Outdoor advertising amid “the greatest show on earth”
Dominic Gesua, managing director of blowUP media on what the “summer of sport” means for the premium outdoor advertising market…
As a sports-mad media man I am looking forward to London hosting the greatest show on earth. It has been a quick seven years since the London 2012 Olympics were announced, but it’s not just the athletes who have been preparing for Friday 27 July: agencies, clients, media owners and specialists have all been busy gearing up to the Games with the aim of showcasing some really outstanding work.
Although the Olympics has driven a number of sponsors to augment their sponsorship with iconic large formats, special builds and non-standard outdoor, it is not just a home event that drives this special relationship between premium outdoor and sports advertisers.
For us the “summer of sport” has brought with it a distinct two-yearly cycle: the European Championships and the World Cup, the Ryder Cup and the Olympics, balanced against annual events such as Wimbledon, the Grand National and sometimes the Champions League.
Non-standard premium outdoor campaigns deliver unrivalled standout, talkability and awareness and have a long tradition and affinity with brands looking to align themselves with major national and international sporting events, teams, and personalities.
Sports entities using athlete endorsers in outdoor messaging campaigns can quickly build an affinity with their rabid fan bases and tap into the passion fans have for their favourite sport.
“Faces of England”, a recent campaign for Umbro, did just that by featuring English football legend Paul Gascoigne in a premium outdoor campaign promoting Umbro’s sponsorship of the England team and reaffirming their investment in athletes and much-loved national sporting heroes.
Tactical brand positioning
Premium outdoor sites can be used tactically to position brands in and around sporting venues to help underpin their relationship with a specific sport.
John Smith’s adopted a blanket booking of large format sites in and around Liverpool, dominating the city and reinforcing their sponsorship of the Grand National.
Last year also saw some exceptional tactical outdoor executions from Nike, based around football and rugby fixtures. As well as using a variety of DOOH formats along major transport routes and in close proximity to each match venue, the campaign also starred different players to ensure that each execution was locally relevant.
Given Nike’s significant and sustained investment in outdoor it is no coincidence that a recent study revealed the company as the non-sponsor brand most associated with the Olympics.
Special builds
Special builds are another great way of creating high-impact campaigns that deliver impressive standout and memorability.
We are working on some large-scale special builds in and around Stratford this month, but it is not just banners dominating this space, there is the potential to execute experiential and interactive concepts too.
One of the campaigns that caught my eye at Cannes Lions this year was “Run With Ryan”, a campaign for Asics from Vitro in San Diego which featured a 64-foot-long video wall installed in a New York City Subway station to coincide with Asics’ sponsorship of the 2011 New York City Marathon.
It offered race fans the opportunity to race against a life-size video of top US marathon runner Ryan Hall. The chance to run side-by-side with an Olympic athlete was profoundly popular and unsurprisingly nobody was able to beat Hall’s winning 4:46 mile pace.
With the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games only a few weeks away, years of meticulous work and preparation are about to be unveiled.
Sponsors that have invested millions, along with their rivals will be vying for attention as London’s population swells by over 10 million. Outdoor taps into the excitement and emotion of sport, and we are looking forward to seeing inspiring, iconic, large format visuals that tap into the passion, excitement and patriotism that unique sporting events like the Olympics bring to the fore.