OOH Uncut Podcast: Marc Fenty
Marc Fenty, SVP, Director of OOH, Horizon Media, joins host Rick Robinson, CEO, PJX Media, on OOH Uncut, the podcast featuring leaders in the Out of Home media world.
June 20, 2023
Marc Fenty Discussion on OOH Uncut Podcast with Rick Robinson
Rick Robinson: Hi everybody. Rick Robinson here with PJX Media and today's guest is Marc Fenty and Marc is Senior Vice President & Director of Out of Home at Horizon Media, say hello to everybody Marc.
Marc Fenty: Hello there everyone. Hey Rick, good to see you.
Rick Robinson: Good to see you too, my friend. So glad to have you so talk to us. Why do brands love out of home? What makes them fall in love?
Marc Fenty: Well, I guess I'm a little biased here because a lot of the accounts I've worked on in the past have been entertainment but who doesn't like to see themselves on a big billboard, who doesn't like to be noticed by everyone. And I think this is what out-of-home does. It gives you the ability to reach everyone in the right time in the right place.
Rick Robinson: So you reach everyone now.. that this is a common thread, this concurrence where everybody sees it all at once and there's like a level of excitement there of like proof, you know. Validation, maybe confidence. I mean, what's interesting? If you're a brand and you're gonna run an out of home campaign, whatever you say, you better be willing to stand behind it for a minute, right?
Marc Fenty: Oh 100%. And let me just say this, I mean, like I want to build upon what, you know, what you like, What we love to talk about together is about how out of home is the people’s space. I mean, like you can't think of an arm of media that's more contextually relevant than out of home. Because if you put like if you're advertising, gym, sneakers on top of a gym, of course, it's gonna be the most impactful because that's where everyone's in the right mindset and they're thinking about it and it makes it relevant. It makes sense, it's relevant. You know how are you not gonna remember that, you know.
Rick Robinson: So the editorials really everything happening around it. In a way,…
Marc Fenty: Correct. Correct.
Rick Robinson: right? So now what's interesting is Is we tend to focus so much on measurement, you know, when we talk about How are we going to grow our business? And when brands even tell us like that, the OAAA conference said, Look, if you could measure it better, I'd buy more of it. I've heard that many times. Yeah, just in the first few episodes of this podcast, When I ask people, what makes out of home different, they talk about this emotive quality, it's sort of organic quality. How do those two paths reconcile?
Marc Fenty: Hmm. Well. That's a very good question. And I think that part of the reconcile, I wish I could answer that question fully. I just think that overall It's not a sprint. It's about it's an awareness vehicle for sure. But also understand that it also works its way all the way down the funnel, right? So it could actually it could technically move business with the advance of data and measurement and QR code and all that stuff helps like bring some kind of legitimacy to it. People who needs to know that like you can walk away with something from out of home and you can not just the visual image of it all, but you can also take a snackable experience with you you know a clip from a TV show or you can sign on to a website or something to that in effect you could shop. From your phone.
Rick Robinson: Tiffany Rolfe who's the chief creative officer at RGA. She said, out of home was a way in right? So you reach people, it resonates and then there's this attachment and it seems to me that there might be a story here to talk about the brand resonating, the concurrent power of out of home, which is the upper funnel piece and then the the lower funnel performance measurement which are slowly figuring out like, Is there a story that Branding can be a performance. Meaning like is there something there we have yet to unlock?
Marc Fenty: I believe that there is and I guess to your point, we're trying to find what that looks like, you know, like every brand uses it differently. So you know, entertainment tends to lean towards vanity other brands want some kind of roi return. Like, Are you gonna go to the store once I put this ad up, you know, so it just really depends on what your purpose is.
Rick Robinson: So how do you know with your brands… now you work with a lot of entertainment? Like How do you know your team has planned it right, that the campaign nailed it. How do you know that?
Marc Fenty: Well, we have the great thing with um, entertainment, well in the arm entertainers and are always looking from themselves up there. So when they see it on there, they go to social media and go like, look, look at me. I'm on a screen.
Rick Robinson: Proof of life, right?
Marc Fenty: you know exactly, proof of life. So I mean, that's pretty much how it happens for us, you know? Um, all, so you have think about like the immediacy of the message that you can do with out of home. Like, for example, if you're working on one of those gambling sites, whether it be fanduel or draftkings or, something to that effect, you know, you can drive something right away, you know, like going, oh, there's a game happening. Oh, I better, you know put a bet, you know, something to that affect just reminds you. It's always right there. It's right there with you when you need it.
00:05:00
Rick Robinson: So there is that immediacy and direct response component that out of home can pull off. I guess to close… what do you think is the one thing out of home does that no other media format does?
Marc Fenty: no one else does. I just think that, um, Strategically placed ads, really create a huge impact better than you would think. You know I mean it's contextually relevant, puts it in the right context. What makes you remember? Even more actually, to your point, you actually feel it, you feel it, you see it, you know it you know as opposed to like a TV ad that you could just turn off but you can't feel like Oh this made me feel a certain way, just being here, you know. And that's what I think out of home. Does so beautifully if it don't creatively You know, and you know, relevant.
Rick Robinson: All right, well, you heard it here. We make people… out of home makes people feel it. It's contextually relevant. It has big impact. It's proof of life. And not only does it deliver the upper funnel awareness and notoriety, it also impacts the lower funnel performance. Marc, thank you for your time and have an awesome day.
Marc Fenty: Thank you, and thank you for having me.
Rick Robinson: Love it.
