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APN Outdoor greases its digital wheels (and gives Men’s Health a hand) with creative competition

Media companies are continually pushing the strength of their particular medium (or combination of mediums). And one popular way to show off capabilities, get creatives thinking about how to use the medium effectively and line up a few leads is to run a creative competition. NZME has its Advertising Challenge. Adshel ran the Creative Challenge for its charity client Surf Lifesaving NZ. And now APN Outdoor is joining in the fun with Pixel361°, a scheme that invites creative minds to create a digital outdoor campaign to raise awareness of the Men’s Health charity. 

“We are looking for entrants who are willing to look beyond the circle, hence the 361°, and explore the capabilities and opportunities available with digital outdoor assets,” says APN Outdoor’s managing director and Men’s Health chair Phil Clemas. “Here in New Zealand we more than pull our weight on a creative front and we are excited to facilitate a challenge that gets these minds together in the same room, for a great cause.” 

The challenge will kick off on September 14 when entrants will be required to join the APN Outdoor team to attend a live briefing session at The Paddington, St Georges Bay Rd, Parnell. Entrants will have until Sunday, September 20 to create and submit their campaign for Men’s Health using APN Outdoor’s large format digital billboards in Auckland, their airport full motion portrait and landscape screens in Auckland and Christchurch and their two external Spectacular Screens including along George Bolt Dr at Auckland Airport.  

The awards night will be held on the September 24 at Screening Room and Lounge, Level 5, Seafarers Club. A shortlist will be revealed followed by a live pitch for those lucky enough to make the cut. APN Outdoor are encouraging entrants to come prepared as shortlisted teams will not be notified prior and will have minimal prep time on the night itself.

Submissions will be judged by key industry personalities including Colenso’s Nick Garrett, Damon Stapleton from DDB, Richard Thompson from Contagion, Clemas and international guest judge Sanjay Manandhar from Boston-based digital software developer Aerva.

The major prize is tickets for the winning pair to SXSW in Austin, Texas in March 2016. The prize includes travel, accommodation, and $500 spending money, not to mention to $100,000 media value contributed by APN Outdoor to bring the winning campaign to life in 2016. 

Clemas said a few months ago that its digital network has proven very successful. He couldn’t share revenue figures, but he said they represent a significant part of its growth momentum and every cycle across its five screen Auckland CBD network has sold out since launching back in July 2014. Adshel also switched on its digital roadside network a few months ago.

“Demand remains strong because advertisers are getting it. More and more are seeing the benefits of the immediacy and flexibility of digital, the creative possibilities and convergence opportunities with mobile and social channels. We have learnt a lot over the first two years since pioneering digital in New Zealand and we know from client feedback that the premium nature of our screens is also a compelling factor to their ongoing interest and demand … We always knew competitors would enter the fray which is good for the market and for the industry. I can see advertising spend on digital assets in outdoor in New Zealand reaching 12 percent within the next year or so.” 

Outdoor has been on the rise over the past few years and returned to its 2011 Rugby World Cup-inspired peak of $83 million in the 2014 ASA numbers, which equated to 3.5 percent market share. The good news has continued this year, with gross media revenue for the first quarter increasing nine percent on the same time last year to reach $17.2 million. OMANZ has a stated goal of getting to five percent market share of total advertising spend (although it hasn’t put a time frame on that). It was unable to provide data on the overall rise of digital for the sector. But Australia has charted 23 percent year on year growth in out-of-home and, with static inventory flat, that was driven by new revenue coming in from digital.

{% gallery menshealthposter %}This competition marks a change from previous years where the charity has worked with agencies to create its awareness campaign, with last year’s effort by WhybinTBWA gaining a fair bit of attention

Teams of two can register here. Entries will be accepted until September 7. 

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