Melanie Blood: How DOOH is transforming the way brands connect with people in public spaces

1/ Experiential is one of the strongest growth areas in marketing. What is the role of Digital Out of Home in this space?

Experiential marketing budgets have seen steady growth, as the recent IPA Bellwether report shows, but with that momentum comes creative pressure.

Brands are seeking higher quality experiences and higher production values. They are looking for more creative ways to capture the attention and imagination of the public in such a way that they will then share that experience either by traditional word of mouth, or via their social channels.

We are seeing a definite shift towards tangible, authentic experiences that build trust with audiences.

Premium DOOH fosters those genuine, meaningful connections with brands, especially when used as a gateway for interactivity. In these moments, people aren’t just spectators; they become part of the story. This could take the form of pop-up content studio so that members of the public can see themselves on the big screen as the face of a brand’s campaign like L’Oréal I’m Worth It, playing games on screen using gestures or attention, or even using their mobile to customise products and lift them off the screen to explore more in AR.

Deeper interactions result in deeper memory encoding, demonstrating what we have established as the priming effect of DOOH on wider media channels. Seeing and interacting with a 3D DeepScreen piece of work for example can make viewers more receptive and engaged with a brand’s message when they later encounter it on other platforms.

Insights like these are informing the new wave of immersive experiences which sit at the core of content marketing.

2/ Which Ocean products are most relevant to experiential marketing?

Our newest product is the Showcase, a custom-built, portable platform for DeepScreen creative with two opposing curved screens that has been designed with brand experience front of mind. It’s a way of taking premium DOOH directly to any eye-level environment, allowing flexibility over location and striving to draw a lot of attention in surprising places. It also houses our technology like livestreaming, gaming and mixed reality, making it an experience in its own right, or it can form part of a much bigger brand footprint.

I can’t wait to see the Showcase shake up city centres, red carpets, or even La Croisette during the Cannes Festival of Creativity.

Livestreaming big events is another anchor for a DOOH experience. For example, we recently broadcast world champion and Nike athlete Faith Kipyegon’s record breaking attempt to run a sub 4 minute mile, showing the event on Eat Street in Westfield London. Faith fell seven seconds short of her goal, but what an inspirational example for young women and sport, and a superb use of a DOOH screen.

Earlier in the year, YouTube stars KSI and IShowSpeed met head on for bragging rights to mark the release of SNK’s Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. The influencers headlined a hybrid immersive gaming event hosted by Landsec’s Piccadilly Circus venue located beneath Piccadilly Lights. Merging gaming culture with the energy of a live fight announcement, the 1-on-1 action livestreamed on Piccadilly Lights. As the game played out, hundreds of spectators gathered in Piccadilly Circus to watch the action in a takeover that generated more than 100 million social media impressions.

Again, we can see that the DOOH experience is just the beginning of the story.

3/ Experiential is often used for launches and sampling. Can DOOH help to add a brand building capacity?

DOOH is inherently a broadcast channel. While Ocean Labs technology can help to adapt content to be relevant to an experiential audience, brands also benefit from the halo effect of reaching a passive audience in the vicinity. Our screens amplify experiences to capture one to many, well beyond the loyal customer base.

French skincare company Caudalie recently featured the faces of 16 UK influencers on Piccadilly Lights following a photoshoot to promote its Vinoperfect serum. Those content creators then shared their personal “pinch me” Piccadilly moment with their millions of followers, amplifying the fame that comes with OOH as a brand building stage.

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4/ How do you measure the effect on audiences of campaigns in big public spaces?

Brand awareness uplift studies, vox pops and field research are just three methods. The Showcase’s first outing at Westfield Stratford City was a chance to capture anecdotal feedback along with the monitoring of dwell times, engagement levels and social sharing.

All of this sort of data builds on Ocean’s recently released eye tracking research, ‘The Attention Dividend.’ This reveals that premium large format DOOH attracts five times more attention than online digital formats, and that 3D creative work delivers a 32% uplift in brand desirability.

By combining experiential and DOOH, brands can enjoy the instant gratification of making a meaningful connection with new audiences and loyal fans in the moment, and also see the long-term benefits on brand recall and desirability.

5/ What is the best way for DOOH creative to engage with such audiences? Is Ocean Labs an essential partner?

Our creative work is all about slowing people down, making the most of the channel’s magnet effect to divert passersby from their daily routine or commute. Be it a two hour projection on Battersea Power Station, during which guests can grab a deckchair to sit down and watch with friends, or an immersive ceiling on Printworks SkyLights (below) which invites visitors to stop and express their feelings.

Think about the placement, the format, the audience, the context and how to tailor your creative idea to steal the spotlight. The cut through really comes when brands show up differently.

Ocean Labs is the incubator for big and small cultural moments which make people feel ‘I was there, I felt a part of that’. Because the future belongs to those who invest in the power of human connection.

Melanie Blood is head of Ocean Labs UK.