Real-Time Advertising Landscape: What’s going on outside?

Step by step, the outdoor scene in Singapore has been evolving, digitising as per consumer behaviour, deepening engagement through innovative formats and becoming more and more mobile.

Ad revenue has kept up as well. The total out-of-home (OOH) advertising revenue in Singapore has risen from US$121 million in 2011 to US$135 million in 2015. The market is forecast to grow by 3% (CAGR) and will see total OOH advertising revenue of US$157 million in 2020, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2016-2020.

Singapore’s OOH advertising market enjoys many advantages with its wealthy, dense, entirely urbanised population, extensive public transport and a major international airport all highly conducive to OOH advertising, the report said.

The market has also benefited further in recent years from an expansion in the island’s rail network to the outer suburbs, which will increase the number of commuters and offer different demographics to advertisers. The bus network is also an important revenue stream.

Digital OOH (DOOH) advertising revenue is forecast to grow by 12.1% (CAGR) from US$57 million in 2015 to US$101 million in 2020. It will overtake physical OOH advertising revenue in 2017 and make up 64.1% of total OOH advertising revenue by the end of the forecast period.

Singapore enjoys an extremely high smartphone penetration rate. The country also has a national near-field communication (NFC) infrastructure which will further boost the technology. This provides an outstanding opportunity for the DOOH market to grow by utilising new technologies in advertisements to interact directly with consumers and even act as a point-of-sale.

GLOBAL TRENDS IN OOH

The PwC report highlighted similar trends globally. According to the report, increasing integration between out-of-home advertising and internet advertising will ultimately open up e-commerce opportunities – but this will take time.

Increasingly, networked and automated OOH infrastructure will facilitate programmatic advertising, and provide the ability to personalise ads and automate and dynamically manage inventory.

At the same time, integrating technologies such as mobile wallets and near-field communication will enable digital OOH to expand into e-commerce, allowing consumers to buy directly “from” advertisements. However, the relatively subdued global economy means investment in new technologies will not happen rapidly, and new consumer behaviours – notably buying directly from OOH ads – will also take time to ramp up.

Out-of-home providers are increasingly investing in digital infrastructure – a trend that has helped sustain steady growth in global OOH revenue, which is set to continue at a CAGR of 4.3% to reach US$42.74 billion in 2020. While increasing revenue from internet-connected digital OOH will be the main engine of growth, traditional formats are holding their ground – unlike in many other segments – with physical OOH revenue set to remain steady.

The OOH industry is also reacting accordingly. Recently, international OOH media players Kinetic Worldwide, Latcom and Mediakeys came together to form the Smart Alliance, in what they say is the world’s first global-scale platform to facilitate access to out-of-home inventory and audiences across 250 markets.

An industry first, the alliance enables clients to buy media around the world in one simple location.

The platform will be managed via a global hub dedicated to optimising delivery on behalf of the alliance while each company maintains management over strategic planning and client operations in its home regions. The platform aims to increase efficiency and value to a new industry standard for international OOH media budgets.

Brands are also becoming innovative in their use of OOH. Recently, in conjunction with the new flight routes, Singapore Airlines has collaborated with Mediacorp OOH Media to create an exciting contest with creative 3D hot air balloons at bus shelters.

Singapore Airlines launched its new “capital express” route, introducing the Singapore-Canberra-Wellington route. It is the first airline to operate regular scheduled international services to and from Canberra and operating flights between Canberra and Wellington, directly connecting the capital cities of Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

To raise awareness of the new routes and Canberra as a destination, the campaign has curated experiential moments that travellers can enjoy when they are in Canberra. Knowing that travellers have the mindset of doing more things in less time, the perception of Canberra was less exciting as compared with cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.

The campaign showcases the variety of experiences available in Canberra regardless of what type of travel moments travellers seek on their holiday and also to inspire more to choose Canberra as a holiday destination. To publicise and increase awareness for the campaign, a 3D Hot Air Balloon has been installed on a 6-sheet panel that represents one of the key attractions in Canberra. There are four such creative panels located in Orchard Road, Paya Lebar, Anson Road and Ang Mo Kio.

An additional network of 6-sheet posters are being used island-wide to help garner maximum exposure for the campaign.

The creative ad panel has been integrated with a contest whereby the public can select any of the four moments – family, tranquil, thrilling and indulgent – take a photo with the 3D Hot Air Balloon panel and upload it with a key experience related to a moment that they have selected to stand a chance to win a trip to fulfil their itinerary.

Globally, we are seeing some interesting uses of OOH as well. Reebok used a smart digital out-of-home ad as an incentive to get people running in Sweden and to win a new set of trainers.

The interactive billboard came with a built-in speed camera and tracking technology to measure the pace of pedestrians passing by it in the downtown area of the Swedish capital.

Those who ran past the speed monitor faster than 17kph (or roughly a 5:42 mile pace) unlocked a clear plastic window box display to grab a new pair of Reebok ZPump 2.0 shoes.

In our Master Report we look at all these possibilities of OOH.