As an advertiser, how do you capture a person who is living an increasingly mobile lifestyle? The answer is ubiquity — to be present in their life wherever they are.
The power of ubiquity is profound. Recall the yellow Lance Armstrong “LiveStrong” bracelets? Beginning in fall 1997, one could spot these yellow rubber wristbands on celebrities and Tour de France fanatics. Soon they were everywhere – of course you had to ask that fateful question, “What is that?” Then you got one. Over 50 million people bought a yellow bracelet. You saw them wherever you went. While the campaign had amazing public relations impact, it was the ubiquity of the bracelets that made it truly effective. And when you see things repeated contextually in the midst of your every day experiences, it has tremendous impact.
How can advertisers achieve ubiquity? It’s now possible to be practically everywhere people go in a day at a reasonable cost. The answer is out-of-home digital media. Unlike traditional out-of-home billboards and transit media, the new approach to out-of-home media is to blend into a person’s everyday experiences in venues they frequent as well as outside on the way to those venues. These venues showcase screens that range from large flat panels to smaller interactive screens in kiosks. These screens roll contextually relevant programming with dynamic, rich media ads sprinkled through the programming. The messages on these ads are typically short (8-15 sec) eye catching punches that can range from full-motion video, to flash animation, to stationary jpg files.
Imagine the following scenario. You are a brand trying to reach an urban 18-34 male. You know that they are hard to reach because they are constantly moving around, connecting with friends, being active and, in a single word – mobile. As a result, they consume media differently. They record their TV programming, skip commercials, use the web to get news, and listen to satellite radio. To reach them, you turn to an innovative out-of-home agency who recommends out-of-home digital media. Let’s investigate how a ubiquitous out-of-home digital media campaign would work.
Meet Ian, a 25 year old first level manager at a major Fortune 500 company. He makes $95K a year, has no dependents, just bought his first condo, drives a BMW 325, and skis on weekends. He goes out at night and has gone on dates with a couple of girls. Ian doesn’t want much TV, skips commercials, ignores billboards and doesn’t read a printed newspaper. This guy is hard to reach using traditional media, nonetheless, he has a considerable amount of disposable income. Let’s follow Ian around for a typical day and see how the agency’s proposed campaign impacts him.
Ian wakes up and pops over to the local gym. On the elliptical machine he’s fixated on a flat panel. Your ad pops up there in the middle of a programming piece on “strengthening abs”.
Ian goes home, showers, dresses, and rushes to the subway. On his way down, he sees your next ad on a wall panel. This is his second exposure to your brand - in a reasonably short time.
Ian arrives at his subway stop. He walks upstairs to the street. He’s feeling a bit tired and wants to fuel up at his local coffee shop. While waiting for his latte, he is fixated on a screen on the wall that has some cool jazz musician and then it cuts to your ad. The brand message builds on the previous ones and is not exactly the same. “Hmm, interesting,” Ian thinks.
Ian is ready for work. He knows he’s got a full morning of meetings but now he’s ready with coffee and bagel in hand. The coffee smells good in the elevator. On the way up, everybody is silent. They are fixated on the small screen over the elevator controls. News, sports, weather, and then your brand appears again with a complimentary message. This is Ian’s fourth exposure to your campaign.
Ian gets through his morning and rushes out of the last meeting to a business lunch. Down in the elevator again this time to a local microbrewery. Luckily, his party is a little late so he takes a seat to wait. The restaurant has huge flat panel screens running sports and entertainment programming. Then your brand appears again.
Lunch goes well. Before returning to the office, Ian picks up a gift for a friend’s birthday. While in a music shop, flat panel screens expose Ian to another vignette in your brand campaign.
Ian gets back to work. Before going home, he hits a local pub where he and his buddies meet for happy hour and play some darts. The jukebox in this pub is really cool. He can select his music, play it in the bar, even download it to his iPod. Coincidentally, as he walked up to the jukebox, it was rolling another ad for your brand.
Time to split …Ian’s got an early morning. Better pick up some dinner. A quick stop at the local grocery store supplies sustenance. On the way out, Ian sees a DVD rental machine, “A movie would be cool,” he thinks and rents a DVD while the kiosk runs yet another element of your campaign …
Your brand is everywhere. If Ian went to the movies, had to catch a plane at the airport, took his dog to the vet, or attended an event at his alma mater he could have been exposed to your brand when he is tuned in, not tuned out.
During the above scenario, Ian had high frequency of exposure, however in multiple contexts. Frequency has been studied extensively in the media research with many theories. Virtually all theories of frequency suggest that consumers must be exposed more than once in order for advertising to be effective. Some theories purport the first exposure has the most impact with the rest having diminishing returns. Other theories purport that the most recent exposure has the most impact. Still others have a “magic number” of exposures necessary to penetrate the mind of the recipient. And other theories try to use statistical response curves to predict the impact of multiple exposures. Finally, some other theories suggest that multiple exposures from different sources have a complementary effect where the recipient “learns” new things from each source.
No matter who you are trying to reach, the thesis is that a person engaged in everyday activity is in an entirely different mode than a person being bombarded by messages in context where they have learned to tune the message out (like print, TV, and radio). What is truly different in our example, is that the recipient not only gets complimentary messages, they are getting them in a new context while experiencing some activity.
Media agencies who embrace ubiquity are experts at selecting the right venues for your campaigns given the lifestyles of the people you are trying to reach. Advertising agencies who embrace ubiquity are experts at creating vignettes that engage people and tell your brand’s story.
SeeSaw believes ubiquity has a profound impact on a campaign’s effectiveness. Context is everything. An advertisement is more effective when people are engaged in everyday life.
Perhaps it’s time for you to consider a ubiquitous out-of-home digital campaign. Your brand can be everywhere people are.
Spend some time on www.seesawnetworks.com and explore the most extensive network of venues.
