In a time when it seems like new media vehicles present themselves every day, it’s time to give some respect to the elders in the space. Outdoor advertising is the oldest form of advertising, but it too is changing its look and offering. More and more, consumers are seeing digital outdoor boards throughout their everyday lives. It may be in the form of a billboard on the side of a highway, a screen at the grocery store check-out or even in the elevator on your way to a meeting. But like any other advertising medium, it’s not only about location but also the message.
While planning for the 2009 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open PGA tournament, we were asked to find ways to explain to the Las Vegas market that we had a solid field of top-tier players while reminding them to come out and buy tickets. We showcased the field online, made a few call-outs in print but the icing on the cake was our digital out-of-home campaign. We worked with Clear Channel Outdoor and the PGA Tour to connect the online data feeds from the PGA website to Clear Channel’s database. This connection allowed us to show a live leaderboard from the tournament throughout the digital boards utilized throughout the Las Vegas valley for our campaign. Every time our message displayed on-board, it theoretically could have been different. On Wednesday, before the tournament started, they held a celebrity pro-am. Throughout the Pro-Am, we used the same functionality, allowing consumers in the market to start getting excited about the event and everything it has to offer.
This is one simple example of creating a custom execution within an existing medium. It is important to understand the functionality of mediums and the technology that powers them. It may provide you insight into thoughts and ideas that the vendor may not have considered, creating yet another “first-ever” execution in this “old” medium or elsewhere. Moving forward, what will R&R Partners’ next out-of-the-box outdoor execution be? Is the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority going to utilize live Twitter feeds showcasing consumer thoughts on Vegas in our feeder markets (these can be filtered of course)? I challenge any and all who read this to take your next idea or campaign to the next level. Whether you plan and buy media, or help create content for us to place, bring an idea to the table that will help our clients win in ways that we imagined!
