← Marketing Beyond with Alan B. Hart
Marketing Beyond with Alan B. Hart
448: Beyond Billboards: The Future of Out-of-Home Advertising with Anna Bager, President and CEO of the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA)
00:26:21
Loading summary
Transcript61 lines
- [00:00]
Unknown Speaker (Il Makiage Ad)
Did you know one in two women wear the wrong foundation. Matching foundation is hard, but il maquillage makes it easy. Take the Power Match quiz to find a perfect match in seconds. Customized to your unique skin tone, undertone and coverage needs. With 600,000 5 star reviews, woke up like this is our best selling foundation for a reason. Available in 50 shades of weightless natural coverage and with Try before youe Buy, you can try your full size at home for 14 days. Just pay shipping. Take the quiz@ilmaquillage.com Quiz that's I L M A K I A G E.com.
- [00:30]
Ryan Reynolds
Quiz Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous two year contracts, they said what the are you talking about? You insane Hollywood. So to recap, we're cutting the price of mint unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch $45 upfront.
- [00:56]
Unknown Speaker (Il Makiage Ad)
Payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first 3 month plan only. Taxes and fees, extra Speed slower above 40 gigabytes. E details.
- [01:06]
Ryan Reynolds
For all of us, it's.
- [01:07]
Freddie Wong
About predicting where the consumer is going.
- [01:10]
Alan Hart
And getting half of it right. One of the things we want to.
- [01:14]
Ana Bager
Do is create ads that don't suck.
- [01:18]
Freddie Wong
Embracing change creates great possibility.
- [01:22]
Ana Bager
I'm Alan Hart and this is Marketing Today. Today on the show we've got Ana Bagger. She's the president and CEO of the out of Home Advertising association of America. This is the leading trade association representing the out of home advertising industry. Her membership includes over 850 media companies, advertisers, agencies, ad tech providers and suppliers. On the show today we talk about her unique vantage point on the advertising industry and where she sees the changes happening. We talk about what the role of out of home should be in the broader marketing mix. What's new in the out of home industry, how the election is impacting out of home or out of home is impacting the election? And where is out of home in the mix with the rise of retail media networks? That and much more with Anna Bager. Well, Ana, welcome to the show.
- [02:23]
Alan Hart
Thank you, Alan.
- [02:24]
Ana Bager
I'm excited to talk about outdoor and out of home advertising. But before we do that, I hear you are a backgammon master, is that right?
- [02:34]
Alan Hart
I was. And this is the first time I've ever talked about this, at least in a very long time. I used to brag about it quite a bit, but I haven't done it in a long time. But yeah, it's true. In my, during my, I guess my college university days I spent far more time playing backgammon and studying and I became quite good at it actually and was actually, I think I was the regional champion of my, my county. So yes, I am a backgammon master and I'm hope. I'm really hoping that I can pick it up again. So anyone who's listening to this, if you want to play it, let me know.
- [03:04]
Ana Bager
Yeah, I may take you up on that. I've never played it before but I've always. Maybe it was just the nature of Bond movies or something like it always seemed glamorous and I don't know about.
- [03:15]
Alan Hart
That, but it's super fun. It really is super fun and it's very. And it's one of those where you just keep getting better at it. But again, I think I've had a long hiatus of maybe 20, 30 years. So I, I'm also a little nervous now that I put it out there.
- [03:30]
Ana Bager
Somebody's gonna take you up on it.
- [03:32]
Alan Hart
Yeah, yeah, exactly. We'll see anyways. But yeah, I am, I am awesome.
- [03:37]
Ana Bager
From early days of playing backgammon more than maybe you should have. What's been your like, where'd you get your career start? And you are now the president and of out of Home Advertising association of America.
