Episode Details

If you’ve ever been to Times Square, you can conjure up memories of how chaotic and bustling that vibrant hub really is. This is the mecca of OOH or Out-of-home marketing. Thousands of individuals packed into a confined space with endless advertising opportunities. Norm Chait, Director of Out-of-Home Product and Sales at Quotient Technology, regales us with the tale of his work on a campaign for Microsoft that hit the big city. But, more importantly, he has a career’s worth of insight about OOH and exciting details about the ways that data is changing the game in OOH. 

“We did a PR program a number of years ago introducing the next operating system for Microsoft. It was the largest consumer event in the history of New York City. The ability to take over Times Square, the ability to own every screen in the square (40 plus screens) all sync together, having the physical on-the-ground experience of, um, all the, you know, the different hardware displays...I was like, this is what I do. This is what I love to do. It's bringing a brand experience to life in a unique way.”

There is a lot of value for companies especially in the CPG space to consider Out-of-Home advertising, no matter the size of the business. There’s so much happening in the world of Out-of-Home and Norm has the insight. 

Main Takeaways

• Programmatic Adaptations in the last Year Plus: The market has shifted in countless ways in the past year-plus, and the way that programmatic marketing can step in to help marketing leaders be more nimble is proving invaluable. Getting a faster sense, with data, of how things are performing across campaigns can lead to faster decisions about shifting budgets to markets where they’d see higher ROI. 
• Data Driven OOH in the CPG Space: Out-of-home has a sweet-spot with CPG businesses because of their D2C model. They need to be out in front of the right people in direct ways. When you’re marketing directly to consumers you’re up against huge budgets of mega-corporations that can crush you. You need tech that can inform you about where your best customers actually are so that you can focus your resources on them. 
• The Steps to a Successful OOH Campaign: In order to have a successful Out-of-home campaign you don’t necessarily need to be a mega-brand. What you do need is a plan that includes a few key elements. First, define the category. Next, define the product buyer. Third, identify the buyer’s behaviors and location. These three elements will help you generate the conversions you desire. 

Key Quotes 

“I think what was happening over the last 18 months or so [is that] [the pandemic has] changed the way people go to market; it's changed the way people physically leave their homes and where they go and where they visit, all of those things have dynamically changed. So how does Out-of-home now start to play a role? The pandemic has, in some ways, allowed us to fast forward what programmatic can do. [For example] the spikes we saw in one market allowed us to shut things down there and move things to other markets. Being able to be more nimble like that is what we're starting to see.” 

“We did a PR program a number of years ago introducing the next operating system for Microsoft. It was the largest consumer event in the history of New York City. The ability to take over Times Square, the ability to own every screen in the square (40 plus screens) all sync together, having the physical on the ground experience...I was like, this is what I do. This is what I love to do. It's bringing a brand experience to life in a unique way.”

“CPG is a sweet spot for us. We do work across lots of different product categories but our ability to come back to the notion of accountability and confidence using data to show exactly where people are spending t