OUT OF HOME : Off the wall; Forget new media. There's a whole range of out-of-home options that...

Creativity, strategic delivery and fraternity are turning a once fragmented outdoor, ambient and out-of-home industry into a professional media 'coalition of the thrilling'.

This year will go down as the year the industry came together to work for the common good as competitors banded together

The Outdoor Marketing Association (OMA), representing key members of the sector (Adshel, Eye, APNO, iSite, Media 1 and Omnigraphics) has been the forum for forging relationships that have served as a catalyst and platform for working together and evolving long-term growth strategies to take out of home to the next level.

One of the many objectives of the OMA is to drive the OMA OOH Awards, which judge campaigns on creativity and strategic delivery for media, communication and overall campaign effectiveness.

Omnigraphics chief executive Murray Davis acknowledges that consolidation and rationalisation is bringing an increasingly sophisticated and professional approach to the industry, which has often had a 'cowboy' label attached to it. This professionalism and sophistication has led to a more comprehensive sales proposition for agencies and clients.

Part of that sophisticated sales proposition includes Omnigraphics' new biodegradable PVC Omnibio billboards, a product that when disposed of in landfills, begins to break down into a harmless non-toxic powder, over a short period of time.

The major players are all showing signs of a creative and strategic surge into new territory. From Oggi's perspective there is a higher demand for supersites, an area in which it leads the market. It appears there is greater acceptance as this area comes of age. But in the meantime, Oggi has been busy with the rollout of its digital media offering into four Warehouse stores.

Oggi now has 56 screens offering a point-of-purchase environment. With its Moving Tactics and Supersites portfolio, the future looks rosy.

Increasingly relevant and meaningful research is growing awareness and confidence in the industry. Omnigraphics' Davis maintains this ties in to accountability which has always been a fundamental for all media purchases in any media. He believes that more companies and products are using the medium in more topical and creative ways.

Adshel's proposition, moving into 2008, is one of innovation and audience delivery. The focus will be on research with Adshel's consumer insights programme contributing to a quantum leap in sophisticated campaign planning.

The Create product is at the forefront of an inventory package that specifically targets key demographics. Adshel has created targeted packs such as FMCG, beauty, fashion, youth, workbound and homebound, using a sophisticated proximity data mapping system.

This enables the creation of individual packs that can specifically target a retail or purchase destination with minimal wastage.

Within the Create portfolio, the Hypertag has been replaced with Bluetooth technology and Adshel has tested its LCD product, resulting in the implementation of both a digital and touchscreen offering across the main metropolitan markets.

The provision of the standard Create products continues with wraps, EL (electro-luminescent) paper, reverse print, lenticular, liquid, scent, sound stations, sound, vacuum moulding and so on. Some recent Create examples include the Nokia-Salmonella Dub creation using Bluetooth technology

and the Coke brand exercise using EL paper.

Bluetooth technology is also at the heart of Eye's digital Eyelites. Eye Shop in Australia worked with Mindshare and JWT to develop a strategy for Tourism NZ's Spring Pass campaign, which involved combining Flash animated advertising on digital Eyelites, equipped with a Bluetooth component, delivering free ringtones to the mobile phones of consumers passing by the screens.

iSite is another major player in this area that has completely overhauled its sales tools in the quest for solution-based applications founded in science-based tailored research.

The iSite brand has always been synonymous with a dynamic and cutting-edge out-of-home portfolio. It has continued to invest in new opportunities such as the Transit TV medium, a network of digital screens located in Stagecoach's Auckland-based, environmentally friendly Link buses, where it has introduced smart GPS technology.

Media content activates interactively with the geographical surroundings, ensuring it is displayed at key target points along the route.

Some other examples of innovative out-of-home creative via iSite include the Meadow Fresh campaign from Publicis Mojo, where real grass strips were hung from the billboard, creating a great eyecatching texture; DDB's Sky Discovery national billboard campaign using 3D effects for a head-turning image; and Colenso BBDO's high-impact transparent stickers looking at the main runway at Wellington Airport (for Visa).

Speaking of the capital, iSite has acquired Wellington-based billboard company Roar Outdoor, whose portfolio includes 25 premium Wellington sites. Roar, in tandem with Wellington Airport Media, effectively solves iSite's national distribution problem.

