Creative Conversations Episode 1: What Makes Great OOH Creative in Native Environments
Tune in as NextGrad hosts OOH experts Rick Robinson & Melody Roberts as they share award-winning insights on what makes OOH creative work in today’s market.
Creative Conversations Episode 1: What Makes Out-of-Home Creative Truly Work?
When OOH is placed in the right context, like our native high school screens, it becomes more than advertising. It becomes part of the environment, an experience that students actually notice and remember. In this webinar, we sit down with two of the most respected creative leaders in the Out-of-Home industry to explore what makes campaigns not only stand out, but resonate.
From award-winning executions to lessons learned in difficult categories, this conversation digs deep into why OOH creative matters more than ever.
Meet the Guests
Rick Robinson – CEO, PJX Media
With nearly four decades of experience, Rick Robinson is one of the most influential voices in Out-of-Home. A Hall of Fame inductee and OBIE Award winner, Rick has built his career on the belief that great creative, media innovation, and technology must converge to unlock the full potential of OOH. As CEO of PJX Media, he brings a forward-thinking, integrity-driven approach to the industry, while continuing to advocate and educate through speaking, leadership, and his role on the OAAA creative committee.
Melody Roberts – Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Out of Home Creative
Melody Roberts has spent 25 years dedicated to elevating the art and effectiveness of OOH. As founder of Out of Home Creative, she has inspired clients, driven sales, and mentored the next generation of designers. Recognized as one of OOH Today’s Top Creatives and Billboard Insider’s Top Women OOH Executives, Melody’s work has been honored with OBIEs, ADDYs, and international awards. A frequent industry speaker and OAAA creative committee member, she is celebrated for her ability to translate strategy into bold, impactful creative.
Transcript:
Hi everyone and welcome. I’m Kristy Vivian, vice president of business development here at Next Grad, and I’m happy to say an out of home industry vet out of Homs a funny word. It basically means anything that isn’t broadcast digital, online or print. In regards to advertising, media. And I’m excited to kick off the very first installment of our creative webinar series called Creatives Conversations with Next Script.
00:00:30:21 – 00:01:02:09
Now, this series is designed to give our clients practical strategies and inspiring examples of creative that truly connect with the high school student right in their halls of influence. At Next Grad, we operate a place based digital out-of-home advertising network in over 500 high schools across the United States and Canada. That means our advertising partners, creative, is displayed directly in the environment where students spend most of their time.
00:01:02:11 – 00:01:33:23
Our topic today lives right at the intersection of strategy and artistry. What makes out of home creative truly work, especially when it’s placed in a native environment like our screens are inside of high schools. So welcome. So I’m excited to introduce these guest. Now these two individuals are out-of-home industry giants. Both are Obie winners, which is the Outdoor Advertising Association of America’s Award for Excellence in Creativity.
00:01:33:23 – 00:02:00:22
And they both still serve on the AA Creative Committee. Notably, Rick is an Out of Home Hall of Fame recipient. And most importantly, both of these individuals are a longtime friends of mine and are very passionate about the advertising art form, which we lovingly call out of home. So welcome. Rick Robinson, CEO of project X, and Melanie Roberts, founder and chief creative officer of Out of Home Creative.
00:02:00:23 – 00:02:18:15
Thank you so much for being here. I know you guys are busy. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having us. You are so kind. Rick, do me a favor. You’ve been in the industry forever. You’re basically known as the. The. What is it? The pop of out of home. That’s what I don’t know. I’ll take it.
00:02:18:20 – 00:02:43:03
You’re a grandfather now, so I could say that. So, Rick, can you tell us about your background and how you lean into creative? During that whole, you know, time in the industry and why creative is so important in out of home. You know, I was an art major in the marketing minor, and I’ve always looked at other for media as giant sculptures and public space.
00:02:43:05 – 00:03:13:07
And because of that, I felt they had a obligation, a duty to add to the space they occupy. It wasn’t just show up and advertise something, it was reward people for their attention and for going to appropriate public space. We need to earn the right to be there. So that was always my viewpoint, and it just carried through the last almost 40 years now, half of it as a seller on the vendor side and the other half as a buyer on the agency side.
