James Byrne, marketing manager, PML Group with this week’s view from OOH.
This week we publish new research on OOH’s ability to motivate consumer action, particularly as an online driver. We also include news of a new digital network for Dublin and some of the country’s other biggest towns and cities as well as the latest TII traffic data, showing incremental increases in traffic levels over recent weeks.
OOH Drives Response, ‘React’ Research shows
New research we are publishing this week points to an increasingly important role for OOH in the online retail phenomenon. The study, ‘React’, investigates likelihood of consumers to respond to OOH advertising in various different ways and compares those outcomes now to how respondents would have acted a year ago. Going online to find out more about a product is the action most likely to be taken by those interested in an OOH ad. 46% are likely to take this action in response to the ad, up from 45% pre-Covid. There is no significant difference in age groups behind this figure but when it comes to gender, females are much more likely to take this action (54% v 38% among males). Females are also more likely to actually make an online purchase as a result of seeing an OOH ad. Males and younger age groups are more likely to take a photo of an ad and to share the ad on social media.
Overall, the research indicates an increasingly strong link between OOH and online actions, re-enforcing OOH’s role as a bridge between the physical and virtual world. The computers we carry around with us enable in-the-moment responses… if the value exchange proposition and prompt is compelling enough. By tethering our handsets to our OOH activity, we will see a continued acceleration of technologies that enable OOH advertising to be shoppable and Covid-safe. Some more outcomes from the research are outlined below.
Launch of Adshel Live Roadside
More exciting news on the development front with Clear Channel set to launch Adshel Live Roadside in the Republic of Ireland. This launch will include, for the first time in ROI, a network of Roadside Digital Screens outside of Dublin.
Phase 1 of this new network will consist of more than 50 HD roadside digital screens across Dublin, Galway, Wicklow, Portlaoise, Longford and Tipperary bringing the Adshel Live total to more than 120 Roadside Digital Screens across the island of Ireland.
When the full network is installed it will offer advertisers national reach and activation at scale with increased flexibility and a wide geographic footprint.
Adshel Live Roadside will deliver a strong vehicle and pedestrian audience targeting key commuter routes as well as city and town main streets.
As part of a major programme of development existing phone boxes will be removed and replaced by modern multi-functional street kiosks. These will bring wayfinding, public information and telephone services to the public.
The installation will start in February 2021 and phase one will be completed in May. The digital screens are being provided by Amscreen, a leading digital signage solutions company.
Mobility
New year trend continues with 4% weekly rise in Traffic Volumes
TII’s latest traffic trend information, covering the morning period from 7am until 10am and generated from a sample of ten traffic counters located on the national road network, reports a +4% weekly increase overall in volumes on Wednesday 27th January. In general, there is a consistent week on week increase in traffic volumes since the start the year.
For traffic volumes on the radial routes into Dublin, seven-day comparisons with Wednesday 20th January are as follows: +4% on the N7 at Citywest, +3% on the M1 at Swords to Airport, +5% on the M11 at Bray and +4% on the M4 at Celbridge-Maynooth. The M50 (N3 Navan Road to N4 Galway Road) shows a +5% increase compared with Wednesday 20th January.
Six in Ten People Staying Closer to Home
The CSO released new insight into the population’s mobility this week. The ‘Staying Local Indicator’ provides daily estimated percentages of the country’s population that have stayed within 10KM of home, averaged over the preceding seven days.
The data shows that an estimated six in ten people (66.2%) stayed local during the second week of the January lockdown period. With easier access to amenities and services, Dublin was the county with the highest percentage staying local at 78.8%. People in Mayo, Roscommon, Tipperary and Sligo were more likely to travel further than 10km from their homes during the restrictions.
Comparing week on week changes in mobility, all counties with the exception of Mayo witnessed a modest decrease in SLI figures (-1.3%) from the week ending 8th January to the week ending the 15th January, suggesting a slight relaxation in people’s mobility behaviour.
Monaghan saw the biggest decrease in people staying locally (-2.3%). Dublin experienced a decrease of 1.9% staying local down from 80.7% the previous week.
As reported in our Going Local study, OOH can play a pivotal role in connecting with audiences in a local setting. Almost three quarters (72%) of adults agree that they pay more attention to what is happening in their local area these days, peaking at 84% among 45-54 year olds.
With the research demonstrating how people are more tuned in and attentive to their surroundings, this has had a positive effect on OOH noticeability with 65% of adults agreeing they are more likely to notice OOH posters and screens as the go about their local area. More than 6 in 10 (64%) believe Outdoor ads are a part of the everyday fabric of a local area.
Insight
Guinness the Most Admired Sponsor with the Irish Public
The 2021 edition of the annual ONSIDE Irish Sponsorship Industry Report provides a snapshot of the state of the Irish Sponsorship market in Ireland from the perspective of Irish sponsors and rights holders.
Vodafone’s partnership with the IRFU was again voted by the industry as the best sponsorship of the past year, according to the report, with others standing out including supermarkets SuperValu and Lidl, financial services providers AIB, Bank of Ireland and FBD in addition to energy sponsors Bord Gáis Energy and Electric Ireland. Guinness was voted the most admired sponsor of 2020 in ONSIDE research with the Irish public.
Looking Forward, hot sponsorship sectors of spend to watch in 2021 are ecommerce, supermarket / retail, food delivery, pharma and banking, which are all expected to increase spend while ONSIDE predicts that GAA, Sustainability and cause-related sponsorships will be in most demand in 2021.
Speedy Rebound in Consumer Spending Expected
Leading financial services firm, Goodbody Stockbrokers, predicts there will be a swift recovery in consumer spending once the latest COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
According to its economic forecast report, the accumulation of €13 billion in household savings and pent-up consumer demand will fuel a 5% increase in domestic demand in 2021 and 3.5% in 2022.
With current restrictions in place until March, Goodbody expects a fall in demand in Q1 but predicts the vaccine rollout will increase spend for the rest of the year and into 2022.
As we have seen with previous reopenings last year, pent up consumer demand is unleashed once restrictions are eased. The forecast points to an increase in consumer spending in December when the economy was partially reopened.
The report suggests that the shift in spending behaviour we have seen at times throughout the pandemic will most likely be unwound when restrictions are lifted.
And, finally….
If this week’s Now Near Next has left you craving more OOH news and views then we’d encourage you to check out an article by Anna Benyon from Anything Is Possible that appeared on The Drum this week. Title is “OOH: Covid casualty or example to other channels? How lockdown transformed the oldest ad format.”
An interesting take on OOH’s most recent history. Here’s an extract we particularly liked….. “..the biggest strength of OOH going forward is probably not its future potential, but its heritage potential. The simple fact is, people trust big billboards. While so many other media competing for attention lose trust, that becomes incredibly valuable. There is an old saying: ‘If it’s on a poster, it must be true.’ The truth is only growing.”
