by Brian Rappaport, CEO, QUAN Media Group

2021 was definitely a “rebound year” as we all saw a lot of positives after what happened the year prior – and 2022 should be even better.  A few weeks ago the Ad Club of New York hosted the annual “OOH NOW” event – where the focus was on “Purpose-Action-Connection.”  Tons of excellent content ranging from panels of the creative impact of OOH to an incredible keynote by Tim Armstrong.  You can catch all videos here (password is OOHnow2021).  Additionally we’re on pace for some unprecedented growth in the Ad industry next year, and according to GroupM’s report found here – OOH growth will be around 21.8%.  Like I said, we’re headed for a really good year.  Lastly – questions on how DOOH can meet the data privacy moment?  Those will be answered here

Industry updates 

Quick mobility check!

Geopath’s (OOH official measurement bureau) has come out with their latest/greatest in terms of mobility trends.  The miles traveled per day in December 2021 were slightly above miles traveled in December of 2019 (22.9 vs 22.0).  Additionally, the percentage of people leaving their homes in an average day this December slightly exceeds that of last December.  The average daily number of trips so far this November are slightly below the average daily trips in November 2019.

Lamar is ready to paint the town!

Official press release

Anyone familiar with OOH is familiar with Lamar, as they’re one of the biggest media partners out there – with over 350k+ pieces of inventory across the county.  At the same time, if you’re familiar with OOH (or even if you’re not) odds are you know Colossal Media – the media partner behind those incredible painted walls you’ve seen in NYC, Chicago, SF, LA, Boston, and other major cities.  The two companies are now joining forces – with Lamar acquiring Colossal Media.  The partnership will keep Colossal Media intact, with the company operating underneath Lamar’s umbrella.  This should lead to some serious growth with more premium walls in more premium markets.  Super exciting!

Detroit gets a BIG upgrade as an OOH market

Detroit has always been a decent OOH market – but the one thing it really lacked was large format assets.  Due to permit issues, and city regulations – many of the large format walls that flooded Downtown became illegal.  That has finally changed – and Outfront Media is leading the charge!  They’ve rolled out 13 brand new large format wallscapes.  This inventory is fantastic – it targets stadiums, hotels, casinos and entertainment venues in addition to offices, apartments and restaurants.  Some of these walls are nearly 5000 sq ft – they are HUGE and provide an unavoidable presence throughout the city of Detroit.

Partner updates 

Outfront’s latest & greatest on transit recovery

NYC Subway Rider Mobility Surver (Nov ’21)

Outfront is the largest OOH vendor in the country – also handling the mass transit advertising in key markets including NYC, BOS, DC, and SF.  Throughout the pandemic we have stayed close to mass transit ridership statistics across rail and bus in core markets.  They’ve also recently completed their NYC-Transit MFour study which has shown that three out of four (72%) subway riders are riding again!  A really key interesting stat was among those who are working a mix of in-office and remote, the most popular days to go into the office are: Tuesday (73%), Thursday (67%) and Wednesday (61%).  In terms of key ridership details (as of late December) for markets with major mass transit –

New York

• Week of 12/10 was the highest week on the subway since the pandemic. Over 3.5M average weekday trips (61%). Thursday and Friday were both over 3.4M.
• Overall – 65% of normal ridership (gradual increase WoW) for subway
• 80% of normal ridership – Bus
• “Foot traffic is noticeably up on Fifth Avenue, almost back to pre-pandemic levels.” (Crain’s)
• NYC hotel occupancy recently reached a pandemic-era high of nearly 88%.
• Omicron Variant Hasn’t Slowed New Event Bookings. New event planners have hit a two-year high in bookings while virtual event planning has reached pandemic-era lows (Northstar PULSE Survey).

D.C.

• Metrorail service will gradually increase with approval of half of the 7000 series cars to return to the system.
  • 30% of normal ridership for rail
  • 75% of normal ridership for bus
• Demand for office space is up and surpassing pre-pandemic levels in the DC area (CBRE).
  • The DC metro area’s new office leasing activity is 2% above its pre-pandemic baseline.
  • The District is ranked 4th in leasing activity out of the top US markets.

BOS: 

• Service levels are 100%
• 43% of normal ridership for subway/50% for rail/80% for bus

MIA: 

• 75% of normal ridership for buses

SF:

• 30% of normal ridership for rail (1st time above 30% since Dec ’19)

Black Friday caps a strong November!

PlaceIQ has been providing key insights into U.S. movement trends since the pandemic began.  Most recently they focused on Black Friday – which showed some positive things.  Black Friday 2020 was a spike, but the majority of shopping demand was preemptively spread across November. The usual stalwarts of Black Friday – electronics stores, department stores – felt the crush most, as their traffic was ~50% off its normal levels. But the earlier traffic in November saved them and their monthly total was ~80% of 2019’s total.  In 2021, however, the stalwarts of Black Friday bounced back, big time. The largest gains compared to 2020 were from electronics stores (+23%), sporting good stores (+21%), malls (+15%), and department stores (+13%).  PlaceIQ uses a metric called ‘boost’ to evaluate Black Friday performance. Rather than comparing foot traffic to the same day in the previous year, we calculate the average Friday traffic volumes for all of October and use that as our baseline. A score of 2.00 means that a store or sector saw twice as much traffic as they usually saw on Fridays in October.  Electronics stores saw nearly 4x their October norm, big box earned a healthy 75% gain, and traffic to shopping malls was ~2.75x times higher than usual.

