Outdoor Innovation

In the past year, out-of-home media has been climbing the digital ladder; but in a world where mobility is crucial, does its efforts matter? Joyce Yip reports.

It was rush hour in January. Maxim’s Caterers senior marketing manager Eve Leung was standing at the tunnel between Kowloon Tong MTR station and Festive Walk. She had crossed this spot many times before, but this was the first time she was this excited.

It was the day when 300 of Maxim’s Chinese red couplet magnets went up on the connecting MTR wall – a first for the caterer company. To her pleasant surprise, the
pieces soon caught the commuters’ attention; they stopped their hurried pace, picked them up with raised eyebrows and walked away with a grin.

A few caught on, then more and then more: the entire wall was stripped clean of the magnets – revealing only the QR code-embedded ad below – by 9am.

Out-of-home media serves to support and communicate with that sector – that mobile customer. You can’t miss out on it

Eve Leung

Maxim's Caterers senior marketing manager

One of the biggest campaigns by Maxim’s this year – featuring two young girls holding Chinese couplets with puns that sold the caterers’ Chinese cakes and almond biscotti – the magnet idea is one Leung is proud of, even three months after the fact.

“Receiving Chinese New Year red couplets was common on the streets, so we wanted to do something that was distinctive yet still relevant to our purpose which, at the time, was spreading joy to consumers,” Leung says. “The magnets provided the best mileage: people would put them in the office, in their homes. Whoever didn’t get them can scan the code and receive our blessings through our online videos.”

As Facebook users start to disperse into other platforms, what advertisers thought was a stabilised pendulum of digital versus print and television swings into motion again. But in a marketing world where buzz words such as “integrated”, “360” or “carries the dialogue from offline to online, and vice versa” are tagged onto almost every campaign, out-of-home media is increasingly overlooked in the advertising family.

So, as out-of-home media also sharpens its blade by going digital with cool displays and interactive features, it can only compete in the eyeball-grabbing war on its most advantageous battlefield: an enclosed area where the crowd has nowhere to go, namely, when the prey is waiting for transportation.

According to the 2013 advertising spending projections by Nielsen and The Hong Kong Advertisers Association, out-of-home media is seen as the traditional media with the biggest increase in effectiveness, surpassing TV by half and newspapers by three and a half times in the next three years; it’s also the only channel with the same budget allocation as 2012 and the second smallest budget from which marketers are most likely
to withdraw from to make way for digital campaigns.

“Out-of-home media has always been a core support medium for TV and online for us,” Leung says. “This is especially true in Hong Kong, where people are very busy: they’re always outside of their homes and are commuting most of the day. Out-of-home media serves to support and communicate with that sector – that mobile customer. You can’t miss out on it.”

Agreeing wholeheartedly is JCDecaux’s managing director Amy Chan.

Having begun its interactive ad journey in 2009 with “U Tie” – JCDecaux’s own version of QR codes – the out-of-home media agency has pumped out impressive pushes such as the Windows 8 laptop showcase box veiled by a transparent TV playing the company’s commercial; a booth for Tencent WeChat where passengers could talk to celebrities, and the HSBC Hong Kong station tunnel – one of Chan’s recent favourites – that put thought bubbles of financial-related issues into passersby’s heads as they walked across the moving platform.

She says this progression into digital is testament to the need – for what had once been a monodirectional advertising format – to be creative and in tune with the digital evolution, adding the extra technological layer will attract a younger audience.

“We must move with the trends that affect Hong Kongers’ lifestyle most: when they’re waiting for the train or for friends, they whip their phones out; and instead of going home after work to catch a TV show, people spend much more time on the street now that everything can be done outdoors,” she says.

Sitting on the polar opposite against out-of-home media is CSL’s chief marketing officer Mark Liversidge, who, despite his appreciation for its recent developments, says the media option is a very low priority for him for his latest mobile app launch, Playground.

“From what I’ve seen in my four years in Hong Kong and Greater China, out-of-home is definitely a medium that has descended down in the list of consideration: it’s at the bottom on the list in our perspective,” he says, explaining the lack of one-of-one engagement and digital extensions is pushing the medium into oblivion.

“If you observe human behaviour in Hong Kong, nobody is looking at the billboards; nobody is looking at the digital screens. They are on their mobile devices. To me, that makes out-of-home media an out-of-date content provider for getting the message across, and I can only see that phenomenon increasing.”