- [03:49]
Alan Hart
Yeah, yeah. I did stop playing backgammon pretty much right after college when I went to London and started working for an industry analyst firm. Slid into the telecoms industry where I then spent about 15 years of my career in various roles. Long time at IDC and then Gartner Group for a little stint and then I went to over to the client side and I worked for a large equipment company in the telecoms equipment space called Ericsson where I had a number of different roles but one was very focused on mobile advertising. So I learned and picked up a few things about advertising there even though I was working really on the deep on the equipment side of mobile. And then I moved to the US 16 years ago and when I got here and we decided I'm Swedish I should say then too, I think I forgot that. So halfway through my career I moved from Europe to over here. And when I started working here I kind of used my knowledge of mobile and what was happening in that space and transported that over to advertising and started working working for a trade association called the Interactive Advertising Bureau, setting up all of their operations around and work they did around mobile advertising. And then I spent about almost 10 years there and then doing a lot of things, mobile advertising, video, programmatic, focusing on a number of different areas, looking at standards and research and guidelines and lobbying, things that you do when you work for a trade group. And then five years ago, I got the offer to become the CEO of the out of Home Advertising association, which has a lot of connections to it. It's advertising. It's a medium that has a lot of connection to mobile, even though it's not mobile. It's probably the most. Most static in a sense, because it's all about a location. But the connection with mobile is strong because you use phones a lot when to share maybe the content that we're doing. And I thought it was an industry that really resonated with me. I've been watching it for a long time. So I was honored and really excited when I took the job five years ago. And I feel like my whole career, even though it's been a little bit all over the place in a sense, but both geographically and the different industries I've worked in, it's been a buildup to where I am now. So I'm excited to apply my knowledge and work for this great industry which is called out of Home.
- [06:02]
Ana Bager
Yeah, I love it. I love it. And you've got such a varied perspective, if you will, from the technology side of how this stuff gets delivered to IAB to now out of Home Advertising, another trade organization, if you will. But you've got a pretty unique vantage point on the industry. How do you see the advertising today changing?
- [06:26]
Alan Hart
Yeah, I think I do have a pretty good perspective on it because I've been in many different places and covered many different areas. And I think one of the reasons that I took, outside of the reasons I just mentioned being fascinated by out of Home in general, one of the reasons I took this job and wanted to work for this industry was that I saw a lot of opportunity aside, especially given the changes that we're seeing around privacy and data in the world today. And the regulation, traditional media or traditional digital, if you'd like, is going to have huge challenge going forward in targeting individuals because privacy laws are going to prohibit that and it's not going to get any easier. I think the government is starting to really be alerted onto consumers not wanting to be tracked or targeted unwillingly. They don't want to give up their data and they don't want people to use information about them to serve them. And I think we're seeing that with today's consumers too, they're more aware now than they were 15 years ago when I did that. This is the IB so there are definitely challenges there that I think out of home can bypass because we're one too many media. So you're not targeting any individual specifically and you're targeting based on context and location, which is something that consumers like. So I think that that's, that's one of the reasons that I went where I went now. I also think that advertising in general is going through a big change right now. Moving away from very traditional ads that we all know to much more content marketing, content based marketing, influencer marketing. Different platforms are now carriers of most advertising. If you look at TikTok or Instagram or social media is a big part of this. It's just shifted from where we are finding out information about new products and makes us want to buy it and sometimes we buy it right then and there. Right. Like the world is changing from the traditional ad world. With ads, whether they were video or just static ad, they look very different than what we're seeing now. So I think we're continuing to see this change happening. We see a lot of creators, a lot of content creators that, or brand creators that we haven't had before because the barriers to entry today are low. If you're good at something and you have the right technology, whether that's producing goods or producing advertising for those goods or just content, you can do it. So I think it's a very interesting time and there are big shifts happening right now and I think it's those times that there's a lot of opportunity. So I'm excited for what's happening right now. But I think the world of advertising is going to look very different 10 years from now than it does today. And I think even though the ecosystem has evolved certainly since the old days of the oldest days of out of home, which started with just basic signage, to print and radio and television and Internet. I don't think we've ever seen as big changes as we are right now.
- [09:13]
Ana Bager
Yeah, yeah. To your point, there's definitely a lot of headwinds on the digital side of things as it relates to privacy and tracking. How do you see, like you mentioned, context and one to local as what out of home is designed to help focus on? Where do you see out of home in the broader marketing mix? Like how does it fit in your mind?
