Welcome diversion

You either love them or hate them.

You can’t miss them, especially if you’re travelling along EDSA and other major highways. Some are old-school static tarpaulin while others are state-of-the-art displays on large LED screens.

Billboards or out-of-home (OOH) advertising have become part of the common fare for motorists and pedestrians going to work or school these days. With the unforgiving traffic situation in the metro, billboards have also become welcome diversion, even entertainment for the weary.

Dentsu Aegis Network Philippines country CEO Donald Patrick Lim says there are two ways of viewing these billboards, either as clutter or as creative pieces.

He said they can be nice and pretty depending on the execution, and can even challenge movies or TV commercials in terms of generating awareness.

Experts say that OOH has become the latest battleground for the hearts and minds of consumers, and has created an opportunity and a challenge for marketers to come up with a visual spectacle of ads, ranging from mouth-watering and crave-worthy fast food to the latest gizmos and clothing apparel.

Lim notes that it’s a spot battle, so that marketers and advertisers vie for the most strategic and prominent locations along the metro’s most-frequented roadways to effectively deliver their messages and content on a 24/7 basis. This way they’d be sure that the targeted audience will be reached and nobody will be missed.

With a wide reach and seemingly more cost-efficient way for promoting products and messages compared to the traditional print and broadcast media, OOH is definitely redefining the advertising landscape in the digital age.

Today’s mass media is fast moving to user-generated content, making it more difficult for advertisers to catch their attention. Instead of catching their favorite soap series on free TV, people are now choosing to stream on-demand via Netflix or iFlix. Getting the news delivered can now be done by the click of a mouse.

There lies the advantage of OOH. Consumers can opt not to watch TV or buy newspapers but there is no escaping billboards on their regular routes to their daily destination. With relatively lower cost, OOH has become the most cost-effective medium in the digital age.

In a forum organized by MacGraphics Carranz last week, Lim cited data from AGB Nielsen showing digital media growing aggressively over the past two years. Media marketers are now looking into the “big three” of advertising- TV, radio and OOH.

While OOH displaced print for the share in the advertising pie, Lim attributed it to the rise of digital media—with people getting connected through mobile devices, personal computers, and in the case of OOH—digital displays.

One of the biggest in the field is MacGraphics Carranz which is transforming the metro’s landscape into a digital showcase adorned with eye-catching LED displays similar to Times Square in New York or Dontonbori in Osaka..

The company recently inked an exclusive pact with the infrastructure arm of San Miguel Corp. to sell OOH spots in its prime motorways like the South Luzon Expressway, Skyway, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway (NAIA-X) and the STAR tollway.

Likewise, MacGraphis Carranz has a similar agreement with the local government of Mandaluyong City for outdoor displays in most public places, including Ortigas.

Lim noted that from transit to transport ads, from tarpaulins to LED displays, OOH is reinventing itself in the digital realm.

With the Christmas season setting in, expect LED displays to provide visual relief as the traffic gridlock worsens.

Right to question

When I commented in a previous column regarding US President Donald Trump’s alleged statements in connection with Sen. Trillanes’ visit to the US, I have to admit I wasn’t expecting the item to create such a stir, especially among internet trolls.

The item about Trump was all over the internet and had been written about by other columnists. But whether or not Trump actually referred to Trillanes as “the little narco” was unverified at that time and so I used the word “reportedly.” I said Trump was reportedly asked onboard Air Force One about Trillanes’ visit. Of course, the word “reportedly” means what others are saying, although unveriified.

As a taxpayer, it is my right to question even the slightest hint of impropriety on the part of public officials. And that was what I did. And as a columnist, my opinions are mine alone and do not reflect that of the newspaper.

Whether or not I commented on alleged fake news is not the point. I based my piece on an item that appeared in Pilipino Star Ngayon at a time when it has not been conclusively decided as fake news and when the US government has not officially labelled it as such.

To accuse Malacañang of feeding me this piece is absurd. After all, I have never been known as pro-Duterte nor anti-Trillanes. So trolls, lay off.

I rest my case.

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