Colum Harmon, marketing director, PML Group with this week’s Out \ Look on Out of Home
Guinness Taps into Record Numbers
If you are among the estimated 15,000 rugby fans flying to France ahead of tomorrow’s almighty clash with the All Blacks, then you won’t have missed the standout Guinness presence throughout Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.
A combination of high impact lift wraps, lightboxes, floor graphics, Aerpods, Skybridges and various specials both landside and airside engage the fans as they head for France. The activations bring Guinness right to the heart of the fan experience on such a special weekend in Irish sporting history.
The fun yet powerful creative is reflective of Guinness’s overall RWC campaign and works perfectly in the airport environment. The activations were planned, created and implemented by a massive collaborative effort among agencies including Verve, PHD, AMV BBDO, Source out of home, and , of course, DAA and the client, Diageo.
If Ireland progress, watch out for more to come….but let’s not jinx it!
Big Brands Double Down on OOH
The top ten advertisers on Out of Home have increased their investment in the medium by an average of 26% in the first three quarters of 2023. This is a powerful vote of confidence in the sector from some of the country’s biggest cross-platform advertisers. The statistic comes from our latest WATCH report, which will be published next week. At PML Group, we monitor all classic and digital OOH advertising each and every cycle to feed our industry-leading market intelligence database, WATCH.
The ten biggest clients on the channel so far this year also represent seven different product categories, representing the diverse nature of the medium and its ability to perform for many different brand strategies.
Diageo remain at number one spot in terms of investment. The nature of that investment is evolving and, in 2023, 25% of Diageo OOH display value is for alcohol-free products, compared to 21% for the same period in 2022 and 18% in 2021.
A major increase in investment has seen McDonald’s jump from fifth place in 2022 to second place in 2023. The QSR giant is highly adept at fully empowering its classic and digital OOH investment through string creative, impactful specials and strategic use of dynamic digital OOH. Mondeléz has increased its OOH display value by 8% this year, taking it to third spot. Its investment includes support for its association with Irish women’s football, major easter activity and non-confectionery brands such as Dairylea.
Other advertisers among the top ten include supermarket rivals Tesco and Musgrave Group and a display value increase of 50% has put Heineken back among the top ten.
The ultra-competitive Supermarket sector is highly active on OOH, recognising the opportunity to connect with a massive daily audience at a local and national level. Retail is the largest category of advertiser on OOH, as was the case last year also. However, due to increased percentage investment by other categories such as Food (+46%) and Telecoms (+13%), its SOV has fallen back to 12%, down from 15% last year.
Food has jumped to third place because of increases for brands such as Avonmore, Danone, Kellogg’s, and the Love Irish Food initiative.
The Political & Advisory category is not a traditional top ten sector for OOH but 2023 has seen campaigns for advertisers such as Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin City Council, Road Safety Authority and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities. Other more familiar categories among the top ten include Soft Drinks, Confectionery and Media.
Our full Q3 WATCH report will be published next week. If you are not on our mailing list and would like to sign up please contact info@pmlgroup.ie.
Falling from the sky
In Antwerp, Belgium, it’s tennis mania as the European Open tennis tournament is set to take place at Antwerp’s Lotto Stadium from next week.
To promote the event, both the stadium and the European Open’s governing body have decided to take a unique Out of Home approach, taking the form of 5 special b̶a̶l̶l̶s̶ builds around the city.
The installations themselves are giant tennis balls that have ‘ fallen’ from the sky, embedding themselves in the ground leaving craters where they lie. Bearing the Stad Antwerpen logo and large print displaying the tournament’s dates, the tennis balls have cleverly emulated meteors having impacted the Belgian ground. One can even be seen floating on the banks of the Schelde river running through the city. Both the European Open and Visit Antwerp social media accounts have been quick to publicise the installation in recent days, making merry of them in comic fashion:
In our most recent Special Effects research published last month, we noted that 86% Say Special Builds Make Brands Seem Innovative while 78% talk more about brands who employ the use of special builds. This is critical for generating mental availability around events and key occasions – something OOH has been recognised as being the most effective medium for.
