OOH Uncut Podcast: Adam Michaelson
Adam Michaelson, CMO, Financial Marketing Group, joins host Rick Robinson, CEO, PJX Media, on OOH Uncut, the 5-minute podcast featuring leaders in the Out of Home advertising world discussing OOH media industry topics.
November 20, 2023
The out-of-home industry's apparent stagnation at 5% market share is influenced by a combination of factors. The shift from analog to digital has altered the landscape, making analog marketing only 23% of the total pie. The inherent difficulty in tracking outdoor ads historically has made it less appealing from an ROI perspective for decision-makers.
To overcome these challenges, there's a need to capitalize on the unique strengths of outdoor advertising, particularly its ability to evoke a "Wow" moment. Outdoor advertising excels at engagement, creating a two-second wow factor that no other medium can replicate. By embracing its role as a medium that engages and captures attention, outdoor advertising can be a powerful trigger event that leads to further digital interactions, making it an integral part of the overall marketing strategy.
Adam Michaelson Discussion on OOH Uncut Podcast with Rick Robinson
Rick Robinson: Hello everybody. Rick Robinson here with PJX Media and another episode of Out-of-home Uncut, Today's guest is one of my favorite people Adam Michaelson and I'll give you a little background on him, he's the Chief Marketing Officer of the Financial Marketing Group, one of the most prominent marketing consultancies in the US and they focus on helping banks, mortgage companies fintech and more He's also been the leader of global ad agencies a corporate CMO and has been part of some of the biggest marketing stories of all time. Including Launching the new Las Vegas and he even made Elmo famous, Welcome, Adam. We're so thrilled to have you
Adam Michaelson: Thank you. Great to be here.
Rick Robinson: So I'm going to get right to the question of season 2 of home and all the things I love about it and you love about it and all the innovations and out of home recently. Why is the industry seemingly stalled out, even stuck at 5% market share.
Adam Michaelson: First of all it's a great question, and every solution begins with asking the right question, I think it's a combination of three factors. it's a little bit misleading because in the old days outdoors are much bigger part of an analog pie.
Rick Robinson: Thank you.
Adam Michaelson: Digital has pushed all analog out, all analog marketing to maybe 23% of the total pie.
Rick Robinson: Right.
Adam Michaelson: So a little bit misleading, it's not as bad as it looks is what I'm trying to say.
Rick Robinson: Okay good.
Adam Michaelson: No, number two is. Because it is the least trackable by nature or at least in historical terms. It's been the least trackable. It's the hardest for chiefs to approve on an ROI basis
Adam Michaelson: Third, I think the great opportunity is to figure out how to great in a more greater fashion merge the digital handheld landscape with outdoor, And we chatted before,…when you're looking at your phone, you're scrolling. Every banner is a piece of outdoor ostensibly. It's only two inches a square, but it is a moment just like you would see in outdoor the other issue. Lastly, and I was summarizes outdoors traditionally been pigeonholed into particular issues, like movie launches fashion cars. it's a one and a half second of. Wow. And if the brand, is it lend itself to a need for Wow, It gets marginalized, that makes sense. It's like health care on a billboard is the tougher sell then, the new Avengers movie. Right. Increase.
Rick Robinson: sure, in some ways and you're right, it is kind of pigeonholed But you get it that. and it's interesting because first off, I'm just looking at your comments here, it's better than it looks. First of all the 5% marker. So thank you for that historically not trackable, certainly, he' it's much much improved on that point, we are more trackable than ever, but still not to the point that we need to be head-to-head with digital.
Adam Michaelson: Right.
Rick Robinson: it's pigeonholed a bit right now. With that. how do you think we exploit our strength that moment of wow?
Adam Michaelson: Great question. And you basically answered it in that when you're pitching the medium, In my opinion, the pitch is you can't get a wow from a banner on CNBC, you cannot get from a piece of direct mail, you cannot get from a brochure, you can get a while from television or broadcast. You can't get away from radio, but you get a wow from television because TVs have gotten so huge. it's a time square billboard in your livingroom right?
Rick Robinson: Right.
Adam Michaelson: The effect is the same. The Wow that you get when you turn the corner on Sunset and you see that building that John, HBO game of Thrones, six stories tall, it creates a two second wow. All marketing comes down to three words, engage, inform and motivate. Outdoor does more for the engagement factor than any other medium in my opinion. It may not inform as much as a brochure. It may not motivate response like a direct mail piece, but in terms of engaging you for two seconds, it's 80% of the story with much more than the other media. So I see it as a piston in an engine with multiple pistons. the engagement is critical to make people say tell me more or I want to buy that ticket. I want to test drive that car.
Rick Robinson: As a believer in the medium and you've had out of home in the media, mix and many of the budgets you've overseen and brands, you've overseeing How do you account for that? Wow. how do you justify that investment?
Adam Michaelson: If it gets people talking, it has a cascade effect for example. if you do a three-dimensional board, That makes people double take, as a famous thing with the mannequins sitting on the top or the guy hanging off the broomstick or whatever, or…
Rick Robinson: Right.
Adam Michaelson: you do three-dimensional, to make people look twice, especially in the world of social media, it gives people something to say something to post and then it takes on a life of its own. So is On the digital side, it can be much. More engaging is essentially a three to five second TV, shop or motion of some kind. So, a lot of opportunity there in my opinion, the great opportunities to It is an outdoor companies, merge with digital firms and outdoor becomes part of the trigger event that creates digital conversation.
Adam Michaelson: Or the Wow that leads people to buy the ticket in a trackable fashion or test drive that car,…
Rick Robinson: so then,…
Adam Michaelson: right? I think that piece
Rick Robinson: So then out of home It becomes the trigger event. That you can track down to the palm of your hand.
Adam Michaelson: So for example let's say you have a WOW but a QR code on the board. You much more likely people going to code, it to figure out what you're talking about, right? The challenge without door doesn't work. for complicated cells, when you're dealing with insurance or health care more complicated product. You can't tell a story in two seconds but you can make people understand their need for the product. …
Rick Robinson: He?
Adam Michaelson: if you outdoor board, the street dimensions, that looks like a water for flood insurance, right? I immediately get what you're offering me as a solution, but now I need to figure out how to solve the problem. So, I think it's a great breaker.
Rick Robinson: So, it's connecting the top of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel essentially.
Adam Michaelson: Absolutely. I think the challenge in ors, been outdoor companies have been trying to act like the bottom of the funnel and it gets a huge eye roll from chiefs. Right? It's a tough sell when you try to say outdoors trackable, We've got these algorithms and this new retina scan yada. They're like, dude, How many widgets did you sell for me today? That's a Sell My recommendation is to go the opposite way. We are not selling widgets re we're selling goosebumps. We're selling let them talk about you so that they go into your store.
Rick Robinson: I can't say any better. We should end right there. We're selling. Wow, goosebumps making them talk about you and getting them talking. Is what you want to do is a CMO Adam. Thank you so much for your time and input. I know our listeners are gonna love your message.
Adam Michaelson: thank you, Rick, and thank you for being a wow, in our industry for many, many, wonderful years.
Rick Robinson: Thanks mate. Take care of yourself.
