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"There's no point in your campaign if it's boring," says Sonal Dabral of Bates 141 at the OAC 2011
Speakers at the annual Outdoor Advertising Convention 2011 talked about some outstanding work done from across the globe.
Day One's discussions kicked off with Lynn de Souza, chairman and chief executive officer, Lintas Media Group, making a presentation on 'Stuck@six to The road to ten', signifying the 6 per cent of the ad pie that the industry is stuck at, and how to take it to 10 per cent. She hoped to inspire the industry with examples of some brilliant work done across the globe. She spoke of Nike China, where for the launch of Nike Zoom performance shoes, Nike set up an urban race, in which consumers could participate in order to win a new pair of the shoes. The campaign was ideated by Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai.
The Bluetooth-enabled race, featuring a line-up of 21 new Zoom shoes, started at an illuminated outdoor site up to 400 m from the store and ended at the Nike stores. The fastest runner was given a pair of new Zooms and had his name placed in the illuminated site. This was done across three weeks.
Quoting another example of engaging, interactive advertising that was done by McDonald's for its 'Pick and Play' campaign, de Souza pointed out that while the brand does a lot of innovations internationally, she would like to see more engaging, innovative work from the brand in India, as well.
The 'Pick and Play' campaign that was executed by DDB Stockholm, offered users a fun and interactive challenge where they could play for their favourite McDonald's treat. Using a large interactive billboard, users were allowed to control the game via their mobile phones, enabling interaction with the billboard.
By using the smartphone's geo location and verifying the user's presence in the game area, no app download was required in order to participate. Players could choose their treats, and if they lasted for more than 30 seconds they won a coupon, earning them free fast food at a nearby McDonald's outlet. This digital coupon was automatically sent to the user's phone, along with instructions on how to claim their McDonald's treat at their nearest store.
She also urged media owners to go green, genuinely pitch in to making a difference, practise self-regulation, and become more transparent as an industry.
Closing her discussion with a valid point she said, "It's not about taking the industry from a 6 per cent share to a 10 per cent one, but it's about increasing the industry's respect from 2 per cent to 20 per cent."
An interesting presentation followed called 'Beta, Baharjaakekhelo', which stood for the idea that the future of advertising is out-of-home. This was put together by Bates 141's regional executive creative director and India chairman, SonalDabral, and its chief creative officer, SagarMahabaleshwarkar who also shared great examples of outdoor work from the world over.
They presented the example of the beer brand Heineken. Heineken Italy and JWT Milan launched a campaign where they managed to convince 1,136 Italian soccer fans to miss the largest football match day in Italy (AC Milan vs Real Madrid) on October 21, 2009, and instead show up for a classical music and poetry recital session. The fans were then rewarded for their loyalty with a great surprise.
"Can you really define what is outdoor?" Dabral asked. "Sometimes, you can't even call it outdoor advertising, but in fact, it is!" Giving an example of this, he pointed out the Andes Beer 'Teletransporter' campaign.
Done by Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Argentina, the campaign for Andes beer decided to help solve one of man's greatest problems: How to go out for the night with your mates without getting into trouble with your girlfriend.
To solve this problem, Andes created a sound-proof capsule that could be placed in some of the main bars and clubs across the country that would allow men to dash inside and talk to their girlfriends without them knowing they were out and about with their mates.
To help make it more realistic, they programmed in ambient noises that users could select to be played in the booth via a built-in touch screen. Noise scenes such as traffic, supermarket, office, and even movie theatre were available!
Sharing these and a few other brilliant works of engaging outdoor advertising, Dabral reiterated, "The point is if it's boring, there is no sense in the campaign, as people are being bombarded with campaigns and brand messages all the time. Your work simply has to be gripping and engaging."