MANILA, MAY 22, 2013 – The time-based and interactive characters of Digital Out-Of-Home (DOOH) were on display Sunday night when the LED screens on EDSA – known as gantries – flashed the face of Barangay Ginebra coach Al Francis Chua as an ad.
Arranged by friends and fans of the coach, whose team was swept in the PBA finals that night by the Alaska Aces, the ad thanked Chua for the fight he put up during the championships, and vowed that the vaunted Barangay would return next conference.
According to Darmo Castillo, President and GM of HDI, which manages the gantry LED displays jointly with fellow OOH advertising operator United Neon, the placement was an opportune one.
"We’ve long been wanting to display how DOOH can be used by advertisers as a time-based medium that lends itself naturally to mobile interaction," said Castillo.
According to him, the post-game greeting – which went up within seconds of the final buzzer – did just that.
"That ad showed just how versatile DOOH is: we were able to display a topically relevant ad, right at the time it was top of mind among the audience," he adds.
Moreover, the placement also inspired many of the team’s fans to take to Twitter, many of whom tweeted their support – and photos of the LED displays – using #BabalikAngBarangay, the hashtag provided in the ad.
And what if Ginebra won? Castillo acknowledges that a happier message was on queue as well.
Words Bing Kimpo
Kimpo is the founding director of the Outdoor Media Advocacy Group, which is composed of out-of-home media industry operators aiming to reform the outdoor advertising industry and champion OOH as a vehicle for public service. He is the chief executive officer of consultancy Bing Kimpo Media | Communications, servicing clients in the Philippines and abroad. Follow him on Twitter @bingkimpo.
