“We now recognise that dynamic OOH offers brands a unique platform for delivering targeted messaging, at scale, directly into the hearts of communities.”

 

Introducing Patrick Wall, Creative Technology Director at DOOH.com, who has been working in OOH for the past ten years – witnessing it evolve across the decade. During this evolution, Patrick has pioneered new technologies that push the boundaries of dynamic digital and showcase all it can offer both brand and audience. 

 

As we head into 2022, we sat down with Patrick to find out more about his career so far, and how he feels creative technology has changed the landscape of the OOH space throughout the past year. 

 

Career with DOOH.com so far… 

When we started DOOH, there were no off-the-shelf OOH boilerplates or templates. We couldn’t dip into a library of assets and come out with a cookie-cutter solution for every new OOH brief. Trial and error forced us into a cycle of iterative development, and increasingly robust quality assurance tests, until our workflows coalesced into clearly defined products and services which allowed our clients to consign the pain of OOH campaign delivery to the past and focus their energy on new ways to engage customers.

 

Over the past ten years, what do you feel have been the most significant changes/ developments in the OOH Industry? The 90’s dot-com-boom was such an exciting time, full of crazy ideas, innovation and risk taking. The OOH industry felt similarly vibrant ten years ago. We felt like pioneers on the edge of a wild and mysterious frontier where every campaign presented an opportunity to push the boundaries of what was technically and creatively possible. It seemed like every campaign included a disruptive experiential special build, and everything was a world’s first. But, like the internet, OOH had to grow up fast. Gobsmacking the public only takes you so far. We now recognise that dynamic OOH offers brands a unique platform for delivering targeted messaging, at scale, directly into the hearts of communities. DOOH.com has developed a suite of successful products that allow brands to reach their customers in increasingly targeted ways. And as the hardware improves, so do the creative possibilities.

 

From the Creative Technology perspective, what are the key differences you have seen in campaigns as a result of the past year (the pandemic’s impact etc.)?

I think that the pandemic afforded the OOH a unique opportunity to take ownership of being outside. As we adjusted to a new world of self-isolation, it was the humble out of home screen that welcomed the public back to the hustle and bustle of being outside again. As a result, we have seen a massive increase of location aware campaigns that cross reference stock, inventory, buying trends and social media engagement in a hyperlocal context; while this presents unique challenges, from a technology point of view, the opportunities to shine creatively have never been greater.

 

The pandemic highlighted/ cemented the importance of location in OOH, do you feel location has really come into its own? How so? 

The importance of location is all about creating a sense of place. A location can be represented with a set of coordinates but in order to become a place we need to add an engaged audience. A simple location call out on a roadside D6, which invites the viewer to visit a nearby restaurant or shop, not only informs the viewer but engenders a greater sense of place within the wider community, not just for the brand, but for the screen too.

 

What has been your most favourite campaign you have worked on to date?

The award winning Amnesty International Departure Board which drew attention to the plight of the thousands of people around the world who are abused, imprisoned and tortured by their own governments, simply for expressing their views.

 

And more recently, I enjoyed working on the successful #MyHeroes campaign during the pandemic. I’m not sure I ever worked on a campaign which galvanized not only DOOH.com but the entire OOH industry in such a positive way. Not only did we put social media messages of support along key workers’ commuter routes but we helped keep OOH in the public eye during such a frightening time.

 

What has been your favourite campaign of the past six months? (this could be one you didn’t personally work on)

We helped create an experiential event for Subway’s launch of their new TigerPig sub recently. It combined dance-based game mechanics on a large format OOH screen with real-time leaderboard updates and a visit from the dance troupe Diversity! To see kids, having such a blast, dancing themselves into a frenzy in-front of a massive OOH screen reminded me of why I love OOH.     

 

What do you think we will see from the industry over the next six months?

I think location / place will become much more important to brands in the future. The post-covid new norm appears to be recalibrating our relationship with the outside world. We are already seeing an increase in campaigns calling out distance to stores and, as network speeds and data-rates improve, there is no limit to what we can put on screens. In the last six months we have built campaigns with live betting odds from high-street bookmakers, live product feeds and flight prices from major airlines and real-time in-store product feeds from more than one high-street supermarket. OOH is a medium which excels in putting together customer, location, brand and context. Personally I can’t wait to see how the industry will continue to reach its full potential in 2022.