00:03:13:09 – 00:03:33:02
And in every case, the first place I’ve always started is are we serving the public realm? Are we serving the people space? Are we creating intrigue and humor? Are we engaging and adding to their moment? Because, you know, when you wake up in the morning and you have your list of things to do, nowhere in there does it say consume.
00:03:33:02 – 00:03:58:22
Irrelevant out of media. However, while you’re driving to work or walking down the street, or in an airport or mall or wherever you might be, you’ll run across out-of-home media. It’s like serendipitous discovery when you run across it. If it makes you think or laugh or smile or it’s just beautiful to look at, or it’s contextually relevant or the timing’s right, or whatever it might be for the ads, you appreciate.
00:03:58:24 – 00:04:20:02
And there’s this one on one intimate moment that happens in a crowded space. And that’s a magical thing, is the same thing that happens when you see beautiful work of art, either on the street or in a gallery. It’s it’s the same toolkit and mechanism. So that’s that’s always where my lens has been. Yeah. And I just steadfastly stayed there.
00:04:20:04 – 00:04:38:20
I’ve been called an idealist. I’ve been called many things. But, I’ll take all that. Well, you also an artist as well. You said you make steel sculpture, so maybe that’s where it comes from. I worked in a steel mill after high school, and I have a background in that. So maybe that’s why I looked at big billboards as giant steel sculptures to begin with.
00:04:38:22 – 00:05:00:21
Exactly, exactly. Melody, how about you? I think you also have an example of some of your creative that you’ve done in the past. So tell me a little bit about you. Actually, I was raised in advertising radio, my mom under an advertising agency, and so I was doing commercials at seven, and she always had me involved somehow in that.
00:05:00:23 – 00:05:23:11
And she saw that I had some potential and talked to her, agency actually, that did her, artwork and they were willing to bring me in and train me. And when I graduated high school, I wouldn’t work for them full time. And, see, when I got to college, I felt like it’s hard to to go right into an agency and actually do hands on work.
00:05:23:13 – 00:05:51:05
Actually, when my first A.D. at 17. And so it was hard to backtrack at college and, you know, I just kept going. I left and I kept pursuing, design. And I actually started working for a privately owned company that did nationwide, on screen advertisements for Regal Cinemas. And that kind of propelled me into, large format when I started working for large screen, I really enjoyed that.
00:05:51:05 – 00:06:21:19
And then I just kind of literally fell into outdoor. And I think what I loved about it immediately was the challenge. And I always say it’s that positive. It’s a positive challenge because I was tasked to literally take a brand and simplify it, to our mantra of seven words or less or one word, or get it done with the visual and it edit it down as much as you can and make it memorable.
00:06:21:21 – 00:06:48:16
And I think that’s what that’s what captivated me about outdoor advertising. And I just I never left. I’m 25 years into it now, and I feel like every project is a new project and very, very unique. And you’re you you’re one woman show, like. Right. So I worked I worked corporate for 15 years with Clear Channel Outdoor. And then I, opened my own agency, independent Agency ten years ago.
00:06:48:18 – 00:07:07:00
Well, it’s amazing. I’ve seen your growth over the last couple years. Completely amazing. And in a very difficult times, I might add. You might continue to grow and thrive and give great examples of creative and continue to win awards. And I’m only sure it’s going to get better than that. So I want to, talk to you guys.
00:07:07:00 – 00:07:36:04
What we’re going to do is talk about the overarching series and how it’s structured and go into, definite, like a playbook element later on in our in our video series. But this one is going to be very overarching about elements, about home, like the basic elements of what you might say would make creative good. So when you’re thinking about the strongest out of home creative, what are like the first 2 to 3 qualities that come to mind?
00:07:36:06 – 00:08:04:12
Melody will go ahead and start with you. I think for me, it’s it’s vivid colors and engaging copy for sure. It’s it’s about easily recognizing a brand for me and not having a lot of content on your board. So for me, it’s, it’s that it’s just really simple and effective. What’s going to cap what’s going to make me want to look at this advertisement?
