UXIdeas blog

Nicky Cheshire, Sales Director of ‘Alive’ gave a talk about the opportunities for outdoor advertising that they provided. ‘Alive ‘ are an arm of ‘CBS Outdoor’ who are media owners of several outdoor display mediums, most memorably seen around London Transport. These mediums include DEPs (Digital Escalator Panels), XTP (Cross-track projection), 57″ LCD displays and LED bus displays.

According to ‘Alive’, the time people spend travelling is on the increase (the current average commute being 45 minutes). This makes it important to reach consumers as they move around, for example in a city like London, between home, work, shops, evening entertainment, etc. Digital media allows brands to reach these travelling consumers in a more exciting and dynamic way.

‘Alive’ claim that the delivery mediums they offer have been well received by consumers (brightening up the otherwise mundane experience of public transport. They also can provide a great advantage for companies who need a quick turnaround on a campaign (for example the National Lottery who need to quickly spread the word of a rollover jackpot), or for companies who need to appear cutting edge (Digital companies like Sony will benefit from pushing their products through digital mediums).

The mediums also provide new creative opportunities, which Advertising Agencies can take advantage of. The positioning of the LCD screens down the escalators has been used to effect but brands like Sony Bravia, who had the coloured balls from their famous Ad bouncing down through all the screens to the bottom of the escalator. There are also locative advantages to the media. Campaigns can appear in locations relevant to the product they are selling (for example a ‘Britain’s next top model’ campaign at oxford street tube station, next to Topshop). Also GPS allows the content on the LED bus displays to change depending on the buses location.

Furthermore, there is potential in the technology to expand on these advertising opportunities. It is possible to involve RSS feeds, allowing advertisers to create interactive, dynamic work using information sent by the consumers or sourced from the Internet. Currently transport authorities are nervous user-generated content offending and this functionality is rarely adopted. However, ‘Alive’ see this social interaction as an integral part of the future of ‘outdoor advertising’. Channelling conversations and interactions though the medium can provide a ’social glue’ to bind the campaign and the consumer together.