OOH Uncut Podcast: Amanda Dorenberg
Amanda Dorenberg, President & CEO, COMMB, joins host Rick Robinson, CEO, PJX Media, on OOH Uncut, the podcast featuring leaders in the OOH space.
May 16, 2023
Amanda Dorenberg Discussion on OOH Uncut Podcast with Rick Robinson
Rick Robinson: Hi everybody. Rick Robinson here with PJX Media. I'm with Amanda Dorenberg who's the President & CEO of COMMB (Canadian Out-of-Home Marketing and Measurement Bureau). Is that the right title for you Amanda?
Amanda Dorenberg: It is, you got it.
Rick Robinson: Well, we're super glad to have you. Say hello to everybody out there.
Amanda Dorenberg: Hey, y'all.
Rick Robinson: So we're gonna jump right In with one question. We're gonna go for a few minutes and just thinking about what brands really want from out of home, you know. What does out of home do that no other medium can do?
Amanda Dorenberg: What does out of home do that no other medium can do? From my perspective and my personal experience, It brings an emotional and a contextual relevance that no other media format can do. It doesn't matter if you're shopping online and you get served up like some ad that for a product that you were hit up or you were you were searching on about previously out of home specifically has the ability to truly engage and invoke emotion. Like my first, truly my first recollection of seeing out of home was when I worked in fashion and I saw myself on a billboard and I was like, Holy s*** that's so cool. Like I'm on a billboard in like Canada's Times Square. It was just like the coolest thing ever and from that point forward you just have this emotional sentiment of engagement with a brand. When you look at a brand that's on a billboard specifically, you inherently have this trust factor because it's like that's a massive piece of property. It's in these epic locations. Even if it's if it's a roadside or a transit shelter and it's a smaller format, it inherently has this level of trust that no other media format has.
Rick Robinson: So what do you think makes that emotion? Because I'm with you there's this proof of life. This evidence that happens when you're out in public space and it's viewed concurrently - I mean everybody sees it all at once. But what…
Amanda Dorenberg: Right.
Rick Robinson: What makes it emotional?
Amanda Dorenberg: I think there's just something about seeing out of home like, you're going about your day-to-day life, you're just walking about your everyday. You're going about your routine and that routine has inspiration as you walk through your day to day and that inspiration changes on a regular basis. It's never, you know, the only, there's never only one brand there. It's not wholly consistent, and so there's sort of a surprise component that comes with it, where it's like, I see the same transit shelters every day. As I walk down, New York streets, or as I walked up Toronto streets when I'm when I'm home and I see the same, like large format, but every time I'm exposed to them, they're different. So it inherently captures your your attention but it's a part of your day to day life so you can't ignore it.
Rick Robinson: So there's a utility in that right? There's some sort of like,…
Amanda Dorenberg: For sure.
Rick Robinson: it's adding to my my space. I always say that if out of home brings time fun or money, like intrigue or humor. So if it adds to my day then I like it back.
Amanda Dorenberg: For sure. But I think that every every format of out of home, whether it's outdoor, whether it's place based,, it does that naturally and consumers are not opposed to it, you know, in the online space and I'm of the generation that lives and breathes on my phone. I'm constantly on my phone, I'm constantly on Instagram. I'm on Tiktok. I'm on all of these platforms. I'm absorbing content but I ignore 90% of the content. I don't even look at the advertisements on there because I'm just like Oh gosh. Another advertisement being hit up. In my natural habitat of just going through my day to day life where it doesn't feel as though somebody is imposing a brand message on me I gravitate to it so much more.
And I want to understand what that brand is saying. And you take, you take photos, you take selfies in front of certain campaigns because maybe, you know, you've got a personal connection or personal affinity to a specific brand. So there's just this natural gravitas that comes with out of home in my, in my opinion.
Rick Robinson: You nailed it. This one of my favorite words for a medium, gravitas, and you know, it's interesting because across the board, people will say that, purely digital messaging they get mostly on their phone these days is in the way. All…
Amanda Dorenberg: Yeah.
Rick Robinson: …and then, out of home, can be sort of a way in, right? It's just, it's inviting, it's polite. It's a chill. You know, it's just there for you to consume if you want to or…
Amanda Dorenberg: It’s not negative, you're not just like throwing an ad down my throat. It's there and it's part of the, the fabric of the landscape in which you live in. And that to me, is so inviting. It's a part of your everyday life. Literally, you cannot ignore it. It's there.
Rick Robinson: So with that, we're going to call it a wrap. We heard it here everybody. Amanda said, Out of home is emotional, it's inviting. It's a way in. It's there in our life, it creates a narrative, It's inspirational. I think those are all the words you're using. I want to say to the audience out there, I really hope we remember that as we talk about all the measurement metrics, we're serving up, which are really important. But there's one thing we do that know other medium can do. And that's this emotional visceral response that you just spoke about so thank you for being with us. Amanda haven't awesome day.
Amanda Dorenberg: Thank you for having me. Love this.
Rick Robinson: Perfect. These are fun!.