00:08:04:14 – 00:08:23:01
And why am I going to remember it? Is it going to be the image? Is it going to be the headline? So that’s it for me. I mean, Rick, I remember when you and I would do the people space and go all over the place. One of the things that I remembered so distinctively was the McDonald’s arch.
00:08:23:07 – 00:08:44:09
The one arch. It wasn’t even a full arch in, on the billboard. It was just. But everybody knew what it was when they wanted to talk about make a left, make a right, right. Yeah, that was helpful. So what are your thoughts? Well, that was just to jump off that example. That was based on two things. First of all, they have tremendous brand equity strong equity.
00:08:44:14 – 00:09:08:05
And people know what the arts means. So much so that you only need to see a glimpse of it and you understand immediately. So they trusted the public. They trusted the public. And then it was just exceedingly simple, because maybe you didn’t quite understand right away that it meant make a right, make a left, turn around based on the fractional piece of the logo you would see.
00:09:08:05 – 00:09:31:04
But the third, fourth, fifth time you drove by it, you might understand it. So I felt for that example, it was trusting the public. And it’s courage. Right. And some commitment. I mean, look, well he does an outstanding job on all the works he has. You can always see her boiling it down when. Mellie. Whenever I see your work, I know you’ve worked it right.
00:09:31:05 – 00:09:59:19
I can see that. You know, it’s very hard to get it simple. It is. It takes time. And you’ve got to be ruthless, right? With your design elements. You know, I would some of the thing I must add to what she said there, however, you know, grabbing altitude, I think what the public responds to when they see strong out of home is the commitment of the brand that where they’re like, look, we’re going to have one idea.
00:09:59:21 – 00:10:25:23
That’s it, 24 seven. That’s my story. I’m sticking to it. I’m not changing my mind. I’m not crazy, equivocate and overexplain. I’m going to trust that you’ll figure it out. Yeah. And then the net manifest, right. It manifest with 2 or 3 elements. High contrast when idea good hierarchy and everything. And so then people get that they can feel it when it’s well thought out.
00:10:25:23 – 00:10:57:15
It’s kind of like if you go into a nice restaurant and you see a beautiful plate of food, you know that it might be a simple presentation, but it was very complex to get it there. Right. So one of the yeah, one of the things that I want to kind of bring your, your thoughts on, on responses on this is think about inside the high schools and these universities and sometimes military and career alternative will be on our screens as you can maybe see over my shoulder and their messaging.
00:10:57:15 – 00:11:22:11
Luckily we do provide two creative changes per month because they’ve got like a playbook. They’ve got to tell the whole year long when to apply, when to visit the campus, when to get scholarship money. They have all of these messages that they’ve got to make sure that gets in front of a student. So if you only have like a few seconds, what makes the impact on that image?
00:11:22:11 – 00:11:46:04
And remember these guys are seen at 3.5 times a day on average, maybe more. So what are your thoughts on the short time span and what element really you should stick with? If you have to have, you have to have a message. What would you what would you say that I know that’s a complex question. Melody, I’ll go to you first.
00:11:46:07 – 00:12:12:17
No, no, I don’t I don’t think it’s a complex question. I think it’s about delivering memorable messaging. Right. It’s about captivating, you know, imagery and colors that stand out in the environment. So in understanding what you guys have in the schools, there’s a lot going on, right? There’s a lot around that space. There’s a lot of people walking like the one behind you right now with the red and the 100% that’s a standout, right?
00:12:12:17 – 00:12:30:08
The colors are vivid. The content I it’s I can read it. There’s something about that that’s going to draw me into it. But it’s got to be something that’s also going to catch me. And so it’s got to be some sort of good call to action or clever wording or something that’s going to make me want to remember that.
00:12:30:08 – 00:12:53:21
So, Rick, you had mentioned humor. Talk to me about what? Maybe messages? I’m totally going off script here, by the way. Don’t know show. So the messages you can maybe think about it. High school students need humor in their daily lives and I think they resonate with that. Right. So what kind of messages could evolve humor, but yet still tell a story?
00:12:53:21 – 00:13:16:05
What are your thoughts there? Oh, the humor is intrigued with the punchline right? I mean, there’s always this relationship between whatever we see around us, whether it’s a piece of out of home or signage on the wall that’s, you know, on the premises or people are things in front of us, we’re always engaging in that dialog. Right? What is this?