If you observe human behaviour in Hong Kong, nobody is looking at the billboards; nobody is looking at the digital screens. They are on their mobile devices.

Mark Liversidge

CSL chief marketing officer

According to a report by GFK in February, 64% of tablet users aged 18 to 64 alone frequent game apps while half are on social networking, weather and entertainment programmes: meaning Chan’s version of “the young” are no longer the sole target audience with digital. Rather, almost everyone’s heads are peering down at their devices, regardless of age.

So, while Liversidge can respect and understand out-of-home media’s digitalisation efforts, the stationary issue is an enormous disadvantage he cannot ignore.

“I can understand that, especially in a city like Hong Kong where commercial space is so expensive, outdoor media is a revenue source for commercial buildings. But from my view, whether it’s digital or flat screen, out-of-home is still in one sole location. People who look at it are usually in transit: people don’t hang out in the MTR.

“They may catch eyeballs, yeah, but people are not interested in standing around and engaging with it; they’re gone and moving on afterwards, so I’d really rather take that money and use it on a platform which people can move with.

While Sony Communications’ head of marketing Joyce Tang, who recently engulfed one of Causeway Bay MTR’s exits with posters of its latest phone Xperia Z, is sceptical whether passengers actually stop and interact with advertisement boards, she still believes in the impact of out-of-home media as the best tool to keep a brand on top of consumers’ minds.

“Yes, passengers are on their devices all the time, but they still need to watch the road and would see us,” she says. “Personally, I haven’t received much positive feedback about QR code response rates; this is mainly because Hong Kong people are more passive and receptive. So unless there are discounts, people are reluctant to interact with an ad just to get information.”

Chan, however, argues every medium is a victim in the fight for eyeballs and the biggest advantage of out-of-home media, especially at the MTR, is a captive environment that passengers must go through at least twice a day.

Most recently, for example, JCDecaux debuted its 12-sheet NFC or QR code-friendly ads and Snap for Action in the station. The larger ads offer coupons, discounts or lucky draws and are wrapped in a silver frame that indicates its interactive capabilities, while the latter are planted on the train doors.

“The MTR, which is perhaps the most popular medium in our company, holds the audience in a captive environment. We try to be everywhere while our audience is in that space – on the concourse, on the platform, in the car – the passengers have to be there,” Chan says.

Hong Kong people are more passive and receptive. So unless there are discounts, people are reluctant to interact with an ad just to get information.

Joyce Tang

Sony Communications’ head of marketing

For Liversidge, the captive theory works, but only if the medium allows passersby to take something with them.

“A relevant ad that speaks to the person in a certain location would work – in the MTR, in a lift, for example. But it has to somehow take users back to live content; it has to be based out of a multi-screen methodology: where they see the ad placement, capture it with their devices, and continue the conversation with the brand while they are walking.”

Although Tang is not as extreme as Liversidge, she agrees out-of-home media must pull the audience back online for it to be fully effective. In Sony’s case, she puts a link to Facebook – one of its core digital platforms – with almost every outdoor activity. But ultimately, she adds, all campaigns are unique depending on the creative content.

For example, Xperia S, which came with a three-minute micro film, saw heavier placement in digital and out-of-home video locations and less on traditional spaces; whereas Xperia Z’s TVC saw a more even balance between all platforms.

“It really depends on the material: as the world is moving, all our strategies have to move, whether it’s print, outdoor or online,” she says. “It’s all about coping. So even though the current technological outdoor offerings are not quite there yet, the digitalisation of this platform promises a flexibility and space for ad hoc projects that
was never possible with poster ads,” she adds, citing content can be changed any time rather than obeying the three-week-prior-tolaunch- date deadline.

Maxim’s Leung agrees.

“If the Chinese New Year campaign didn’t feature two girls, our push would be very different,” she says. “As marketers, we need to admit the media environment is very diversified; it’s competitive for time and eyeballs. This is a fact everyone knows; so when we advertise these products, it’s a holistic campaign where we need to think about these
mediums and ideas as well as how to attract our audiences overall.”

Whether out-of-home media is a bridge between online and offline or just another medium waiting to be kicked into oblivion to make way for digital, Liversidge, Chan, Tang and Leung can agree on one thing: marketers cannot replace creativity with any medium – be it digital, traditional or out-of-home.

And while each boasts its own benefits, the ultimate route needs to lead back to the online space, because like it or not, no medium can occupy a long shelf life if it’s not on a platform where viewers live and breathe.