world that is increasingly full of distractions, you need to be bold, brave and a little bit bonkers to truly stand out, and no channel offers a canvas that allows you to be bolder, braver or more bonkers than OOH!

3: DO OUR BIT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Not doing something that benefits the environment when you work in outdoor advertising is a bit like working at Battersea Dogs Home and the deciding to pop out and eat a poodle for lunch. It’s why in 2023, we need to continue to do our bit to improve the world we live in, this great outdoors of ours. As a channel there’s already a great deal going on in this space to be proud of, from carbon offsetting of digital inventory, using electric vehicles for site visits and posting, to the growing use of recycled paper and pollution eating materials for posting, but in 2023 we must do more. Here at evolve we’re working with planet mark to become carbon neutral and support the Ad Net Zero initiative to drive a positive change for the environment, but as we progress throughout the year, we will continue to focus on improving our green initiatives and doing our part to keep the great outdoors, great.

4: FIND LOVE

I may be a happily married man with a wonderful family, but this January I’m looking for love. Now, before my wife sees this as the perfect opportunity to file for the divorce she may be craving, the love I’m looking for is different, it’s the kind of love that only those who work in OOH can truly understand….it’s that love of seeing something you’ve worked on brought to life on the streets of your local high street, in the centre of a buzzing capital city or on the side of an iconic building. It’s that love that you bore your mates with by pointing it out every time you notice ‘your’ billboard as you walk to the nearby pub, and this year, it’s the love that for out-of-homers will once again drive us to constantly search for new, exciting ways to bring client’s campaigns to life in markets across the globe.

For us at Evolve, having delivered solutions that have won ‘Best International Global campaign’ at the Drum Awards for the last two years, this love will also see us striving to deliver a hat trick of award-winning work for our clients and agencies in 2023.

5: BE MORE PROOH-ACTIVE

Programmatic OOH. If you weren’t aware and looked on LinkedIn, you’d think that alongside 3D activations, it was the only type of OOH activity that ran in 2022. Generating more articles, opinion pieces and PR than a disgruntled Royal, Programmatic OOH has, on LinkedIn at least, had a stellar year. It may be surprising to some that it still makes up less than 3% of OOH revenue globally and that many of the examples shared are arguably not even programmatic, but there is no doubt at all that PrOOH is on the up and a great opportunity for the right brief and brand. In 2023, it’s vital therefore that those working in OOH (and other media) become more PrOOH-active, but that doesn’t mean blindly investing in this emerging channel simply because it’s shiny and new, but PrOOH-active in building greater understanding of the channel’s benefits and limitations in order to activate campaigns when it’s truly the right solution for the client.

Whilst we can still feel the emotions of the Euro’s 2020/21, there is yet another important sport event starting this week, the Tokyo Summer Olympics & Paralympics, which has been center of attention across the whole world for the past year. Not only because it is such an important event, but because for the first time ever, the Olympic Games was postponed and rescheduled. So many of us were left wondering if they will finally happen this year, and the good news is that yes – however – still under some conditions.

 Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and international travel restrictions, one of the most important changes is that the privilege to watch the Olympics live will only belong to those lucky international journalists reporting on the games. This is also a significant change for many of our clients and their OOH campaigns, whose plan was to target international audiences arriving in to Japan to watch this famous event, but who are now re-targeting their media to a local Japanese audience. 

 Transportation media located near or on the way to the Olympic venues such as National Olympic Stadium, Yoyogi National Gymnasium or Ariake Arena are selling well. As Japan remains an important out of home market for evolve, we are in regular contact with our local partners who told us that advertising might be slightly different than what was initially expected, but brands are still wanting to be seen in Tokyo during the Olympic period to show their support for the event and the competitors, which is adding to the great anticipation for this event in the country. 

 As spectators are being urged by the Japanese government to watch athletes compete from home on TV screens, there is still a demand for the physical presence that OOH brings within Tokyo. The famous Shibuya crossing, the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing and one of the most iconic settings in Japan, has sold for the Olympic period, just showing you that the city will still be alive with the spirit of the event, even if international audiences cannot attend in person.

OOH is perfectly placed to work alongside online and TV media, something that we already knew, but I am particularly interested to see how the medium performs for brands during one of the most unusual circumstances for any Olympic games event that has ever happened in history. From major global sponsors to the small and local, the Olympics attracts some of the best creative executions from brands and I am sure the event will be a spectacle of creativity as well as sporting excellence across the board.

I can always rely on Mango Bikes to deliver campaign artwork that will bring a smile to my face, and so it came as no surprise when we heard that they had won the ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’ competition. 

The competition was put together to celebrate the importance of neighbourhoods and find ways to reach the new commuter and community audiences through well thought out brand campaigns and hyper-local messaging using Urban Canvas sites.

There were tons of entries from across the UK, but the Mango Bikes artwork resonated with the local audience and the judges commented: 

“We really liked your sense of humour and simple play on words that tied in with the local area. We also felt the environment worked particularly well for this brand.”

We have always known that personalised messaging on OOH platforms, tailored to their environment can make the medium work harder for brands, but more recently this has never been more true. 

Congratulations to the whole team for this brilliant piece of work – wheely good stuff!