00:13:16:05 – 00:13:54:19
What does it mean to me? Yes. No, maybe. And out of home that asks the question somehow, either through the visual or the interplay between the visual and the headline, can create intrigue. And you want to answer it is our instinct to figure it out. Humor is that same model. It’s just a punchline at the end. I do think there’s something important here that’s a distinction for the medium and next grad, which is the viewing experience is is to be considered when you’re organizing the creative because you’re you’re walking by and there could be short exposures.
00:13:54:21 – 00:14:19:03
There’s an element of frequency that’s day in and day out. While it can be a walk by that it happens quickly. There’s also the opportunity for dwell time. So if you capture somebody’s attention, they’re standing right in front of it. It’s like another human in front of them. It’s face to face, close proximity. It feels giant because you’re so close to it and you’re seeing it so frequently.
00:14:19:05 – 00:14:49:12
The fact that you have some animation helps. I would exploit that. Right? The fact that you can change messaging, I would do that so it stays fresh, but you can have a core visual component that stays constant, and then the headline changes out. So you can hit all of the selling points along the way. Right. You know, I look at high school kids the same as I would look at anyone else, which is, you know, they want to be they want straight talk.
00:14:49:14 – 00:15:10:06
Right? Don’t try to fool with them. And, you know, it would be like if I started talking in, you know, alpha speak, right? I would just look like a guy who is Gen X trying to talk an Alpha speaking. It would look silly. And so I don’t think brands need to do that to appeal. It’s just got to be authentic.
00:15:10:08 – 00:15:29:12
Authentic. That’s the key word I’m hearing. But really take into account like look, these people are seeing this day in, day out. They’re seeing it in their school environment, which has a certain credibility and context to it. They sing it multiple times and they can stop and dwell. If it really captures them, they might about 5 or 10 times before they notice.
00:15:29:12 – 00:15:56:01
But then at some point it was enough. Freshening up and changing it, they may stop. Right? That’s what creates some of that intrigue, right? That curiosity that Rick’s talking about. And they want to go in and find out what that’s about. Because sometimes if you don’t have that combination right, it’s a balance. It can be ignored, which you don’t want.
00:15:56:01 – 00:16:28:12
And that’s one of my biggest things I talked about, with clients and out of home is that when we start going with, template templates is what I call them, that have been used over and over again. Is it going to get fatigued. And so you want to refresh. And so to Rick’s point, if you want to keep, a continuous visual, but change out your copy, at least you’re changing something because if like you keep saying they see it 3 to 5 times a day, something also has to change with that.
00:16:28:12 – 00:16:51:11
Yeah. So a good old teaser campaign wouldn’t be bad, right. Things have some element of TS. I have some element of not telling them. You’ve got to. If the contracts for nine months, you can have some fun with that teasing a little bit. Right. Bring like let’s say it’s a heavy athletic school to show them like the 50 yard line in a tit and just see what happens.
00:16:51:15 – 00:17:13:09
And then that 50 yard line, it goes into your planning, you’re creating some involvement, you know. And that’s the thing is, if you do if you hit people over the head and tell them everything all at once. Yeah, get your money’s worth. Yeah. There’s nothing left. Couldn’t have said it better. I said, it’s not that I have this in my notes.
00:17:13:11 – 00:17:44:13
That is 100% true. Why people buy it. They want to put everything in there. And then one of the things I put in teaser reveal, it’s nothing new, but it’s still it’s still so much fun. And with that type of, you know, young audience that can just walk by and but because there is such a big audience constantly walking by the same thing, all day, if you build on a teaser reveal that’s going to create the buzz all around the school, right?
00:17:44:13 – 00:18:03:17
And they’re going to want to go back, they’re going to want to go back to the kiosk and be like, what? What was that? That falls back on trusting the audience. And if they do have brand equity, it’s even better. But if they are releasing a new name, let me explain. A couple of our clients are actually changing names.
00:18:03:18 – 00:18:26:04
One in particular is Houston Community College is about to be called Houston City College. Okay. So that’s a big name change that they and they may or may not be dealing with different branding elements. Those are all being developed right now, but that would be a great opportunity to have the guts enough to play with that nine months contract.
