EXPERT OUTLINES WAYS TO BOOST OUT-OF-HOME MEDIA
Play
AN EFFECTIVE audience-measurement system and better integration with other channels hold the keys to fuelling the next boom of the out-of-home media industry, according to Ron Graham, who works for Plan B Media.
“The integration [of OOH] with other media [is crucial]. Ninety-six per cent of the top 100 brands in the UK buy outdoor media, while in Asia, only 30-40 per cent of top brands buy outdoor media.
“A lot of companies still don’t use outdoor [advertising],” said Graham, a former chief operating officer of Kinetic, the world’s largest OOH advertising specialist company.
Graham, along with other OOH media firms and associations in Asia, told The Nation in an interview that he saw many areas of untapped potential that could be unlocked for the OOH industry here.
Tighter integration of OOH with digital and other media channels would help boost the growth of OOH ads, while an audience-measurement system is also required to convince advertisers of the effectiveness and return on investment of OOH campaigns.
“Already, the Thai market is well developed in terms of products. Measurement will take it to another level,” he said.
Thailand’s OOH industry is more advanced than in some of its neighbours such as Indonesia and the Philippines, and “technologies” could help it “leapfrog” and catch up with developed markets faster to gain more share of total ad spending, he said.
Pinijsorn Luechaikajohnpan, managing director of Plan B, |said OOH took only about 10 |per cent of ad spending in Thailand, compared with 25 per cent in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Measuring OOH media usually costs more than for other media, but it would give “a lot of muscle” to an industry or a company if it could be implemented. Because of this, consolidation of the industry into fewer players can be helpful.
“Australia, for example, has enjoyed steady growth in out-of-home after its two big players invested in measurement,” he said.
Measurement is a “missing area” in the OOH market here, where further consolidation is a sure thing.
“In a normal OOH market, three to four companies, or five at a maximum, will dominate 80 per cent of the market,” he said.
Pinijsorn was quick to add that his firm and VGI Global combined already had half of the local OOH media market.
Graham said many methods could be used to measure OOH media effectiveness including conducting a massive modelling of passer-by audiences, using locality-based market data and telephone company data.
“Using telco data is an exciting area and it should be a low-cost [solution],” he said.
Major telecom firms in Singapore are trying to sell their data to outdoor and other ad-media agencies that want to connect and have a “one-on-one” relationship with consumers.
“Since now everyone is carrying a mobile device, it’s a great opportunity” to make use of mobile data.
Eventually there will be only outdoor and digital media left and outdoor offers a great synergy to digital media, he said.
