Marketers know they must increase the rate at which they produce content and find ways to deploy real-time strategies across medias, not just digital. Reacting and responding in real-time is exponentially harder than more adhoc Facebook, Twitter or customer complaint engagements demanding a unique approach.

A survey by GolinHarris in 2012 revealed consumers expressed more positive feelings towards brands after they were exposed to real-time marketing than beforehand. Nearly half said they would feel more positive, while 46% would be more interested in the brand. Likelihood to recommend, to consider making a purchase, and to try or buy all were also significantly higher after exposure to real-time marketing.

• The Grand Prize & Best Use of Digital in Outdoor: Eurostar LIVE
• Best Use of Outdoor in a Multimedia Campaign: Channel 4 ‘Paralympics’
• Best Use of Continuity in Outdoor: Lastminute.com

See more on the award event over at Clear Channel here.

Shoppers at Westfield White City were invited to share their resolutions by answering the question ‘what will you gain when you lose.’ Each of them was then treated to a makeover and photo shoot, which was broadcast live throughout Westfield’s digital screens via the LIVEPOSTER™ platform.

Sophie Colling, Brand Manager for Special K says “LIVEPOSTER™’s ability to broadcast content in real-time was fundamental to the activation of this campaign and allowed us to use our out of home media in a way we hadn’t done before, linking it to our experiential activity and allowing us to use real women in our outdoor advertising for the first time. The rapid upload of women’s pictures meant they could see themselves on the screens without any delay.

The onsite technical support LIVEPOSTER™ provided was also extremely valuable, ensuring the campaign ran as smoothly as possible on the day.”

See the video here.

Skip directly to the best brands on Instagram

Many brands have taken advantage of the opportunity to give consumers an intimate look at what their products have to offer.

Brands have flown highly influential Instagram users (with 100k-plus followers) to Abu Dhabi to shoot sailing races, given consumers behind-the-scenes looks at fashion shows or sporting events, organized “Insta-walks” … Playboy has even shown a surprising, nostalgic side of the magazine by sharing vintage pics of their models wearing clothes.

Business Insider Advertising has compiled a list of the brands who are doing this in really cool and surprising ways that make people want to share.

Watch the video here Occupy Ikea

The campaign includes national rail and bus shelter ads from JCDecaux and Clear Channel and sits alongside the brands current TV push.

Working with LIVEPOSTER, the out-of-home push features reed.co.uk’s ‘Love Mondays’ messaging, originally developed by Contagious Content.

Of the campaign, Mark Rhodes, marketing director at reed.co.uk, said: “Innovations of the likes LIVEPOSTER has created are widening the potential of outdoor as a medium by which we can reach commuters with relevant, local messaging, using the most important asset we have: our jobs.

“The introduction of out-of-home units, showing location-specific job postings, adds another layer of targeting and relevance and reinforces the vacancy coverage reed.co.uk has across the UK.”

LIVEPOSTER business development director, Dan Douglas, added: “Digital OOH is now coming of age with real time planning, buying and content all now possible. Reed are being particularly forward thinking using broadcast not only to integrate with the above the line creative, but to use live data and content from their site to create real time, location specific targeted ads.”

The activity will circulate around key commuter hours, with a focus on Mondays to tie in with the existing creative. Job details will be displayed according to the location of the ad unit.

The new of the reed.co.uk campaign comes after LIVEPOSTER announced a strategic partnership with Posterscope to further the expansion of digital out-of-home in the UK.

For more on digital out of home, join the LIVEPOSTER group on Linked In and follow @liveposterUK on Twitter.

By Gillian West for The Drum

For more on Digital OOH join the LIVEPOSTER group on Linked In or visit the LIVEPOSTER website.

Digital out of home is growing – fast. But is it about to overtake billboards and posters altogether? The out of home medium has undergone tremendous change in recent years, with developing technologies and changing consumer behaviour making an impact on the growth of the sector. Augmented reality, interactivity and multi-sensory technologies have played their part in making out of home one of the most dynamic marketing channels.

Digital outdoor advertising continued its growth in 2012, with digital outdoor revenue increasing from £31m to £52m year-on-year in the third quarter of 2012, representing 19 per cent of the total UK outdoor revenue at the quarter, which stood at £250m.

In comparison to traditional out of home advertising, “digital offers a much richer experience for consumers, and consequently ever greater opportunities for advertisers to engage with them,” says James Davies, chief strategy officer at Posterscope. Is it possible that pixels are replacing paste in the world’s oldest advertising medium?

The flexibility of digital, the possibilities of data feedback and enhanced consumer connections are also positive aspects of the medium – but it is the possibilities offered by real-time content that are arguably proving the most exciting in the out of home space.

