The increasing demand for interactive and personalized communication has led to new and innovative uses of Out-of-Home media.

Taxi 2 and TMC developed a bold campaign to launch the 2007 Mini in Canada. Washroom urinal boards with a motion-activated chronometer allow men to compare their speed at the urinal with that of the new Mini. Another ad employs side by side video boards, one for men who are excited by the new Mini, the other for those few men who are not excited. Men who are excited are rewarded, those men who are not excited are shown a video of a doctor suggesting a procedure to increase the user’s manhood.

 The OOH campaign also includes billboards with racy messages, fiberglass Minis mounted on the sides of downtown buildings with headlights beaming into the sky, megacolumns and utility pole wraps.

Mini USA is using digital billboards that flash personalized messages to Mini drivers as they motor by. Mini owners were invited to join a pilot version of a new program called Motorby. Enabled by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, Mini’s billboards are activated by electronic key-ring fobs customers receive after signing up and disclosing such personal information as nicknames for their cars.

Rethink created a campaign for Solo Mobile to demonstrate how youth can keep in touch - at the touch of a button.  Transit Shelters featured a button on a large picture of the phone which passerbys could press and use the walkie-talkie component of the phone to actually have a conversation with a person at another Transit Shelter across the city or the country.  The talking TSAs have generated thousands of spontaneous conversations between strangers across Canada and lots of PR buzz.

Cossette Media created an interactive campaign for Nike Canada in shopping malls. A vinyl floor graphic invited consumers to select via text messaging any one of five “Joga Bonito” Nike soccer videos that rotate on the screen. The program tracked the popularity of the videos. Voters were sent a text message encouraging them to visit a web site and opt in to receive Nike soccer news.

Schering Canada launched an indoor advertising campaign with an event marketing component to increase awareness and generate trial of the Aerius brand among allergy sufferers. The indoor ads were targeted in upscale resto-bars and fitness centres. A team of ambassadors distributed over 68,000 samples to men and women in Toronto downtown areas targeting high traffic locations. Consumers were asked to donate at least a penny towards the Canadian Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Foundation Charity (CAAIF), raising over $4,000 for the charity. Anderson DDB developed the creative for the campaign.

General Motors targeted young car buyers with interactive boards in resto-bars. Motion sensors activate the ads as people pass by, invitingthem to stop and learn more about eight different Pontiac and Chevrolet models. Consumers can view video of the car models by pressingone of the “touchless” buttons. Brochures about the cars are in postcard racks installed on the ad units. Cossette Media developed the program.

Adults age 18-34 are an active and increasingly elusive target for marketers to reach. A recent Canadian study revealed that adults 18-34 spend over 40% of their time outside of the home on a typical weekday, and 30% of their time outside of the home on a weekend day. This means that in a typical week, adults age 18-34 spend over 40% of their waking hours outside of the home where OOH media can reinforce messages that intercept them throughout the day.

How Adults 18-34 Spend Their Time

Adults 18-34 are exposed to Out-of-Home advertising for up to 4 hours on a weekday and up to 5 hours on a weekend day.

42 % employed full-time                    72 % employed full-time

Primary Mode of Transportation Used to Commute on a Regular Basis

Out-of-Home media can create a continuous connection with adults 18-34 while they participate in leisure activities, attend school and commute to work, shop, etc.

Source: 2006 Day In The Life Study conducted by TNS Canadian Facts with 2,590 urban Canadians age 12+

For more information on this study, please contact Rosanne Caron at 416-968-3435 x 108 or rcaron@omaccanada.ca

For the campaign "Words Matter", The Gazette used miniboards in the resto-bar network to adapt an out of the box creation. The standard miniboards were transformed into magnetized panels where other magnets could be hanged. Removable words were placed in disorder, allowing people to build sentences by moving the magnets. The campaign won the Grand Prize for unique creative at the InfoPresse Prix Créa.

“Calgary commuter trains were transformed into Kokanee Gondolas to provide a daily celebration of Western Canada’s mountain lifestyle, connecting passengers with the spirit of skiing and snowboarding,” said Kyle Norrington, Kokanee Brand Manager, Columbia Brewery. The concept was created by Grip Advertising Ltd. to reinforce the brew’s connection to the mountains by encasing the interior and exterior of two 70 foot trains with a gondola-inspired wrap and mountain imagery complete with innovative and interactive gondola-style doors.

ACA Better OOH Advertising
A comprehensive one day course on the basics of Out-of-Home media.
Tuesday May 29^th

Register at www.acaweb.ca