- [09:35]
Alan Hart
I think we have a big role to play today as the glue that kind of keeps it all together and a platform that keeps even though we're not targeting any specific consumer, we're still very close to the consumer because we're following them as they leave their house on the way to work, on the way to where they're going to shop or on the way to the movies or on the way to the whatever it is that they're doing. We are right there and we're not interrupting their experience of just traveling to where they need to go. And I think with that in mind, we're a medium that can really amplify and increase the touch points for the consumer and retarget them in a sense, right? Messages that they might have seen on TV or through CTV or whatever it is that whatever medium they're using, you can retarget using out of home and the knowledge of where this type of individual might be and what context they are in at that time. Is it raining? Is it sunshine? Are they in a ski resort or are they at a bus shelter on the way to work? A lot about people, right, like just based on where they are. And I think the addition of out of home to the media mix just helps make the connection with the consumer stronger. And it's maybe that missing link in a world where it's hard to do things much harder now because of a difference in how consumers want to consume media and how you can target them. I think that out of Home is going to play a very, very important role there.
- [11:12]
Unknown Speaker (Il Makiage Ad)
I used to think buying foundation online was impossible. How am I supposed to find my shade when I can't even get it right in store? Then I discovered IL Maquillage. I took their AI powered quiz to find my custom match and wow. This foundation is literally my skin in a bottle. The undertone and coverage are spot on. It's so neutral and weightless I can't even tell I'm wearing makeup. Plus with Try before youe Buy, you can try your full size at home for 14 days. Take the Power Match Quiz now at ilmaquillage.com Quiz I L M A K I A G E.com Quiz Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds.
- [11:44]
Ryan Reynolds
Recently I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous to your contracts, they said what the are you talking about, you insane Hollywood. So to recap, we're cutting the price of mint unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch $45 up.
- [12:08]
Unknown Speaker (Il Makiage Ad)
Front payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees, extra speed slower above 40 gigabytes of details.
- [12:15]
Ana Bager
But to your earlier point I think you made like out of Home historically is like outdoor signage I think is what people think of what should we be thinking about or how do we. How should we think about what's new in the out of home industry in general?
- [12:30]
Alan Hart
I don't know that the types of signage is new. There's certainly innovation there at all times, especially when it comes to different types of screen technology. Today you have the sphere in Las Vegas, right? That's an incredible gigantic billboard of sorts or anamorphic signage in Times Square where a tiger jumps out of the screen. Or there are pretty much screens anywhere. You can be sitting at a bar and watch content and advertising there. That's out of home in the airport again I talked about bus shelters before like transit experience. We have signage everywhere and I think that this the main expertise of the industry where the out of home industry is really strong is this unique understanding of real estate and where it works to put up a message to influence someone. And we've had that forever. Or they maybe I should say I'm just a trade association, I'm not one of them. I'm just helping them getting the message out. But they, we know that. I think the real news in out of home is digital. And not just the digital signage, but the connection to something bigger that digital enables programmatic and automated buying. The ability to use data to inform content or change content out. Again I talked about retargeting on out of Home. So let's say you watch something on, on CTV, on your iPad or on what you call television, which today is digital and you see an ad and then the ability to know that somebody in that area saw this particular ad and then retarget that right away on signage outside of that or like in that area is a huge, hugely important thing that again has been enabled by digital. And the ability to transact directly, instantly, in a programmatic or automated fashion and then use other data points too that you might know about consumers if you have first party data that may makes the medium stronger. So I think the real new in out of home is that out of home is now much easier to connect to in a broader sense. And you can leverage all the innovation around this most amazing signage, large or small, and the ability to connect to that really fast and get like honestly access to enormous audiences that we touch right. In a much better way than maybe you could in the past, but it's not just about digital signs. You can do that with static signs, too. You can just be much more precise about where you put up your message and what it is than you've been in the past. I hope that makes sense.
- [15:00]
Ana Bager
Yeah, it does. It does. It's basically the less about the medium itself and more about how we use the medium is changing dramatically and how we interact with it, how we buy it. That makes a lot of sense. I hadn't thought about that. Actually. I don't think I shared this the last time we chatted that one of my first companies I helped build when I was in college was putting signage in bars and restaurants, in bathrooms for advertising purposes. So I guess I was an early out of home participant.
