Outfront: A Historic Future for OOH in NYC

The second event was more personalamp160 I received a package from the son of a gentleman who retired from a company called New York Subways Advertising NYSA in the late 3970s that is the late 3970s not his late 70samp160 Rudyard Colter was a Vice President and quotsalesmanquot at NYSA throughout the 3960s and 3970s and he was legendaryamp160 At that time NYSA existed solely to sell the advertising on New York City39s subway station platform and train carsamp160 Rud a gifted writer with a creative mind was in charge of the company39s direct mail campaigns to ad agencies and brand advertisersI joined NYSA in 1981 and sat in front of an electric typewriter outside the Sales Promotion Director39s office to help the team of one promote and market subway advertising to perspective advertisersamp160 The package that landed on my desk this week was Rud39s scrapbook portfolio of his classic direct mail letters along with a note from his son advising me of his dad39s passing several months earlier at the age of 99amp160 The letter also suggested that I as the quotlast linkquot between the past and future of a somewhat continuous subway advertising history should be the keeper of the book this despite the fact that I had only met him once or twiceamp160 I had two concurrent thoughts quotSeriously the last linkquot and quotWhat a treasure trovequotamp160 So I dug into the binder and I can attest that the world has indeed changed amp8230 a lotamp160 But on the other hand there was so much I recognizedamp160Many of the iconic brands of the last century some of which have entirely disappeared were huge subway advertisersamp160 TWA and Pan Am were mainstaysamp160 At one point Procter and Gamble had a dozen or so brands keeping themselves front and center in the minds of New Yorkersamp160 Levy39s Breadamp160 All the New York media packaged goods and airlines were representedamp160 Rud39s quotpitchquot letters expressed familiar themesamp160 Frequency of riding means repeated exposure to brand messagingamp160 Frequency builds familiarity and familiarity is key in the path to purchaseamp160 Woven throughout was the astounding size of daily ridership 5000000 plus All still true todayRud addressed research tooamp160 One of his testaments to the effectiveness of the medium was that since the Ad Council started running quotSmokey Bearquot forest fire copy in subway train cars there had not been a single forest fire in New York Cityamp160 As Rud was fond of saying quotProof positive of the pulling powerquotamp160 I remember the days when we would look at census tract maps to help determine how to target specific demographics we39d overlay a subway map and look at which stations fell within those geographiesamp160 When Shapiro Wines wanted to reach a Jewish population we simply checked the stations that had significant quottoken dropquot declines on Yom Kippuramp160 As late as the mid 3980s the MTA would supply us with token drops by station and we would look for patterns to help tell better audience storiesFast forward 40 or so years and Outfront is on the cusp of delivering a network of 50000 connected screens liveboards informed by a tech stack platform that will make OOH not just smarter but intelligentamp160 Liveboards will be addressable in real time reacting to real audiences that are passing these displays in real lifeamp160 It39s the best of the digital world intersecting with the impact and engagement of the physical world in a place where all New Yorkers convergeamp160 The MTA will benefit from an enhanced aesthetic and customer communication system passengers will be better informed and addressed with relevant and interesting content and messaging and brands will be able to reach target audiences in new ways that will garner attentionThrough Outfront39s deployment the MTA39s facilities and its customers are about to enter a new reality that until now could only live in the imagination of a creative mind like Rud39samp160 The beginning of truly intelligent out of home is upon us and its proper birthplace will be New York CityClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Outfront: A Historic Future for OOH in NYC

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Jodi Senese

First-of-its-Kind Digital Experience Supports Teen Mental Health Through Roblox Gameplay - Ad Council InSites

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