Cannes | Laura Jordan Bambach, creative partner, Mr President
DOOH is a really interesting storytelling medium, beyond advertising. It allows you to touch and feel and interact in a way no other medium does. That’s the real beauty of it, and usually overlooked.
Any great screen ad needs an idea. You can’t rely on audio with DOOH, but you can take elements from more performative styles of communication. Lumping OOH and DOOH into one bag means the creativity that’s available in the latter is not taken advantage of. We have a long way to go before we realise the potential of what’s already installed in these incredibly intelligent spaces.
London | Chris Clarke, chief creative officer, international, DigitasLBi
Screens are the predominant way in which people engage with brands now, even in stores.
A challenge with DOOH quite often is that so many media plans are put in place before the creative agency is even engaged. Whereas, when you use digital creativity in the best way, the idea is intrinsic to the technology you’ve chosen to deploy it on.
The future of DOOH should be recognising it as part of the customer journey rather than as an interruption point. If people can use it in a relevant way and establish a relationship through it, then we’re going to see some really interesting things.
London | Hermeti Balarin, executive creative director, Mother London
There are not enough briefs specifically for DOOH. This gets in the way of brilliant tailored creative. Although it’s not a new medium, we are still lacking a bit of education about what can be done with it.
Is DOOH a content channel? If people did something that truly catered for that space, you’d happily watch a 30- or 60-second piece of content in there – it could be a brilliant space to do something really ingenious.
We can’t get enough of the moving image – film is still unbeatable, however we package it. The future of DOOH will be bespoke – catering for the consumer walking by, to the area or to the weather.
Cannes | Malcolm Poynton, global chief creative officer, Cheil Worldwide
DOOH has an amazing ability as a content channel, especially when you consider dwell time locations. We all need to apply ourselves to the possibilities of DOOH: with beacons, Wi-Fi and other technologies. But we’re not pushing that hard to discover those at the moment.
Creatives need to understand where DOOH is appropriate and can be of value to people, rather than an unnecessary layer of distraction and complication.
The possibilities are changing all the time, as mobile technologies change, especially. We need technologists to work on supporting the ideas creatives have to share content. The future of DOOH rests on having a few more amazing examples. We’ve got to find a way to open people’s eyes to it.
London | Sean Kinmont, co-founder and creative director, 23red
Immediacy, targeting and excitement are what DOOH can offer that other media can’t – it’s just very, very cool. The opportunities are endless.
We should think of DOOH as a standalone opportunity. It has always been seen perhaps as an extension of a campaign – reappropriating other visual assets and sticking them into this rich media. The onus is on creative agencies to show clients the opportunities around really great communications using that technology.
Mobile is still the medium with most growth potential. But in terms of creative opportunities, DOOH is probably up there with it. DOOH is the new frontier for creativity. As long as we can mash data and creative content together, we can get some incredible creative opportunities.
Cannes | Matt Eastwood, worldwide chief creative officer, J Walter Thompson
DOOH has reignited an interest in out of home for me. Creatives love problem-solving and DOOH is as inventive as you can make it. Almost anything you can think of, you can do in digital out of home spaces these days.
It’s a really interesting time for DOOH because you can now have this one-on-one experience – for example, Bluetooth 5 is about to come out and will be 10 times faster than before – so as technology develops, the opportunities will increase, which is exciting.
DOOH is a perfect content channel, particularly because of where some of the sites are – they are broadcast screens where you can talk to the audience in a contextual way. The future of DOOH? It’ll be increasingly interactive, one-on-one.
Cannes | Louise Sloper, head of art, BMB London
The possibilities for digital designers and digital creatives are so exciting at the minute. As long as we are engaging with the fidelity of the screen and how we use DOOH, we’re going to see some really great things.
What stands in the way of great creative in DOOH is that we, as an industry, have got so excited about the technology and not necessarily about how it engages. We don’t necessarily use DOOH as cleverly as possible.
Lots of younger people are coming through who really understand the idea of concept, as well as the technology and how to utilise it. The future of DOOH will be the social interaction: really big ideas that make people go "Wow!"
London | Victoria Buchanan, joint executive creative director, Tribal Worldwide
DOOH offers deeper engagement than other media, more of a story and feedback.
You’ve got to work a lot harder with a digital board. You’ve got to think: will that stop me in my tracks? You’ve got to catch people and engage with them – it can’t be as simple as an image and one line. Understanding the technology in the screen is really important. Then you can start scripting lovely stories and brand interactions for clients. It’s a co-creation thing with the technologists, the boards and the creative teams.
DOOH is just about to explode. Technology has gone nano enough to get some really decent stuff into the spaces available and, as it evolves and becomes more sophisticated, we can do much, much more.