- [15:32]
Alan Hart
That's the thing, like when you think about it, out of home, I think most people, at least in the U.S. think billboard. In Europe, they probably think transit. Right. Because those are the major platforms where you see this type of signage. But it's really anything or any type of signage where you can broadcast some sort of a commercial message or public service for that matter. It's not just about advertising without a home. It's any type of message that can help the community, that you quickly can put up on our signs and reach people.
- [16:02]
Ana Bager
Awesome. We are in an election cycle, so I have to ask the election question. How is the election impacting out of home?
- [16:10]
Alan Hart
I think it's more about how we can impact the election. Hopefully it won't impact us that much, but who knows what this election is going to be. But no, this has been. I think elections are always good for ad spend and this is. No, no different this one. I think there's more money in the game than ever before and more money in a much more concentrated period. We're certainly seeing a lot of investment in out of home. Again, there's specific places and states that where you want to target more. We're everywhere, right. So I think there are definitely going to use our platform. We're seeing it now. I think the important thing with out of home, and I touched on it before a little bit also around public messaging. We are a medium that consumers trust and they see and they pay attention to and that is incredibly helpful. Right. In political advertising, we're also a medium that touches everyone. And I think in a world where there's a lot of mistrust in media and polarization and consumers don't necessarily want to find out about stuff they don't think they like. So I don't think television is a great carrier for political advertising anymore because you're just going to see what you want to see. If you're a Democrat, you're going to watch channels where you see democratic information and the other way around. And that's not how you get people out to vote, make people who weren't going to vote vote or change people's minds. But our medium, we're right there. We can appear in any language, in any location where somebody who might be interested in it actually are. And above all, we reach everyone. So if you want to change someone's opinion and you're smart about using out of Home, you actually can. And I think that's a very important point. And I can say just, we, we did some research not too long ago just looking at, out of home as a, as an influencer in political advertising. And I can say that we found that more, more than half of likely voters that are exposed to one of our ads in the past year trust the political information in the ad to be truthful, accurate. So they see it and they trust it. They don't see it just as propaganda. And I think also what's important is that we are, and I talked a little bit about that, where we show up, we show up in places where the most important voting blocks are with younger multicultural audiences might not speak English. And then also very highly educated, high income households that might already have made up their mind. We can get people, activate them to actually go vote and be inspired by, to do so. We show up, can also direct them directly to where they need to vote and how they need to register to vote. We can communicate with consumers that are otherwise really hard to communicate with because they may not speak the language that is in the communication. And then we are in places where we can change the minds with messages that with people who might not necessarily otherwise be receptive to it. So I would say that we are a very efficient platform for political advertising. And again, a platform that's being used for government messaging at all times, not just for political ads, for hurricane messaging or redirection of traffic or whatever. Like we're very trusted. So it's a good platform to appear in if you want to, if you want to influence big audiences.
- [19:13]
Ana Bager
Yeah, no, I hadn't really thought about it like that. But you're right, like it's, you are everywhere and you could use that contextual relevance to drive the action and the local hyperlocal direction that you need to apply to an audience.
- [19:28]
Alan Hart
And that's not just important for political advertising. Everything. But I think for political advertising in particular, and if we for whatever reason aren't somewhere, there is no sign. Right. That they're in that location. But you need to get there. Moving media is also out of home, which means that you can send in a bus with a message on it, or a bus with message in it, or some other type of moving media that kind of can pass through and communicate a message. We're like, we're so in that sense we're actually mobile.
- [19:57]
Ana Bager
Right. So the original mobile advertising.
- [20:00]
Alan Hart
Exactly, exactly. So now very good for political as well as any other form of advertising. Really.
- [20:06]
Ana Bager
Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. Another area besides the election that seems to be getting a lot of news and a lot of press in the last couple of years in particular is retail media and retail media networks. How, what in your mind, where do you see the role for out of home there? Part of what they're doing is out of home in stores, et cetera. But just curious how you think about it.
