Colum Harmon, marketing director, PML Group with this week’s Out \ Look on Out of Home
Retail and Media Drives 20% OOH Q1 Growth
PML Group’s market intelligence service, WATCH, has indicated a 20% increase in value for the OOH sector in Q1 of 2024. The significant uptick in advertiser investment in the medium is evident across classic, transport and digital OOH formats and represents the best start to a year for the sector for some years.
At PML Group, we are deploying increasingly sophisticated tools and techniques to enhance planning and amplify engagement with an Outdoor audience that, in 2024, is greater than ever.
Q1 bursts for TV and streaming services supercharged the media category with a hefty 199% display value increase. As the move away from traditional content consumption continues in favour of on-demand, heavyweights like the newly launched Vodafone TV PLAY and Sky Stream commanded 39% and 34% of the sector’s SOV, complemented by substantial rises from Disney and Amazon for their respective streaming services. Product launches and rebrands are a fundamental strength of OOH and a standout Q1 campaign was for the Pepsi Max brand refresh, complete with the spectacular Convention Centre Projection Wrap, Connolly Station Sound Tunnel and Bus Shelter Wraps.
Retail remains the biggest category on the medium with a 13% share of voice, led out by supermarkets and convenience stores, which compromises two thirds of this sector. Lidl leads with a 25% SOV and an 200% year on year increase in investment, followed by Dunnes Stores at 18% SOV with a 118% display value increase. The QSR sector is topped by McDonald’s with a 61% SOV and 29% increase in display value. KFC and Just Eat also contributed to the category’s 13% growth with 12% and 11% increases respectively.
Q1 was notable for a significant increase in public advisory, political and civic information type campaigns. These included the Road Safety Authority, Departments of Environment and Foreign Affairs, the Electoral Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency. These campaigns speak to the trust and reach of OOH media.
Biggest percentage year on year increases in display value among the top 10 categories are media (+199%), tourism and travel (+63%) and political and advisory (+35%). The display value of the top 10 categories on OOH was up 29% in Q1 on the same period last year.
When it comes to advertisers, Diageo was the largest on Outdoor with visible activity for brands including Guinness 0.0, Rockshore and Smirnoff. McDonald’s followed with activity including the brand’s new Winning Sips campaign, Eurosaver, and the McSpicy x Franks Red Hot launch.
Mondelēz activity for Cadbury included Dairy Milk’s 200th anniversary and Crème Egg with additional activity for Oreo and Toblerone. Supermarkets make an appearance in the top ten in the form of Dunnes Stores and Lidl, while Vodafone and Sky represent the large increases in TV & Streaming Spend. The National Lottery, Unilever and Road Safety Authority also feature among the top ten. Those ten advertisers increased their OOH display value by an average of 60% in Q1 versus the same period last year.
Our full Q1 WATCH report will be published next week. If you are not on our mailing list and would like to sign up please contact info@pmlgroup.ie.
McDonald’s adds ‘Mmm’ to its Outdoor
The latest Outdoor campaign from McDonald’s highlights the improvements made to some of its most iconic menu items, namely the Big Mac, Quarter Pounder and Double Cheeseburger. These improvements are encapsulated in the ‘little more Mmm’ tagline and the campaign is currently enticing customers across formats including 48 Sheets, Bus Shelters, Digipanels and DX Screens.
Subtle changes to the burgers including searing, adding onions on the grill, and toastier buns make up the Mmm factor. Zenith and Source out of home planned the campaign.
Calling Planet Earth
This week marked Earth Day and Repak used the opportunity to remind consumers of best practice when it comes to recycling at home. Digital OOH screens in mall and commuter environments sought to focus minds on recycling materials that are clean, dry and loose and to help create a greener Ireland by recycling packaging correctly.
Pop to the Shop
Tayto is maximising impact at point of sale with Adbox Extra at high footfall convenience store locations across the Dublin city. The Popcorn product is in-campaign across Adbox, complemented with extra-special builds on select panels at key locations including Merrion Row.
