2009 was an exciting year for digital-out-of-home (DOOH) with some of the world’s most well known brands recognizing that this is a powerful medium that’s here to stay.  Despite the turbulent conditions of the market, the medium saw major brands break new barriers and expand their reach into DOOH. Make no mistake — this was an extremely challenging year for the market and everyone in the industry to push forward their business development. But those who did, did so with some of the most interesting campaigns and creative we’ve seen in a while.

There were some very innovative uses of the medium in terms of geo-targeting and creativity. The Evian campaign sparked mass buzz amongst consumers in the age bracket of 25-49 through a number of viral channels like YouTube, Facebook and demonstrated that the DOOH medium can indeed spark innovative creative. Verizon and Bank of America demonstrated how the medium can be used for hyper geo-targeted and demo-targeted capabilities. Verizon wanted to focus in on consumers with a certain income threshold, while Bank of America leveraged the medium to hone in on the Hispanic population, both campaigns delivering stellar results against the campaign

At Adcentricity, we decided to look back at the past year to see what campaigns really resonated within the marketplace with consumers, as well as helped to achieve marketing goals for the brands that put them forth.

Here are Adcentricity’s top 5 favorite campaigns of 2009 based on campaign objectives, creative work and the execution meeting the business needs of the brand.

Verizon Wireless

- Telecommunications

Zenith Media set out with the goal to target male “blue-collar workers” with an average household income greater than $40,000 looking for a cost-effective alternative to a wireless “Push to Talk” service.

Over 3,000 screens in convenience stores, gas stations and quick service restaurants within the zip codes of the top 10 DMA’s that had a higher than national average of “blue collar workers” with an average HHI greater than $40,000 were selected. The platform helped to cross-section the target profile with the venue types, occupation, age, and household income.

The results from the campaign determined that digital out-of-home screens were the number one noticed advertising vehicle within each selected venue amongst ten other advertising mediums displayed. Further, 79 percent of consumers noticed the digital screen within the environment. The Verizon Wireless campaign effectively reached the targeted consumer within each market and venue in which it ran. 46 percent of all respondents were within occupation, age and household income target profile. The campaign was to serve more than 17,000,000 played ads, with an audience impression of 8,562,768.

Evian

- Consumer Packaged Goods

Evian, Danone’s leading bottled water brand is the latest innovative marketer to join in on an emerging trend of “digital where you are” - digital out-of-home advertising and merchandising programs within the store, just when a consumer is looking to make a planned or unplanned purchase.

Using brilliant digital creative, Evian has tapped the digital out-of-home medium alone in launching its new “Live Young” campaign, extending the reach of their viral creative with point-of-purchase media - the ultimate in Shopper Marketing. The new global creative, developed by France’s BETC Euro RSCG, is intended to reach cosmopolitan 25 to 49 year-olds making $75,000 or more, leveraging Internet and Social media tactics including bloggers, YouTube and Facebook.

Since the campaign release, more that 30,000,000 consumers have viewed the video. DOOH was the only additional advertising vehicle used to “spread the good word” - a first ever, national initiative promoting the creative on in-store digital out-of-home screens in convenience stores and grocery chains.

Michael Thouin senior brand manager for Danone Waters North America said: “It really allows us to get our creative in a place where consumers are making their purchase decisions. This is the first time we’ve done this and we’re really excited about it.”

Bank of America

- Financial Services

Bank of America recognizes the power of the emerging Hispanic Market in America. Lead by Starcom USA the campaign objective was to target Hispanic Americans living within the zip codes of the top 10 percent most highly concentrated Hispanic regions in the US. Supporting a national integrated campaign, digital out-of-home was chosen to reach and influence Hispanic adults.

1,500 screens in various convenience store, gas station, grocery, health care, hospitality and shopping center locations within the zip codes of the top 10 percent highest concentrated Hispanic population were chosen. This campaign involved four different creatives based on various “life moments”, which rotated in the selected locations depending on venue type.

The campaign resulted in 66 percent of the audience noticed the digital screens within the venue. The campaign effectively reached the targeted consumer within the venues, with 57 percent of the audience being Hispanic. In addition, 37 percent were current Bank of America clients and 40% said they would likely recommend Bank of America to a family member or friend. The campaign was set to serve more than 3,244,131 played ads, with an audience impression of 91,962,676.

Samsung - Omnia

- Personal Electronics

Highly targeted plan that focus’ on urban influencers made a splash with creative work that provided an excellent sense of the user experience of the mobile device. Consumers were influenced to participate in the free form flexibility of the Omnia operating system and interface.

Samsung hired Ontario-based Pattison to research the level of impact that using digital out-of-home had on purchase consideration among the target market. Using intercept studies conducted in downtown Toronto around TD Centre, Eaton’s Centre and The Bay Centre at Bloor, Pattison found that the campaign helped Samsung achieve brand-awareness levels in the high 90+% range in the case of aided recall; and unaided brand awareness was 73%, or a whopping 49% more than in the previous year. In addition, 41% of those polled-and 47% of those polled that recalled the campaign ad-said they would consider purchasing a Samsung cell phone.

Adcentricity along with our network partners were able to over deliver in ad plays with a total of 837,691 plays and 1,111,060 audience impressions.

The success of this campaign inspired Samsung to dedicate 90-95% of all media to digital out-of-home for new wireless-product launches (according to David Mear, Cheil Communications). The company has already used the medium to promote previous launches including the introduction of its Slide and Instinct models.

General Motors

- Automotive

GM may have surprised you as developing new channels of advertising given the monsoon of challenges the company has faced in the past year. Stripped down and tricked out, the fact is however GM brands are climbing back in the driver seat as market leaders. Delivering powerful creative to engage consumers on a one to one level in environments where not only automotive consumers but tax payers spend their personal time starts to make a whole lot of sense.

Starcom USA lead the way to challenge digital out-of-home as a competitive advantage in order to enhance consumer brand awareness and the Cadillac image utilizing a creative full motion medium.
• Increase awareness surrounding the launch of GM’s 2010 Cadillac models
• Enhance the consumer perception of the GM brand
• Increase the amount of new Cadillac drivers and retain existing brand loyalists

The campaign is currently still active but a mid-campaign study of the Cadillac campaign was developed in order to determine screen notice, brand and message recall, purchase cycle, campaign influence and basic audience demographic. The study determined that the proportion of respondents who noticed the digital screens in the surveyed venues was 72%. Among those who noticed the screens, the Cadillac spots had a 27% percent recall, the highest of all ads shown on the screens. Furthermore, 28% of those who saw the Cadillac ad and intend to purchase or lease a new vehicle in the future were either very positively influenced by the advertising.

The campaign is expected to serve more than 6,320,079 played ads, with an audience impression of 152,425,510. *(Results not available at time of publishing).

There is growing excitement and currently real business flowing through digital out-of-home with all the signs of a powerful 2010 for the medium. We look forward to featuring many more national brands and creative campaigns throughout the year.