The outdoor sector needs to further educate marketers, says Clear Channel’s Sarah Speake

The outdoor sector needs to work closer together to educate marketers on the technological capabilities of out-of-home (OOH) advertising, according to Sarah Speake, chief marketing officer for Clear Channel.

Sarah Speake embed

Earlier this year, Clear Channel commissioned research to look at the degree in which advertisers understand the outdoor medium. It found that brands that are not currently using the platform are likely to be ill-informed about the technological capabilities available to them.

The survey of 200 marketers found that 82% of those using the medium are likely to label OOH ‘innovative’ compared to 56% of those that do not use it, something Speake says the outdoor sector needs to address.

“So far as a medium and a sector within the media space we have an enormous educational job to do, she said.

“We are in a renaissance period and I think that we’re seeing fascinating and exciting convergence between classic out of home advertising which is still invaluable in terms of its reach, and now marrying that with what we’re investing in on the mobile and digital front; it delivers in all areas.”

Speake told Marketing Week that the dilemma lies in marketers that think innovative outdoor experiences are just for brands with big budgets.

“I don’t think we as an industry have done a particularly good job sharing the fact that we can facilitate hyper-localised business, she adds.

“We have a national story for big advertisers with larger budgets as well as localised regional story to tell. I think part of the onus is on us to reach out to people and facilitate them to do a small pilot that combines classic and new digitised OOH as a first official step.”

This year, there have been multiple examples of brands using technology with OOH ads to create innovative experiences. Women’s Aid, British Airways and Walkers are just some of the brands to create interactive outdoor ads.

More recently, Oreo used data from the Royal Astronomical Society and TimeAndDate.com to track movement in the sky to create an ‘Oreo eclipse’ alongside the total ecplise in the UK.

Recommended