Latest/Greatest with Air Travel

Air travel continues to rebound – big time.  The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened 2.45 million airline passengers on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the highest daily total since early 2020.  In general – Over the week of Thanksgiving, TSA passenger count numbers reached 88% of traffic two years prior- the closest a week has gotten to pre-pandemic levels since the onset of the pandemic.  In terms of over Christmas, obviously the cancellations had an impact as more than 1.7 million people passed through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints Friday 12/24 – this is more than 800,000 fewer people than the nearly 2.6 million screened in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.  That number is still higher than the 846,520 people the agency screened on Christmas Eve of 2020.  However, millions are still flying with the TSA reporting 2.19 million people screened at airports across the country on Thursday 12/23, the highest figure since the uptick in holiday travel started a week ago.  We don’t expect the drop off to continue – the cancellations clearly impacted the Xmas holiday, but over the new few weeks flight schedules should stabilize.

In Market Insights: 2021 Gym Visitation

InMarket’s Gym Visitation Insights uses permission-based SDK location data to analyze the changes in foot traffic and visitation to national gyms. They’ve indexed 2021 foot traffic to 2019 and 2020 levels to show how the fitness industry has fared since the start of the pandemic. On average, 2021 gym visitation has gradually increased towards 2019 levels, but has not yet reached pre-pandemic levels. As restrictions eased and vaccination levels rose gradually throughout the year, it’s likely many gym goers returned, while others stuck to their home fitness routines.

New opportunities & Things we love 

Be careful around this brownie

MariMed, a multi-state cannabis operator, created an 850lb pot brownie to celebrate National Brownie Day on Tuesday, December 8^th.  As the parent company of new brand Bubby’s Baked, MariMed aimed to grab mainstream attention for its weed-laced dessert line by creating this massive edible.  The company also wants to create momentum at the dispensary level around Bubby’s as it launches into a fiercely competitive segment. The edibles market, one of the fastest-growing product categories in cannabis, is expected to top $10 billion in annual sales by 2025, according to Brightfield Group.  Bubby’s debuts first at one of MariMed’s own retailers, Panacea in Middleborough, Mass., before its planned expansion to the rest of the state, followed by Delaware and Maryland in 2022. (credit to AdWeek & T.L. Stanley for the coverage)

A brand collab that smells so good!

Super Coffee x Poo-Pourri 

Brand collabs have been all the craze over the past few years.  Bumble x BABE, Cole Haan x Slack….but this one is one of our favorites.  Meet the Super Coffee Vanilla Latte x Poo-Pourri Vanilloo Latte Kit.  The limited-edition kit, contains a 12-ounce Super Coffee Vanilla Latte sweetened with monk fruit and a bottle of vanilla latte-scented Poo-Pourri.  Additionally there’s a 60-second hero ad—starring passionate, anthropomorphized versions of each brand.  Super Coffee has exploded in the “ready to drink” category – as they continue to grow sales YOY, while Pou-Pourri has made bathrooms everywhere smell MUCH better.  Like they said, this was the “most obvious collab ever.”

Introducing UBS Arena

This past November, UBS Arena opened it’s doors as the new home for NHL’s New York Islanders.  This brand new, gorgeous arena sits at Belmont straddling the border of Long Island and Queens – and will be hosting some incredible events over the next few months.  Additionally – it also sits right off Hempstead Turnpike and the Cross Island Parkway – constantly flooded with traffic, along with NO other OOH.  Brands can now purchase time on the brand new digital spectaculars standalone (meaning not tethered to any long-term sponsorship deals).  Over 2,500 sq feet of static digital space, that hits a blend of New York traffic with no other large format OOH in the immediate area.

Giving brands a seat at the table

Meet Waev.  It’s a new table and bar top DOOH advertising platform rapidly expanding throughout the sports bar vertical.  Their ultra-engaging digital displays deliver targeted content to millions of captivated consumers in target demos.  By 2022 – they’ll reach 100M consumers on 25k+ screens in over 500 venues spanning every major DMA.  Venues include Buffalo Wild Wings, TopGolf, Hooters and more.  To start, they’re looking for inaugural partners that would be on 350 screens across three Hooters and 5 Wild Wing Cafes in Charlotte, Atlanta, Greenville and Orlando.  7.2M Imps, 120k estimated total visitors – 6 weeks starting  mid Jan.  Super inexpensive and would cover off on the NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl.  Reach out for more info!

Go with the Flow!

Founded by Tim Armstrong, the former CEO of AOL, Flowcode is the offline to online company building direct connections for consumers and brands.  They connect the real world to the digital world instantly and magically – and Flowcode is quickly become a “go to” for many brands looking to further amplify their street level OOH.  What differentiates Flowcode from the standard QR codes?

• Design – artist designed, branded codes
• Dynamic – unlimited scan destination changes
• Data – custom reports and advanced analytics
• Privacy (!!!) – GDPR and CCPA compliant
• Patented protected
• Flowpage – a customizable post-scan experience.

We’re looking to encourage brands we work with to consider Flowcode as they think about creative concepting.  We’re massive fans of the custom reporting – which better helps brands understand what is driving consumer interactions in an offline environment (day and time of scan, connection by device type etc.

UNIT OF THE WEEK – Nashville Domination (3 painted walls + static spectacular)

Nashville is absolutely blowing up as an OOH market – and the new inventory has been rolling out left and right.  We love this massive domination that’s set to go live in February.  Consisting of 1 static spectacular and 3 painted walls, this unit dominates the heavily trafficked intersection at Broadway & West End Ave located right at the entrance to Music row, the home of Country Music. This sign also captures traffic traveling East directly into Downtown Nashville as well as Nissan Stadium where the Tennessee Titans play.