Out-of-home (OOH) advertising company, Ooh! Media, has recorded more than 400,000 shopper engagements with its interactive campaigns during the first year.
Shoppers’ appetite for the interactive campaigns, which were rolled out across 50 screens in some of Australia’s busiest shopping centres, has exceeded expectations according to Ooh!’s commercial director of retail, Blair Hamilford.
“We’ve been amazed by shoppers’ response to the first 12 interactive campaigns,” he said. “The great response shows how the Excite screens are contributing to shoppers’ overall experience of retail centres as a destination for entertainment and leisure.”
Ooh!’s results reflect a UK study conducted earlier this year that found interactive ads increase brand awareness more than non-interactive ads and that customers feel more favourable towards brands with interactive ads.
Suzanne Moorey-Denham, managing director of Dynamic Logic, the firm responsible for the study, said interactive ads are able to hook consumers in. “Interactive ads create a richer environment for users by making them significantly more involved with the ad, thus generating greater interest in the brand,” she explained.
Ooh!’s screens are able to lure shoppers to deeply engage with advertisers via sensory features including a multi-touch screen, gesture control, voice recognition, webcam, audio and 4G connection.
A particularly popular campaign was Powerade’s virtual basketball game, which recorded over 31,000 interactions during the Rio Olympics. The aim of the game was to shoot as many basketballs into the virtual hoop as possible in 45 seconds using the screen’s gesture control function. Most shoppers played a few games, interacting with the campaign for nearly three minutes.
Other advertisers to use the screens in the first year include the Meat and Livestock Association, Fitbit and Optus.
To ensure high levels of interaction, the screens are placed in high traffic spots that have enough space for interactivity and crowd viewing. “Shoppers are drawn to the screens and further impacted by the campaign through media support across the shopping centre,” said Hamilford.
Fyna Foods is currently running a campaign promoting its Wizz Fizz confectionery, capitalising on Australians’ growing interest in Halloween. Through a ‘trick or treat’ game on screens close to a Coles or Woolworths supermarket in 25 shopping centres, the brand is attempting to engage shoppers at the right moment and drive sales close to retailers.
Ooh! CEO Brendon Cook said Wizz Fizz can own the Halloween confectionery space through this approach. “The digital billboard countdown creates awareness and drives demand for the iconic Wizz Fizz sherbet brand by adding to the fast-growing hype surrounding Halloween in Australia,” he explained.
“Once in the shopping centre, Wizz Fizz positively engages and influences shoppers with its trick or treat game when they’re ready to stock up on confectionery.”
Interactive retailers
Along with running interactive advertising campaigns, retailers have also been employing interactivity in-store. For example, US department store Bloomingdale’s ran an interactive Father’s Day display in partnership with clothing brand Ralph Lauren. Taking the phrase ‘window shopping’ to a whole new level, Bloomingdale’s installed six interactive windows at its Manhattan flagship where passers-by could browse, personalise and shop for gifts from the street.
“We wanted to create an interactive experience that would literally make you stop in your tracks with something theatrical and mesmerising,” executive vice president of Ralph Lauren global advertising, market and corporate communications, David Lauren, explained at the time.
Fashion retailer Kate Spade has also experimented with interactive screens through shop-able windows at Kate Spade Saturday stores. Launched in 2013 and retired last year, these were ‘window shops’ where customers could browse and make purchases at the touch of a button and without stepping into a physical store.