OTW Blog

Yes, it’s official – OTW just bolted on the biggest advertising sales organisation in history, the great Google itself.

We posted on this blog last year reminding the outdoor advertising industry that Google is not actually a search company – 98% of their revenue ($21b in 2008 and growing at 30% a year) actually comes from the advertising game. Now, logically enough, they’re moving into billboards.

We told you outdoor was cool 2.0!

But wait, not billboards in the REAL world, billboards in Google Maps. In street view. Like this:

And wait, they’re not going to sell them on our behalf – they’re selling them for their own profits!

After filing a patent application titled “Claiming Real Estate in Panoramic or 3D Mapping Environments for Advertising“, Google’s new plan was reported by various technology and advertising media in January – and we quote from GoRumours who picked it up within 24 hours:

“Quite a few of us would have used the Google Real Estate portal while buying or selling real estate properties. These listings, which are either got through web-crawling or when real estate agents submit their listings are absolutely free. The only way Google monetizes the properties is through text-based advertisements on the sidebar and at the bottom of the map-based listings.

Now, it appears that the company is working on technology that will bring advertisements right into the map. In a recently filed patent titled “Claiming Real Estate in Panoramic or 3D Mapping Environments for Advertising”, the company (even) explains how the ad-bidding system for real estate advertising will work.”

So, here’s the fickle world of adwords price bidding coming to a new economy billboard media near you (figure 10 from the patent application):

So, I wonder which of OTW’s billboards in Google Street View will be first to be resold, and who will bid to have their message on them? Rivals for the business they are located on? What price will they sell for? I guess given the speed of the USPTO processing of patents these days, we shouldn’t worry for a few months.

Then again, why buy a billboard in Google’s second life? Clearly, pretty much everything is up for sale so we might buy that bloke jogging by our billboard in Mount Eden Road instead. Maybe he’s actually the Google Street View man? Now we think about it, what about Mount Eden? Rangitoto would probably fit our logo better … any Australians interested in a harbour bridge?

The politicians and the outdoor advertising industry are once more falling out of love in Sydney, this time over the billboard campaign for Cocaine energy drink.

The product was launched in June, surrounded by plenty of controversy over its name, and the fact the drink’s recipe had to be altered to comply with Australian food regulations (it had way too much caffeine to get past the FSA).

Now, in a world where all publicity is good publicity, the canny drink-maker has been getting more column inches (above from Fairfax’s Age newspaper today). And note it was the outdoor campaign that got noticed and subsequently copped the wrath of the pollies? Go billboards!

OTW has the solution – let the Aussie government buy all the stock and give it to the hard-working doctors they’ve advised to drink more coffee to get them through their 30 hour shifts.

Sky City

Simple but effective creative input utilising sheets tied together to emphasise the need to escape promoting Sky City’s winter packages. Great use of a prop to bring the billboard alive and catch attention.

A clever outdoor campaign in England urges advertisers not to cut spend in a recession – copy in the ad asks the question “Global downturn. What’s the first mistake businesses make?”.

“There is considerable evidence to suggest that companies that continue to invest in advertising in tough times emerge stronger than those that don’t”

This is well worth a look.

www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/17/financial-times-ft-posters-ads

Does the media owner have the right to decline advertising they don’t agree with? And if so, on what grounds? Here’s an interesting, if flippant (hey, they’re Australian) take on the current corner that APN Outdoor have painted themselves into over an Australian version of the British outdoor campaign by atheists promoting their beliefs.

What do you think?

The Atheist Foundation of Australia approached APN with a slogan and a fistful of cash. APN, a company that has run religious and political slogans in the past, initially said: “Sounds good, no problems.” So APN and AFA spent three weeks tweaking, diluting and compromising until APN abruptly pulled the plug. End of discussion.

How offensive was the message? Was it, “Sucked in, there’s no God. Ha, ha, ha”? Was it, “Those hours in church bored out of your brain, those years of guilt and all those prayers? Wasted. God’s not real”? Was it, “The look on their faces when they find out God doesn’t exist? Priceless.”

No. It was, “Atheism — Celebrate Reason”.

How scary is that? That was after “Atheism — Sleep in on Sundays” and “Atheism — Because there is no credible evidence” were knocked back. How flimsy does APN think people’s faith is if they’d be rocked by a gentle comment like that? How fragile would someone’s faith be if they were rocked by a gentle comment like that? If I were a believer, I’d be offended that someone would think my convictions were that shaky. How dare someone assume I was living in some state of suspended intellectual adolescence?

Aren’t we a multicultural, multifaith country that prides itself on diversity and tolerance? So APN, what gives?

APN has cracked open a can of “No Comment” on this one. As you would, considering Spain and Canada are all running the British slogan, America’s going with “Why believe in a God? Just be good for goodness’ sake” and Italy, home of The Grand Poobah of The Roman Catholics, is going with, “The bad news is God doesn’t exist. The good news is we don’t need him.” Ireland will run something similar.

The number of churchgoers in Australia is about 9% and dwindling, the diversity of spiritual belief is flourishing and atheism is going off like a frog in a sock. In his inauguration speech, President Barack Obama, a man raised by atheists, mentioned non-believers. We exist. Like it or not.

Why does the media appear to have a vested interest in portraying atheists as a bunch of radicals rather than dealing with it as the mainstream issue it is? What’s the fear?

Read the whole article here.

Murder Burger….. strong, controversial and pushing the boundaries. Similar to the Hell Pizza’s ads, but we didn’t think it was too offensive.

National Business Review’s Adhoc has a look at it:

http://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/hazel-phillips/murder-burgers-headless-chicken-triumphs

For those of you following our stolen transformers story, the police finally arrested our villain who was photographed while stealing our power transformers.

The campaign to have the public identify the culprit featured four billbords across Auckland – a definite success story for the power of billboards as within three days he was positively identified from a number of different sources. The police were pretty impressed and hopefully it illustrates what a great medium billboards are for speaking to Aucklanders!

It was also encouraging to receive hundreds of texts and e-mails supporting our initiative (along with one complaint to the ASA!).

The story was also picked up outside NZ, featuring in Australia on Channel 7, several radio stations and published in 182 websites and newspapers around the world!

Artist Guy Limone would doubtless be insulted by an insinuation that this was outdoor advertising, but it sure is amazing.

A quick look at a few great sites from around the regions.

After a strong last quarter and with the election sites coming down we have some great sites available. We would prefer them to be full rather than empty so if you have any cool ideas and not much money give us a call and we will see what we can do.

N2 Wellington
This spectacular Wellington site has just undergone a complete rebuild this site is now as brand new as it gets.

W1 Whangarei
One of the sites used by the Green Party in the recent election campaign and not one to be ignored if you are looking for something in Whangarei – gateway to Northland.

N16 Lower Hutt
An outstanding site in Lower Hutt sitting up high and waiting to be picked.

D1 Dargaville
A great site in the main street of Dargaville. Unquestionably the best one in town. Nothing else in Dargaville comes close to this one.

C11 Christchurch
I think this is the top 6 x 3 in Christchurch – uncluttered part of State Highway system and still central CHCH – impossible to ignore.