Will there be an inevitable union between out-of-home and mobile?

The most public of spaces is merging with one of the most personal, and the impact on the consumer is going to be profound, argued industry leaders yesterday during a debate on the marriage of out-of-home and mobile.

Taking the world’s oldest type of media and utilising the deep technological and behavioural changes brought about by smart, mobile devices, a new era in consumer engagement is – we’re assured – underway.

“Mobiles have become an extension of our bodies in many ways,” says Mungo Knott, Primesight Outdoor’s marketing and insight director, as he addressed an audience of senior media executives at London’s Haymarket Hotel. “Some research,” he says, “even suggests that we think of smartphones as 4% of our natural selves.”

It feels like we could be discussing an episode of Black Mirror, but it’s a fair point; our smartphones have completely changed our behaviours; they also allow us to do more and connect with each other and the world around us in new and unique ways. There are even those among us who speak of feeling utterly lost without them – and it now has a name: nomophobia.

And, as time moves on, we are doing more and more with our mobiles. Unsurprisingly, social media makes up the largest proportion of time spent on smartphone apps according to Nielsen (58%), but two more interesting pursuits are creeping up the same list: banking and shopping, at 28% and 26%, respectively.

It has taken its time to grow and consumers have had to develop a level of trust, largely linked to security and effectiveness, but, with those barriers fading away, the opportunities for brands and advertisers feels almost limitless.

We are not browsing on just our desktops any longer; we are in the high street, at gigs and live events. We are sharing personal, trackable information; we are, unquestionably, connected consumers.

So far, so good. But we are not just using more mobile devices more of the time; we’re more mobile as people too.

“The time spent outdoors in the last decade has increased by 50%,” Knott says, “and when we’re there we’re not passive; we’re using smartphones to keep ourselves connected.”

For the humble outdoor poster, this can mean pretty big things. We already know that outdoor advertising is highly effective and hugely well established. Yet mobile technology can allow the medium to evolve and offer new customer experiences.

Some of the emerging technologies that can link out-of-home with our connected devices are startling. Near field communications will mean social spaces will be transformed into new, interactive zones, geo-fencing – virtual perimeters for real-world locations – will create a new layer to the world around us and lead to new types of augmented reality and consumer engagement. It seems QR codes were a very simplistic tip of a much more complex iceberg.

But is it that simple? As one audience member said, out-of-home is generally regarded as being brilliant but mobile advertising is broadly thought of as rubbish. Merging the two must not, for everyone’s sake, just turn out as average.

Knowledge is power

“This is really about data,” says Stewart Easterbrook, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group. “There’s enough data to change things. We live in a world now where we should always know.”

By “know” Easterbrook means understand the consumer, their habits and journeys – and almost everything in between – much better than we currently do.

Shaun Gregory, global advertising director at Telefonica, agrees. “We’re moving towards a world in which we can make things more intelligent and efficient for consumers.”

For both Easterbrook and Gregory, it is about “optimising” outdoor. It is not about a “whole new world of advertising… we’re not moving from an old world to a new world,” Easterbrook says, rather “the context is changing.”

“Data now allows you to deliver the right message at the right time,” Gregory says. “It’s makes for an exciting future.” Gregory must be a convert, because he admits that until recently he used to only imagine a man standing on a ladder with a brush in his hands when he thought about billboards, but now he sees something new entirely.

Mark Fraser, founder of Zappit, a technology firm that provides a platform for brands to generate and analyse rich customer data, says that technology and data now means advertisers can fully understand their network and their consumer audience.

Data helps advertisers understand behaviour and context – and the richer the data the better the understanding of the consumer journey.

So what about privacy? Raymond Snoddy, chairing the event was quick to protest, but the panel was quicker to knock this issue aside. Simply, the panel agreed that as the technology develops, consumers will engage. Those that do not want to can, and will, simply opt out. Yet, the key point is, the emerging technologies will mean adverts can become truly meaningful – and meaning leads to engagement.

“The value is, therefore, in the conversion,” says Fraser. “It is not about how many people have seen an ad.” In these terms, improved engagement through better targeting means more sales.

21st century wallets

There has been much talk in the media industry for some time now about mobile wallets – from Apple’s iWallet to the latest offerings from Weve – and we know that contactless technologies, like those recently utilised on London buses to make payments with a tap of a bank card, are emerging, but it is hard to think of any real mainstream examples.

This is going to change, the panel argues. Greg Grimmer, digital consultant and Newsline columnist, says it was the same when online payments first arrived; many younger people cast doubt about security or usability, he says, stalling what is today commonplace. However, the older generations – the silver surfers, as Grimmer says – knew that the banks had their money secured and jumped straight in. They were the real trailblazers and Grimmer thinks the same will happen with mobile wallets.

In short, we are being told to stop worrying about security issues and embrace what is coming.

“Wallets will, eventually, be accepted,” says Chris Forrester, commercial director at Primesight Outdoor. “Slowly, like chip and pin was. There’s a long while until it’s fully understood by consumers…[so] the challenge now is to educate them and get them used to the technology.”

Creativity?

After hundreds of years of fairly straightforward outdoor media we’re now installing interactive posters, near field communications, QR codes and geofencing – new technologies connecting us outside of the home to the digital world around us. This is a fabulous evolution says Forrester: “a poster will open the door to consumer engagement – but we can now use research tools to help us to understand what a consumer does with their mobile after viewing it.”

So what does this mean for ad creativity?

“Advertisers that think they must add a mobile element to an existing outdoor creative campaign are destined for disappointment,” says Grimmer. “Advertisers and their agencies that are creating work that harnesses the strength of both media are the ones that will be rewarded.”

No room for laziness, it seems, but campaigns must remain simple and easy to engage with too. “Complexity in outdoor creativity is a sure-fire way to ensure confusion with consumers… but compelling messages for screens, whatever their size and functionality, still remains the end game for brands.”

It will be interesting to see what new creative ads look like. If out-of-home is evolving and having its entire context changed and upgraded, then we should be looking at a startling new playground for creative thinkers and consumers alike.

To find out more about the work Primesight is doing, visit their website here. To find out more about MediaTel events, please see the events site.