- [20:30]
Alan Hart
Yeah, there's a strong link and I think, I don't think I've touched on it before when you asked me about the ad world changing, but I think this is one of the most interesting trends and changes in phenomenon that we're seeing right now. Very much driven by the fact that consumers can pretty much buy something with just a click in their phone now, and that is retail media. And then you have the physical part of retail media too, which is advertising in stores or product placement in stores or whatever it might be. There's a strong link there. Just because we are on the way to that physical store and to leverage out of home signage to maybe change someone's mind before they walk into the store, maybe retarget someone with an ad message that they might already have seen on television or somewhere else. Right. Again, that's where we come in as a link between all the different touch points for the consumer throughout the day and kind of amplify it before they actually make a purchase or vote. I think that's important. I think also retail media is not just about the signage in store or the way to the store. It's so much about the first party data that these networks have loyalty programs and consumers opting in various ways to share their data and get offers, et cetera, et cetera, to be able to leverage and use that data then in the sort of broader advertising sense and out of home signage and just make some campaign or whatever these networks are doing for their clients much stronger and better. So there's a strong link there as well, both leading to and from the store when it comes to convincing consumers of what they should buy and what they should like and just in general become a more strong platform. So there's a very strong link between, I would say, retail media and driving to purchase, as well as other platforms that are very similar, like point of care, doctors, healthcare, all of those things. Again, strong places that you can leverage out of home to become even more efficient.
- [22:14]
Ana Bager
Awesome. Well, I appreciate you spending time with us talking about out of home. I'm left with this sentiment that if out of home is not in your mix, you might need to rethink your plan.
- [22:26]
Alan Hart
I would completely agree with that. Yeah. And I think in many cases, you should start with out of home. Think about where you show up for the consumer first and then use that message and drill down. I think out of home is such a big. Even for the smallest screen, it's so much of a bigger message than you can ever generate in any other media platform that starting there is not a bad idea.
- [22:46]
Ana Bager
Yeah. Awesome. One of the things we like to do is to get to know you a little bit better, the person behind the microphone, so to speak. And we already know you're a backgammon master. But my favorite question to ask everybody that comes on the show is, has there been an experience of your past that defines or makes up who you are today?
- [23:05]
Alan Hart
I definitely am competitive. I think that. And I. I like to. I shouldn't say that I like to win, but I do think I don't. I'm not. I don't. I'm not a quitter. I don't give up easily. And I think that might come from my early days of backgammoning potentially. But I think. I don't know. I think what has formed me is maybe I've lived a very. I've lived in many different countries and worked in different industries, and I think I've learned along the way. And I think it taught me that every experience is very useful and you should constantly be open to change. And I think that kind of comes from my past, where I have gone through a lot of changes both in my career and where I've lived. And I think that's definitely for me as a person, for sure.
- [23:49]
Ana Bager
If you're starting this journey all over again, what advice would you give your younger self?
- [23:54]
Alan Hart
I think don't be afraid to take risk and don't wait too long to pull the trigger on anything, because you never regret what you do. You never know what would have happened if you didn't. But you tend to regret the stuff you didn't do. So I think it's worthwhile jumping in. If you know how to swim, you can always swim back. Right? Like bad metaphor. But yeah, don't be afraid to take risk and don't wait too long to pull the trigger, because then you might be. The opportunity might pass you by.
- [24:22]
Ana Bager
Awesome. Is there a topic either you're trying to learn more about right now or you think marketers in general should be learning more about?
- [24:31]
Alan Hart
I think understanding how consumers behave and what they want is the most important thing. And I actually, I just came back from the masters of marketing that ANA puts on every year and I'm gonna plug another channel here, namely radio and streaming audio and iHeart and their CMO, Gail Froberman has done fantastic research two years in a row now with advertising perceptions and morning consults where they really dug deep into the American consumer, their dreams and their desires and where they are and what they like and what they shop and what they don't like. And it's fascinating if you look at the whole country, how people in the middle of the country and Americans that we don't really pay a lot of attention to as advertising executives and marketing marketers, how different they are from what we think. And I think understanding the consumer better, not just the young consumer and the up and coming tiktoker like every consumer, and try and constantly keep a pulse on what they're doing. I think it's something that we all should be doing at all times because end of the day, that's where our success is going to come from. So I think that's what I think about the most. That research I can highly recommend. It's so good and it's got a lot of tidbits in it that I think we can all learn from. In the end, we all have very basic needs. I don't think you have to make things too complicated. It comes back to just understanding your consumer and what they want and who they trust more than anything. So that's. I think that's what I'm outside of trying to learn about everything I talk about now. Influencers and retail and media and blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Go back to the basics I think is important.