00:18:26:09 – 00:18:46:15
Right. And to and enjoy the teaser reveal as the months go along and then get into the meat and the bones. Maybe in the spring when decisions really need to be made, right? Right, right. And it kind of is like what what work was saying about McDonald’s, right? It’s it’s a brand that’s coming in and saying, this is what we’re going to do.
00:18:46:15 – 00:19:04:23
We’re going to stick with it. And you’re you get used to that. And then you finally and then they whether you do teaser reveal or you go in with that in your you stay. I mean, you kind of honor your brand. Right. And so this is what I’m going to do. And McDonald’s at this point has done so well with their advertising.
00:19:05:04 – 00:19:35:04
But their average rising is so good that it’s so memorable that they can get away with just half of an arc. So same thing with Coca Cola, right? Right. Yeah. You see the sheen, and the S&P for sprite. And you know, and that became really big an outdoor several years ago where those brands started showing just how well their advertising has taken them, where they are like, we’re not even going to do a full ad here.
00:19:35:07 – 00:20:05:05
We’re just going to put the S&P for sprite and our green and you know what it is. And yet it created all this hype because that’s all they did. So usually when you go to local or regional advertiser and you say what advertisements have you seen? This is something we did a clear channel all the time. When the Richards group came up with the, bouncing the chick fil A campaign and had the big three decals, it was all the rage back in the day, right?
00:20:05:07 – 00:20:25:09
Like, I mean, they killed it with that. So one of the questions that we would ask our clients is because we’re dealing with a lot of local advertisers in some region, but mainly local in Atlanta. And we’d say, what advertisements have you seen that you love? What do you want your brand to look like? And they’d all say chick fil A.
00:20:25:11 – 00:20:49:03
And so we’re like, that’s amazing. How so? Are you willing to commit? Are you willing to commit to that? Because if you think about it, it was probably four words. And then it was a budget that included these beautiful 3D elements. Not everybody can afford that, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t give them something different that is just as unique.
00:20:49:05 – 00:21:11:14
It’s a starting conversation point of something that actually worked and was so memorable that I. I’m going to be honest with you, eight times out of ten when we asked that question, it was always chick fil A. I mean, not everybody is going to be able to do that, right? But when you work with the right people and you really have that open conversation of what are you trying to do, right?
00:21:11:16 – 00:21:34:01
What do you, it what do you really want to accomplish with your outdoor advertising? It starts there. It’s with that question. People come in and go, I bought out of home. What do I do now? And I’m always it. But what what what what do you want to accomplish from this? Put yourself in the driver’s seat when I drive by your advertisement.
00:21:34:03 – 00:21:53:16
What is something that’s good that you’re going to take away from this to make you want to go back and look back next pass. So it’s those questions to get people comfortable with the medium, get them really conversating about their brand and opening up to you instead of it being more like a breeze. And what all do we have to have on here?
00:21:53:18 – 00:22:17:04
You can take it a step further when you have that discovery call and just kind of just have an open conversation about it. Yeah, exactly. One of the big, big, big topics I really want your opinion on is the good old QR code. Let me tell you our problem. Next grab. We do have clients that almost feel compelled to have to do it for various reasons.
00:22:17:06 – 00:22:43:09
Internal pressure to have a QR code. We also have on the other side, the high schools from the states that have banned cell phone usage. The high schools are now telling us do not put QR codes on these ads, right. And so we know it’s part of the attribution. How many scans did you get? Well, a couple of our surveys that we’ve done, we’ve done student surveys with a company called My Majors.
00:22:43:11 – 00:23:11:11
That survey is telling us these kids don’t even use them. They don’t scan them at all. Great. They know it’s possible to do, but they just don’t do it. We recommend vanity URLs versus that. Even vanity URLs that are down to an individual high school campus to determine if that applicant came from that campus. What are your thoughts on trying to control the content, knowing it works?
00:23:11:11 – 00:23:32:10
Those conversations that need to have happen between us and our client, or an agency and their clients to push them away from that, oh, I’ve got to have a QR code or it’s not going to work or I won’t have an ROI, I won’t be able to measure it. What are your thoughts on that? Do you want to go okay, my thought is that okay?
