"Outdoor ads prompt action, but tech knowledge is spotty"

Interactive Europe digital out-of-home research

New research into the way that European consumers interact with outdoor advertising has illustrated “golden rules” for the medium, according to CBS Outdoor International, despite patchy awareness of some interactive technologies.
The media owner said that the latest Interactive Europe report, a pan-European survey covering nearly 5300 urban consumers in six countries, demonstrated that “creative should be explicit in communicating the core message and in showing people if and how they can interact with the ad.”
The firm added: “There needs to be an obvious benefit (and one of perceived value) for consumers in order for them to interact and take away a positive perception of the brand. And the implications of the halo effect (positive and negative) should be considered – people will watch others interact both in the physical and virtual worlds.”
The research – conducted with Kantar Media – came up with mixed results, however, concerning consumers’ use of electronic media in response to outdoor.
It found that outdoor was often more likely than other media to prompt people to take action online, for example making a purchase from an e-commerce site, liking a brand on Facebook, or downloading an app.
In particular circumstances, outdoor could outperform TV, radio and print. And there were substantial year-on-year increases in outdoor’s ability to stimulate these online actions.
However, despite ownership of smart devices having passed the 75 percent “tipping point”, consumer awareness of their potential was inconsistent.
Around half of consumers knew of QR codes, and a third of SMS short codes, but only eight percent were aware of near field communication (NFC) – despite ten-fold growth in the number of NFC-enabled smartphones.
CBS remained bullish, insisting that “the hard part is done. People now have the technology to interact, if not necessarily the understanding and the awareness. It is only a matter of time until NFC technology underpins a mainstream interactive behaviour, such as mobile wallet payments, to make interacting with advertising via a smart device an everyday norm and a very real consumer expectation.”
A study earlier this year for the Out-of-Home Marketing Association of Canada (OMAC) similarly highlighted outdoor’s ability to encourage action on Websites, with social media, and via smartphones.
Via: http://screenmediamag.com (03 April 2013)