When three people forward you an article in the course of thirty minutes, it is generally a good sign that the article is being widely read and distributed. And in the case of the MediaWeek article on Schering-Plough’s intent to place a $10M digital out-of-home advertising campaign, it is not surprising. To learn that Schering is doing what Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Unilever promised to do a year ago, is great news indeed.
Since that analyst meeting last year when the Big 3 CPG companies explained their intent to reallocate advertising and promotional spends toward alternative media, including OOH, a groundswell of interest in the medium has risen. We can attest to the fact that the Schering ads will not be running in a vacuum. Some major deals are brewing in the advertising space, and the agencies are getting involved. On the industry side, ad placement specialists such as Adcentricity, SeeSaw and Immersion OOH have appeared, attracted investment capital and developed relationships with networks and advertisers. With aggregators, internal ad sales forces and agencies all working hard, there is some channel conflict, but plenty of action. Clearly, national ad sales will be the single most important indicator of our progress as an industry. Despite the setbacks we have had in the measurement standards arena, I believe that networks and advertisers will work together to accommodate the need for good data, and establish a standard that will work for everyone, even if it is not a gold standard CPM.
As for me, I am off to buy some Dr. Scholl’s inserts, some Claritin and some Coppertone for the Florida sun. I’ll support those who support digital OOH!