Advertising the future now
> The 1982 classic Blade Runner inspired DOOH.com CEO Andrew Phipps-Newman to turn the science fiction into marketable interactive, live and real-time content on digital screens
WHEN Blade Runner came out in 1982, it electrified global audiences by imagining life in the not-too-distant future.
The film quickly became a neo-noir classic, and turned out to be remarkably prescient about the world of advertising.
With pre-internet visions of digital content and moving-image billboards, director Ridley Scott took the era’s advertisers’ most progressive ideas and gave the world a preview.
For Andrew Phipps-Newman, the CEO of DOOH.com – which stands for ‘digital out of home’ – it inspired his life’s work.
“Blade Runner was the film that made me want to work in digital advertising. I knew that what I was watching wasn’t sci-fi, it was the future.”
Founded in 2013, PhippsNewman’s company DOOH. com now stands at the forefront of the industry. It specialises in interactive, live, dynamic and real-time content on digital screens, be that at the half time at Twickenham or in Times Square’s neon circus.
DOOH.com collaborates with the most creative agencies to breath life into campaigns that truly break new ground.
Iconic campaigns for agency Kinetic WW and brands, including Lynx, Vodafone and The Sun, have sparked consumer engagement that other types of advertising dream about.
British daily The Sun – to promote coverage of the Euro 2016 tournament – saw the UK newspaper’s circulation increase by 3%. But it’s not all about boosting corporate bank balances. In 2015, DOOH.com harnessed the power of technology for good by working with deodorant brand Lynx and mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) which works to prevent male suicide. The resulting campaign #BiggerIssues spotlighted all the comparatively trivial things men talk about more frequently than suicide, such as superfoods and skateboarding dogs. In doing so #BiggerIssues held a mirror up to all the things that were dominating conversations and, in doing so, placed the spotlight on suicide. Awareness of the fact that suicide is the biggest killer of young men increased by 45%, and the campaign won the Cannes Lion Award for both DOOH.com and Kinetic.
Last year’s March for Giants campaign, in collaboration with creative agency 18 Feet & Rising and media owner Ocean Outdoor, sought to raise awareness of the elephant poaching crisis and fundraise for conservation charity Space for Giants.
It created the world’s first virtual moving herd of elephants to ‘march’ across global advertising screens, from Hong Kong to New York and London.
More than 3,000 people joined in and created their own digital elephant, receiving a memento picture of their personalised animal marching through each city.
Mass-awareness campaigns like this often raise little or no actual money, but thanks to the all-important big-screen ‘wow’ factor, consumers and brands both recognised the excellent value exchange even though donors didn’t see their elephant in person.
This proven effectiveness of ‘right time, right place’ digital big-screen advertising has made it every brand’s priority – or top of the wishlist if budgets don’t allow.
In an era when even those who work at newspapers admit print is dead, advertisers are increasingly turning to digital screens.
Especially as the unpredictability of online advertising sees brands placed side by side with fake news or – worse still – real acts of terrorism.
Not only does digital bigscreen advertising offer total editorial control, it can be customised and adapted at a moment’s notice.
Phipps-Newman recently worked with Kinteic WW and B&Q, a longstanding player in the newspaper ad world who has recently come around to screens.
Where once the homeware brand would need to plan what to advertise in advance, now they can be reactive.
“With real-time, reactive advertising, B&Q can contextually serve the right promotion based on weather, location, stock levels – and even direct shoppers to the nearest store alongside its opening hours,” says PhippsNewman. “The possibilities for such dynamic advertising are enormous.”
A scene in Blade Runner 2049, out in cinemas now, shows star Ryan Gosling in front of a hologram billboard. Is that next?
“Absolutely,” says PhippsNewman, smiling. “The technology already exists, and the developments being made in virtual and augmented reality for everyday consumption in DOOH. com are incredibly exciting.
“The future of science fiction is fast becoming science fact.” – The Independent