- [26:08]
Ana Bager
Awesome. Are there any trends or subcultures that you follow you think other people should take notice of?
- [26:13]
Alan Hart
Hmm. Trends in the subcultures. I think the instant shopping that is enabled today by social media is something that we all should pay attention to. And I think it can be very dangerous. I think that exists on the Internet today is not influencing any of us in a particularly good way. And I think we should all think about how we can make things better. And I think especially now in front of the election, how do we get out on the other side of that, no matter who wins, as more united, happier place, I think. And I think marketing has a really big role to play in that. So I think we should pay attention to that.
- [26:51]
Ana Bager
Last question for you. What do you think is the largest opportunity or threat facing marketers today?
- [26:59]
Alan Hart
I do think privacy and targeting is both an opportunity and a huge threat to marketers and to the whole industry, honestly. And I think speed, right, everything is faster. There's a new brand around every corner. How do you survive? How do you make a product that's relevant for a long time, like an evergreen? I think it's harder and harder to do. It's harder and harder to build brands because everything is so cluttered. So I think that's something that marketers need to pay attention to. And I personally have to say that the best way to keep yourself relevant and constantly in the minds of a consumer is to use out of home advertising. So as a conclusion, beware of all the threats and then use out of home to solve for them.
- [27:40]
Ana Bager
I love it. Love the plug at the end. Ana, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been a fascinating journey to learn more about out of home, but also just to get to know you a little bit better.
- [27:49]
Alan Hart
Thank you. It was great to be here and I look forward to playing back.
- [27:52]
Ana Bager
Amazon, of course. Hi, it's Alan again. Marketing Today was created and produced by me with post production support from Sam Robertson. If you're new to Marketing Today, please feel free to write us a review on itunes or your favorite listening platform. Don't forget to subscribe on marketingtodaypodcast.com and tell your friends and colleagues about the show. I love hearing from listeners. You can contact me atmarketing today podcast.com there. You'll also find complete show notes and links to what was discussed in the episode today and you can search our archives. I'm Alan Hart and this is Marketing Today.
- [28:33]
Freddie Wong
Hi, this is Freddie Wong from Dungeons and Daddies and this episode is sponsored by Rocket Money.
- [28:38]
Alan Hart
Houston.
- [28:39]
Freddie Wong
Houston, we have a problem and that's too many subscriptions that I don't know about because I like to put my credit card number into sites just for the sheer thrill of it. That's the fundamental problem of the Internet and money and Rocket Money is here to solve that. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills. You can see all those subscriptions that you've accrued over a lifetime of putting your credit card in on the Internet in one place. If you don't want them, just cancel them with a few taps. Rocket Money can help with that. Rocket Money's over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all the app's premium features. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com cancelsubs that's rocketmoney.com cancel subs, not submarines.
- [29:32]
Alan Hart
Over the past 75 years, more than.
- [29:35]
Unknown Speaker (Il Makiage Ad)
10,000 chemicals have entered our food supply, but the EU allows just 300 additives. At Thrive Market, we prioritize quality, banning.
- [29:42]
Alan Hart
Over 1,000 ingredients found in conventional grocery stores.
- [29:45]
Unknown Speaker (Il Makiage Ad)
Our Healthy Swap Scanner helps you find.
- [29:47]
Alan Hart
Better versions of your pantry essentials without.
- [29:50]
Unknown Speaker (Il Makiage Ad)
The junk dyes or fillers. And everything is delivered right to your doorstep. So shop at a grocery store that actually cares about your health. @thrivemarket.com get started for 30% off your first order and a free $60 gift.