In November, Wellington Airport announced the introduction of a new domestic carrier, Pacific Blue. The additional airline makes the advertising space at the airport even more valuable, with a 25% uplift in passenger through-flow.

Eye, too, has a focus on internal and external airport signage, but at Auckland International, where Eye Fly offers digital Eyelites outside the Koru Club and Qantas Club lounges, targeting the business professional. Digital Eyelites strategically located through Auckland International make up a digital pathway for arriving passengers.

Airports are capitalising on the dwell times, spending mindsets and the overall passenger journey, to enhance retail precincts and lounge gate areas. Signage in airports is primarily considered well-suited to long-term branding. American Express, as an example, holds long-term promotional areas in airports.

The recent upgrade and expansion of the domestic terminal at Auckland has provided Eye Fly with many new advertising opportunities.

Luminous Media has recently completed two jobs for Eyecorp, in the form of 1.5 metre by one metre Eyelights, which have been posted throughout shopping centres nationwide for client Kimberley Clark's Kleenex brand.

These impact grocery shoppers at the last point prior to purchase.

As traditional communications channels become more cluttered and expensive, advertisers are looking for a better way. One of these is the outdoor digital screen option offered by On Screen Advertising, which has transformed conventional billboards into perfect, high-

resolution, electronic, outdoor display screens.

Another is the mega banner advertising produced by Amity Media, which temporarily places giant canvasses of vibrant commercial artwork over unsightly construction sites.

But the big player in the ambient sector is Ambient Advertising, which offers ranges from coffee cups to pizza boxes and an advertising network of construction site toilets. Ambient also sells parking space and Agad rural and state highway billboard advertising.

Panda Graphic Imaging creates spectacular high-resolution vinyl vehicle wraps that will wrap virtually anything from car to bus to boat or truck. With 20 years' experience and a network of graphic installers nationwide, the company can handle any size fleet, regardless of location, season, or vehicle type, quickly and economically.

Car advertising is on the move, with the Smartmove fleet being sold to Christchurch-based Simon Apperley, owner of billboard company Big Picture. The Simon in the name is Simon Soulsby, formerly business development manager at Christchurch advertising agency Q Brand.

The Smartmove fleet has added a further 15 smartcars in Wellington and six in Christchurch, to the original 25 cars in Auckland.

Also in the ambient area is SublimeNZ, a company that injects life into brands with a nationwide team of brand ambassadors. It arranges ambush activation or street theatre, event promotion and sponsorship initiatives.

In another innovative development, in-store fragrancing from Ecomist Systems has suddenly become the buzz as marketers realise the importance and power of smell as a purchase influencer. In the same vein (or nostril) the scented Adshels that spray scented mist, like coffee or cookie fragrances, at the push of a button, have proved popular.

Then there is the 'message on a bottle'. Bottled Water Billboards are taking custom-branded bottled water a step further with strategic, outside-the-square, marketing solutions. An example of this was a campaign where a client wanted to target a number of large corporate offices throughout Auckland.

The campaign, named Legend of the West, entailed the provision of promotional people dressed as cowboys delivering cases of custom-branded bottled water for staff fridges.

The out-of-home sector has never been so fertile, but it is the improved proficiency, with increased research-focused insights and creative innovation, that has allowed media planners greater opportunities for sophisticated and strategic campaign planning.

The first major opportunity for the industry, according to Omnigraphics' Davis, is to exploit the growing goodwill and genuine development which is coming from the consolidation and rationalisation of the entire industry.

With out of home presently sitting at 3.2% of total adspend there is still an enormous opportunity to push this towards 5% to 6% over that period.

"Continuing development of alternative out-of-home media such as outdoor/indoor media in malls and retail areas can only add to the overall impact and effectiveness of the industry," says Davis.

His hope for the future is to see the introduction of a comprehensive industry-wide measurement system which will add greater credibility to outdoor and, inevitably, draw increased media investment in the industry.

In an area formerly not known for its cohesion and professionalism, the future for out of home is bright indeed.

Graham Medcalf is editor of NZ Marketing Magazine. Email graham@marketingmag.co.nz