00:23:32:10 – 00:23:47:08
And I’m aware of this because like I said, my daughter’s about to go into high school and so they’re stressed because they’re like, go to band phones. But, are they banning phones in the. I thought they were just in the classroom. They could still bring them to school. That’s a whole I thought my point is that is in the classroom.
00:23:47:08 – 00:24:11:16
Only then technically they can still scan the QR codes in the hall. So I think that for what you guys are doing, QR codes do make sense. But if you cannot use them and the tracking is not providing results, then you go with a domain that speaks to you, whoever the advertiser is, and not phone numbers. I am one of the biggest advocates.
00:24:11:16 – 00:24:34:23
If you look at my work. Seriously though, if you look at my portfolio there really, I don’t know that I have any phone numbers on my work, and it’s because I have such a detailed conversation with my clients about them right? Everybody is mobile, right? These kids, even if they see it and can’t use their phone, they’re going to remember a domain more than they’re going to remember a phone number.
00:24:35:00 – 00:25:02:14
So I would definitely be using some sort of vanity domain that’s super easy and memorable. Or if the brand is strong enough, right. The advertisers presence is strong enough. You don’t need that you can get away with. Behind you is, I can’t see the colors. This one’s popping. It’s, Wheaton College. Yeah, but it the college name itself is large enough, invisible enough.
00:25:02:14 – 00:25:21:15
Right. The good contrast with that white on that and that dark blue. I can remember that when I leave, if the advertisement overall was strong enough, I can remember what college that was. And sometimes you don’t even need that. Right? People Google everything. So if you can remember it, then when you leave, you’re just going to Google it anyway.
00:25:21:19 – 00:25:48:02
And it’s not necessarily going to come from repetitive creative. If I’m seeing student profiles all day on these screens, I need a mix up. I need something like that teaser reveal or something like that really big college name, and maybe just really great colors to remember it. So when I do leave, I’m going to Google it because I wanted to find out more.
00:25:48:04 – 00:26:21:15
Rick, what are your thoughts aligned? I mean, look, I think the QR thing is not necessarily almost lost. Almost always, it only works if you give a purpose to the QR. So scan this now for X an immediate reward, something. Otherwise you’re just tossing it on there and in the bottom right corner. It’s difficult. It’s look, remember this analysis about it’s not about the app.
00:26:21:18 – 00:26:46:19
It’s about the viewer. It’s that’s where our head has to go. And so walking down the hallway and making me stop and take my phone and bend over and scan something for no apparent reason. It’s just it’s it’s not serving the viewer at all. And also they don’t really show success. I think if you’re going to buy this type of out of home media, this is very niche.
00:26:46:21 – 00:27:10:01
There’s a strategic media reason for buying it. That ought to be plenty, right, for you to believe in what you’re doing, especially if all your competitors are there. Now, the other thing you can do if you want to track outcomes, if that’s a requirement from your SEO or your university leadership or whatever, I would just look at the organic search.
00:27:10:03 – 00:27:37:04
Yeah, that was in the schools in this market. And did my search go up in those markets while I was running this advertising? That should be enough of an indicator, because it should have gone up. And if it didn’t, then okay, maybe maybe we have an issue here. The other thing is, if you want to think about on a local level how to reach people, there’s a series of a few questions I would always ask when I was a local Rob, and I’ll repeat them.
00:27:37:06 – 00:28:05:12
Who buys you and why? Who doesn’t and why not? What’s your competition doing? If you answer those three questions, you will find your window of what to say, and then go there. Yeah. But adding or not adding a QR code. It’s, it’s just extra access. Usually that takes up space. Excellent answer. My view. Excellent answer.
00:28:05:12 – 00:28:23:22
Rick and and Melanie. Of course. Okay. So we’re going to get into the future. We’re going into the future. I want you to imagine a couple of trends that I’ve seen. I’ve been going to trade shows recently with this wonderful company, and I’ve seen some interesting things. I’ve seen, I of course know about 3D artwork on digital.