For the past 18 months, CBS Outdoor has been working with Time Out to bring London restaurant and theatre reviews to XTP screens throughout the London Underground. Tim Cartwright, head of digital at CBS Outdoor UK, says we can expect to see more of this type of real-time advertising, including user-generated content, in 2013. The McDonald’s Olympics campaign, for example, used the LIVEPOSTER platform to generate and serve user-generated content aggregated via Facebook to eight different digital out of home networks in real-time.

Carolyn Nugent, head of digital OOH at Kinetic, says: “As a consumer, becoming part of the campaign yourself via user-generated copy, sharing photos and experiences to a wider public audience, seems to be gathering momentum as a trend.”

With the trend of user-generated content becoming more ingrained in advertisers’ thinking, is the evolution of digital out of home technology keeping up with the growth of mobile to meet consumer expectations?

Erika Mari, head of outdoor, Arena Media, argues that digital out of home is still quite a way behind in this regard, saying: “Currently smartphone penetration is at over 51 per cent, and a growing number of people are investing in tablets as well. However, compared with other channels, OOH often misses out on influencing consumer behaviour via these technologies.”

Ocean Outdoor marketing director Richard Malton feels digital outdoor is “perfectly attuned” to the always on consumer, saying: “Digital out of home is the smart device of out of home, and campaigns will without doubt converge between large format smart devices (DOOH) and small format smart devices (tablets and phones).”

Davies suggests that out of home shouldn’t be viewed as a media channel, but as “an interconnected, interdependent ecosystem of media, content, technology and experiences.” Davies explains that this incorporates all types of placements as well as posters and networked screens, and that this ‘ecosystem’ offers a huge variety of functions for advertisers.

So with the continued growth and development in the digital out of home sector, can we now say that pixels are replacing old-fashioned paper and paste?

Cartwright says that digital enhances traditional campaigns: “The investment into screen technology has been important for the sector and the UK footprint of digital screens now allow for an increased national presence.

“Traditional poster sites will always play an important part in outdoor advertising with over 30 million people having seen an ad on the outside of a bus in the last week (source TGI), but digital will certainly complement and enhance a poster campaign.”

According to Nugent, digital is “not replacing paper and paste, but enhancing the medium and its breadth.”

“The flexibility and immediacy of digital OOH is attracting new advertisers to the medium, and the investment from media owners means that these sorts of campaigns are now possible in more environments. The outlook for OOH, whether traditional or digital, is looking strong.”

View some of our favourite DOOH campaigns from 2012.

For more on innovative digital out of home and real time marketing visit LIVEPOSTER.

By Katie McQuarter for The Drum

The automobile is one of the last bastions of mobile-free life, but not for long as makers such as Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are now embracing in-car apps to build engagement among consumers, add value to their vehicles and improve the driving experience.

Ford – an early forerunner in smart car technology – has launched a scheme letting developers create new apps, or adapt existing smartphone apps for its SYNC in-car entertainment system, which has already received around 4,000 requests from developers to access.

Ford has been working with partners like USA Today and the Wall Street Journal on voice-activated apps that will provide the latest news to drivers, suggesting that voice control will start appearing in cars soon as the primary interface for hands-free commands.

General Motors has announced a similar scheme, with its first suite of apps likely to debut in 2014. Among the operators involved in the GM initiative are The Weather Channel and music services iHeartRadio, TuneIn and Slacker. GM also recently held a hackathon with 450 developers to generate ideas.

Apple has also announced they are in discussion with car companies including BMW, Land Rover, Toyota, Honda, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, General Motors and Audi, revealing that Siri could be in these companies’ vehicles as early as May 2013.

Siri within automobiles would enable the driver to use all of its features such as “Turn-By-Turn Navigation” via the Maps app, “Make Reservations At Restaurants” via Open Table and texting and calling via an iPhone.

The advent of apps and voice-control suggest a smart new future for the automobile that is starting to be realised. More manufacturers are moving towards cloud-based systems and are looking to transform their vehicles into context-aware devices for receiving and sharing information.

The next step is inevitably non-obtrusive displays and eye tracking commands, creating a more seamless heads up display for the driver.

In 2012 Mercedes announced its vision for the future of driving; The company imagines a windscreen that appears like a digital dashboard with all the usual gauges, and additional hologram-like overlays for displaying information. It will draw in information from its surroundings such as road conditions, your friends are in the area, how many tables are available at the restaurant your passing, then with the flick of an eye you’ve made a reservation and invited a friend to join you.

Major manufacturers with a similar vision to Mercedes (Ford, BMW, General Motors) predict that fully functional augmented reality windscreens are eight to ten years away from reaching the market.

In the mean time, many of these companies are launching their first generation heads up display units, with more basic functionality concentrating on navigation and collision avoidance.