Out \ Look: Sky brings entertainment to life on OOH

Aaron Poole, marketing insights manager, PML Group with this week’s Out \ Look on Out of Home

Sky is live this cycle with a major national OOH campaign that makes the breadth of its entertainment offer instantly visible in the real world. Planned by Starcom and Source out of home, with creative by Sky Creative Agency, the campaign spans a broad mix of classic, digital, transport and commuter formats, using Outdoor to deliver both scale and standout as Sky highlights its line-up across Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and Hayu.

At the centre of the campaign is a special build 240 Sheet that turns Sky’s entertainment message into something physical on street. Featuring a row of oversized director-style chairs branded for each partner, the installation gives visual form to the idea of Sky bringing the world’s best entertainment together in one place. The production pushes well beyond the confines of a standard poster, with the tallest of the 2D chairs rising 4.4 metres from the base of the site and stepping down in height across the installation to create depth, presence and perspective.

What lifts the special further is its use of lighting. Halo-lit chairs, warm white spotlights and RGB illumination across the side boards give the installation a different energy once daylight fades. By night, the site takes on a second life, shifting from high impact billboard to something closer to a stage set. For an entertainment brand, that sense of theatre feels especially well judged.

That effect is well supported by past PML Group research. Our Special Effects study found that 84% of consumers agree specials are more noticeable than standard poster ads, while three quarters say they make a brand seem more exciting. Separate OCS findings also showed that 94% of participants regard lighting or illumination effects in campaigns as more noticeable, reinforcing why embellishments like these continue to work so strongly in Outdoor.

The special is only one part of a much broader campaign footprint. This cycle, Sky’s presence extends across Luas formats, bus shelters, commuter panels, station environments, classic roadside, digital roadside, mall digital and large format placements. From full motion station galleries and high street digital formats to mall screens, tram domination and large roadside impact, the campaign creates repeated encounters with audiences across multiple moments of the day. When the proposition is built around choice, value and entertainment breadth, that kind of scale matters.

As Jacqueline Lambe, Media Controller at Sky Ireland, puts it: “This campaign was about showing that Sky brings the world’s best entertainment together in one place, under a single subscription. Through high impact Outdoor, we were able to bring that proposition to life visually in the market, using a standout special build and national scale to make the value of having Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and Hayu through Sky impossible to miss.”

What Sky has done particularly well here is keep the proposition simple while allowing the media to do the heavy lifting. The message is clear, the entertainment line-up is instantly recognisable, and the creative translates cleanly across every environment in the mix. Then the formats add the drama. From the spectacle of the illuminated special build to the repeated rhythm of commuter and retail touchpoints, this is a campaign that understands exactly what Outdoor is best at.

For entertainment advertisers, that remains one of OOH’s greatest strengths. It can make a viewing proposition feel like an event before audiences ever reach the screen at home. Sky’s latest campaign proves the point, turning entertainment choice into something people can see, feel and remember on their everyday journeys.

Mondelēz the Biggest Out of Home Advertiser in the first Quarter

Mondelēz was the biggest advertiser on out of Home in the first three months of the year, according to WATCH, PML Group’s market intelligence resource. The snack food and confectionery giant accounted for 4.6% of total OOH display value, driven by a selection of multi-format and multi-environment campaigns. These included promotions for the seasonal Cadbury Creme Egg along with the launch of the limited-edition Oreo Creme Egg biscuit, a support campaign in advance of Ireland’s World Cup qualifier, along with activations for belVita, Grenade Protein Bars, Toblerone and Philadelphia.

Our Media Impact study found that 74% of people say that brands that advertise on billboards are more desirable. OOH enhances mental availability on the path to purchase keeping brands top of mind. Almost two thirds of respondents perceive brands that advertise on billboards as premium, indicating prestige being associated with such public displays.

Tesco and Diageo rounded out the top three advertisers, while McDonald’s, Gowan Auto and the Musgrave Group also secured spots in the top ten. The top ten advertisers account for a quarter of total display value and together increased investment by 25%.

Retail remained the dominant category, contributing over 15% of total OOH display value in H1. Supermarket contributed nearly two thirds of the sector’s activity. Notable growth categories include beverages, banking and films. Alcohol and telecoms saw a year-on-year decline.

OOH’s versatility is underlined with 59% of display activity occurring in roadside environments, with 20% in each of retail and travel. Digital formats now represent 46% of all OOH activity, an increase in display of 33%, reflecting the increasing digitisation of classic formats such as Bus Shelters and 48 Sheets, alongside expanding digital networks in retail, transport, and leisure settings. Transport formats including bus and Luas also experienced double digit growth.