00:28:23:22 – 00:28:50:03
Right. That’s coming around. Let’s also talk about holograms on top of the screen. Can you imagine how amazing that would be? And then the third thing was the organic creative coming from the P.O.V. of the student already on the campus in their formats, because the cell phone, as you know, it’s very similar in ratio as far as size to our screens.
00:28:50:05 – 00:29:12:03
So we’re seeing some grabs from social media content that these students said these institutions are putting out. And of course, they’re throwing the logo on there at the end, that kind of thing. But it’s like they’re trying to paint the picture of what the students life will be like on campus, the happy atmosphere. You should come here because look at how fun this particular student is.
00:29:12:03 – 00:29:36:02
They’re having a great time, right? So that’s another angle. So what are your thoughts on the future or in the high school specifically and how best we can talk to these students? We’re seeing more and more of it. We’ve done it a couple times on the Firefly digital talks. Yeah. You know where they’re parked. We did something at the NFL draft in Green Bay where our client, New ERA, came to us.
00:29:36:03 – 00:29:59:01
And like, we want to do something never been done. Big spectacular out of home in green Bay. For the draft. It’s like, well, green Bay doesn’t have big spectacular on the home. So we placed a bunch of Ralph cars, the digital tops, and the holograms on the roof because the other part of the assignment was, we need to show all 32 teams different hats, right.
00:29:59:03 – 00:30:26:04
That’s this worked out easy because it was a little, space for a hologram. We just kept switching, and it was like a floating hat. Woo! And it was parked while the traffic was. So you saw, you know, the foot traffic. They saw it up close. Now, I think, that getting into the school environment is it there’s there’s a hardware and creative list that’s probably out of reach practically for your client base.
00:30:26:05 – 00:30:52:01
Right. But at some point, all of that starts to become democratized and more accessible. There’s a company out of Europe called Hyper Vision that has been installing permanent installations in malls and airports that can do 3D holograms floating. And, you know, it used to be you just would do those as one offs, like rent a sled, put up the thing, do it for a couple of days and then take it down.
00:30:52:03 – 00:31:16:14
Now that’s the next step is permanent installations. When does that become something where instead of the screen you have behind you, you have a permanent installed for a hologram? Yeah. I don’t know. Maybe I can tell us it it could happen, you know. Who knows? Guys, I gotta wrap this up. I have to tell you how grateful I am that we were able to talk about good elements.
00:31:16:16 – 00:31:43:09
Overall creative strategy and keeping the student as the main objective on messaging. What is the student experiencing? What are they actually able to absorb? And then looking into the future a little bit. So Rick thank you Melody. Thank you. Any parting thoughts? Ricky. Always end a great presentation with some word of wisdom that oh my gosh, what what could it be?
00:31:43:11 – 00:32:08:22
I think the bigger question though is like when your clients put their their their content together, is this about the viewer? It’s about the viewer first, then, then maybe that’ll guide them. Well, I mean, what what else would you add? Melanie? I mean, I, I agree with that. I think it’s about creative thinking. I think it’s really I, I again, I think it’s about who is your viewer.
00:32:08:22 – 00:32:31:23
You are dealing with high school students and what is it that is going to make them excited? Or remember this advertisement over all the other advertisers that are sharing this space? So, you know, don’t get hung up on those QR codes, dominate just with your brand and believe in that. Go a little bit more simple.
00:32:32:01 – 00:32:56:16
You don’t have to have a group photo. You can do a beautiful, impactful, still photo on a dark background with a really great message, and it’s going to be probably more captivating to go with less. So, less is more sometimes. So I don’t want to say it because we say it all the time. It’s okay. But in our industry it’s true.
00:32:56:18 – 00:33:20:06
Yeah it is. Thank you guys. I appreciate your time. So, so very much. This is a company I love. And glad to really have you part of that story. So thank you very much I appreciate it. And to the viewer out there, the next, webinar series, installment will be about higher education pop. In other words, people that actually put the ads together and what works for them and what they’ve seen work.
00:33:20:12 – 00:33:28:16
So, keep tuned. It’ll all be on our YouTube channel, on our website. Thank you so much for joining us. Until next time. Bye, everybody.