Out of Home Media Meets the 21st Century - new marketing techniques - Brief Article - Industry Overview

Brandweek, March 19, 2001 by Jill Whitbeck

It wasn't too long ago that out-of-home media meant what you saw on billboards while driving down the street. Marketers saw this medium as a way to reach consumers in a non-traditional setting. This nontraditional setting, however, has become the norm.

Consumers have become more jaded toward the ad messages that bombard them daily, even hourly Now, as the Internet wave continues to crest, we are seeing new forms of creative and out-of-home media emerging that offer marketers fresh ways to tell their story.

These days "creative" has to apply to the marketing vehicles we employ as much as to the communications themselves. Groceryworks.com, for one, recently enlisted everyday folks in key markets to drive cars shrink-wrapped with the company's message. Jack-in-the-Box disguises one of its most pervasive forms of advertising, car antenna balls, as a consumer craze.

Even old-school marketers are looking beyond the traditional. Procter & Gamble decreased its 2000 television spending and increased its grass roots marketing budget, challenging field teams to come up with new ways to market to consumers. Pepsi, Nike and other youth-targeted brands figured out years ago that Gen X and Y are the most jaded of all audiences and grew up on a steady diet of niche radio programming and extreme sports events.

For consumers, these methods are refreshing, endearing. Marketing messages delivered in unexpected ways are memorable. But soon, they too will be lost in a sea of clever ideas and faced with an even more jaded consumer. Now, we're moving into the next challenge: incorporating interactivity into ad delivery. The Web itself opened an entirely new medium for ads. More importantly Internet-based technologies allow us to reach consumers with exciting new forms of communication.

7-Eleven employs closed-circuit monitors at their cash registers to update shoppers on the weather, winning lottery numbers, report missing persons--and hawk a little bread and milk, too. LCD displays on wireless phones offer brand IDs and promotional vehicles for carriers and sponsors.

So what's the next wave here? Marketing that incorporates still images, Web content and entertainment-- and combines them with an interactive service that consumers want--located at or near the point of sale.

A prime example: free Web kiosks. Started as a fee based service in airports for business travelers, these stations have evolved to incorporate a computer terminal and modem with a T1 line, multiple plasma screens broadcasting events, sports, news and advertising, plus access to anywhere on the Net.

Researchers suggest public Web access kiosks will achieve epidemic growth from roughly 14,000 today to nearly one million by late 2004. Internet kiosks will soon become mandatory for developers of areas of public convenience, like shopping centers. And they will have to be accessible to shoppers for free.

A handful of pioneers have already met the challenge for free Internet access with high-speed, user-friendly I-kiosks in shopping centers. By the end of 2000, there were an estimated 500 mall-based, interactive kiosks drawing consumers into centers and exposing them to a variety of sales messages. These centers are proving to be a valuable source of "Inter-tainment" for malls--providing both Internet and entertainment. In effect, they've become the shopping centers' main attractions for drawing teens, men, seniors and, of course, women.

Advertisers like AT&T Compaq and MasterCard are taking advantage of the opportunity to hit their target audiences. I-kiosks promote not only mall-specific ads and customer-service features, but can broadcast full TV spots and put partner logos on computer screens. In addition to being demo centers, these units are designed to support live events and sampling. For example, an ISP can run its TV spots on screens, link visitors to a signup page on the interface and have onsite attendants hand out its latest browser on CD. Within two years there will be a tremendous matrix of data along with a rating system to support these kiosks.

We're watching a whole new ad category emerge, one that must be defined separately from traditional out-of-home media. Call it interactive out of home media.

Jill Whitbeck is vice president of marketing for BigFat Wow!, an Irving, Texas-based firm that provides free, high-speed Internet access in areas of public convenience.