Kinetic UK was thrilled to host a panel session at this year’s Mindshare Huddle event themed around ‘the Power of Good.’
It’s a topic Out of Home advertising is well placed to comment on. As the UK public face up to a series of daunting issues including inequality and climate change, Out of Home (OOH) advertising (and the brands that invest in the channel) is playing a critical role in overcoming these challenges, not only through media and campaigns, but also through infrastructure and revenues into the public purse.
Kinetic’s Chief Client Officer, Nicole Lonsdale, was joined by Tim Lumb, Director, Outsmart; Jason Cotterrell, Chief Operating Officer Outdoor, Global; Ben Carter, Director of Income, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust; and Alice Squires, Product Manager for Red Cross Training, British Red Cross.
As a highly visible and public channel, OOH has a responsibility to positively impact the local communities it operates in. And it takes this role very seriously.
OOH has provided a public service for people and communities for decades
Tim opened the session by drawing attention to the fact that sustainability in OOH isn’t a recent thing, in fact it’s been part of the medium’s DNA for many years. OOH has provided a public service for people and communities for decades in the form of street lighting, bins, street furniture and free Wi-Fi.
Jason drew on Global’s experience of running the UK’s largest media contract – TfL underground – outlining how OOH generates income for TfL through advertising sales. This income is then reinvested not only in the running of the underground and the management of ticket prices but in initiatives such as electric buses, street tree planting, and cycle lanes. The panel highlighted a PWC audit that showed just under 50% of OOH revenues go back to local authorities where they’re used to help fund development in public infrastructure, transport networks and the wider economy.
And there is an acknowledgment that more can, and is, being done. Aside from reducing the power consumption of screens, Ben spoke about how many OOH media owners are investing in making formats more environmentally friendly. Living walls and bus shelters, water harvesting units, solar panels, renewable energy screens were all cited – along with a subject close to Ben’s heart – bus stops with bee hotels on their roofs. With so many OOH sites in the heart of urban areas, the potential to use them as a method to introduce more green space, and a habitat for wildlife is huge. Alice added that over a hundred OOH sites have also been equipped with life-saving defibrillators via JCDecaux’s Communication Hubs, with hundreds more to come soon. With the defibrillators already having been used over 330 times, it’s another example of how OOH inventory is providing vital services in the public space.
OOH needs to shout louder about its green credentials
The panel agreed that despite OOH’s green credentials and contribution to public finances, the medium needs to shout louder to ensure the message is heard by government, advertisers, and consumers.
Tim spoke about how the highly visible nature of digital OOH often puts it in the firing line when it comes to CO2 emissions. There is a natural perception by many people that physical media consumed more CO2 than online media, however, this is often not the case.
There are around 35,000 digital OOH screens in the UK – around 0.03% of the total number of screens in the UK. Tim points out that OOH is a broadcast medium – a single advert is seen by many, many people. Media Carbon calculators – which are fantastic for showing that Media are not equal when it comes to their carbon impact – show that on a ‘carbon-per-impression’ delivered basis OOH is very efficient and low impact: much more so than other media – where each ad is seen by a single person or a small group.
It’s a nuanced message and the panel concluded by agreeing that OOH has a case for being the most sustainable medium. The job now is for media owners, agencies, and their partners to be bolder in delivering that message to brands, the media, and the public.
