MxMIndia

Tag: Mauricio Sabogal

  • Out-of-home major Kinetic Worldwide is not content to be just a market leader, says Global CEO Mauricio Sabogal

    OOH is moving to the centre of media planning!

     

    Just as many digital agencies are becoming full-service to cater to specific categories, Kinetic Worldwide Global CEO Mauricio Sabogal believes a leader in the Out-of-Home (OOH) space, like his organisation, must also go beyond the brief to grow its business. Especially when it comes to high-potential customers in the luxury, travel and banking sectors.

     

    Even before you took charge at Kinetic, you headed BPN at IPG Mediabrands and are hence familiar with the Indian market. How do you find we’ve changed over the years?

    It is fantastic how it’s evolved. India is a challenging market in the developing world, and you can see how technology has changed the way the country interacts with the rest of the world. When you come to India, you see a kind of energy, you see people presenting new ideas, new possibilities to create different capabilities for our business. I think that’s a big evolution in the country.

     

    In terms of the out-of-home business, while there is talk about how it is gaining ground, the GroupM report says it is just 5.8 per cent of mediaspends. Isn’t that too little for a large organisation like yours to be playing with?

    First, I have to say that Kinetic is the largest OOH buyer worldwide, so for us it’s a meaningful number. However, yes, you are right. The number is still small but it all depends on how it is interpreted. If you talk about static OOH, perhaps that’s the number. But when you define the scope of OOH according to what is reaching people on the go, that’s different because it involves mobile investment, social media, digital OOH and even interaction with other media because OOH is today becoming the centre of media planning.

     

    So which means that obviously Kinetic will be doing a lot of what other WPP group agencies are engaged in with on-the-go advertising?

    We are trendsetters, so I think all agencies are moving towards what we are doing. We were the first to propose that OOH is moving to the centre of media planning; we deal with partnerships that allow us to interact static billboards with mobile phones.. . Our competitors are following us and I am glad to hear about that because that’s what we have to do in the industry in order to grow it and position out-of-home really as moving to the centre of the media planner.

     

    But some of these competitors are possibly within the group itself, and doing similar things…

    I do not think we have a competitor within the group. We have an agency that complements the job we do. Or we complement their job, because they are bigger than us and we provide services to them. However, it all depends on how you approach your own business. There is a possibility of some media OOH specialists trying to create different work, to amplify OOH offerings.

     

    You mentioned that mediaspends are going to now revolve around the entire OOH business, and we’ve seen digital agencies becoming full-service in recent years. Do you see Kinetic becoming a full-service agency too?

    For some categories, yes, like digital agencies becoming full-service agencies for specific categories. Categories like travel and banking are high-potential categories for us to sell a full service because they are focusing on OOH and people on the go. Most luxury, travel and banking clients are on the go, so those categories are becoming attractive for us to manage in a full-service way. It doesn’t mean we will replace the work big media agencies are doing, but for certain categories, yes, that’s the idea.

     

    So the creative and media buying will be done by Kinetic, as against existing creative and media agencies?

    Sometimes, yes. Creativity comes from different services, and we also propose to provide services for all markets, which includes really good creativity, since we have that capability at the moment in India

     

    Kinetic has been there in India for a while, and you now have a new India head. What are your plans for India, and your targets for him?

    There are very big targets. Suresh is a very well-known professional in India. I know him from my previous job too, so we have worked together before. I know how aggressive he is in the market or how good he is in growing the business. There is no better person to lead the evolution of Kinetic than Suresh, and I am confident that he will achieve all the big targets we have for him.

     

    There is a sentiment that in the OOH business, that there is no yardstick to measure the efficacy of advertising etc, and expectations from a large network like Kinetic, which is a part of the WPP group, is that it will invest more on measurement systems and such. So what are you doing towards that?

    We are doing a lot. We are testing different methodologies, investing in data, research and analytics. We are even testing satellite technologies to measure audiences, partnering with telephone companies to get data to measure all this etc. The issue is agreement with the industry. We cannot continue having 10 different ways to measure OOH. We have to get the best information and agree on a methodology like in any other medium that will professionalise our industry and make advertisers invest with more confident.

     

    Professionalise?

    The more data we have, and the better the understanding of our currency, enables more professional dialogue between advertisers, agencies and media vendors.

     

    People say the OOH business is disorganised and there is some corruption. Do you agree, and how would you improve the situation and change this perception?

    It’s a perception and it depends on the different companies and their ways to manage regional products. At Kinetic, we follow compliance strictly… none of the companies are as strict about following compliance protocols.

     

    This interview first appeared in dna of brands on April 18, 2016

     

  • Major advancement for campaign optimization andvaluing OOH's ROI

    Kinetic unveils new analytic function ‘SAS’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Kinetic Worldwide  announced the launch of ‘Social Amplification Score’ (SAS) powered by FUEL Intelligence, an analytics and technology specialist. A first of its kind measurement tool it allows brands to attribute consumer’s social media interactions directly to an out of home media spend.

     

    Formed by a ground-breaking set of propriety algorithms and software, SAS analyzes social media data across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr – identifying which social post are directly attributable to OOH campaigns. Through SAS an OOH campaign’s earned social media reach and awareness is now quantifiable — a major advancement in valuing OOH campaign performance and applying an omnichannel approach to OOH.

     

    “This tool was developed in response to a real need we identified from our clients and account services teams,” says Paula Fernandez, Kinetic’s Global Head of Data, Tools, and Analytics. “We saw some of our campaigns generating an incredible response on social media, earning huge numbers of additional impressions.  We were being asked how to value this amplification, but no tool existed to do so—so we built one—so we partnered with FUEL Intelligence to build one.”

     

    FUEL Intelligence CEO Marc Maley commented, “We are delighted to have aligned our services with Kinetic’sto deliver an innovative OOH measurement product that bridges the physical and digital worlds.”

     

    Previous attempts to measure the social impact of OOH required the use of campaign-specific hashtags—an approach that failed to capture the majority of social sharing.  In a significant advancement, SAS canbe utilized without the need of any hashtag or additional audience action.The toolalso evaluates the “opportunity to see” on social, an analysis of posters’ followers, creating a more robustcapture of OOH impressions on social than ever previously possible.  “By providing a more comprehensive picture of the reach of OOH campaigns, SAS enables marketers to better understand the impact of their campaign spend.,”notes David Krupp, CEO of Kinetic North America.  “It’s a major advance in evaluating OOH campaign ROI.”

     

    SAS data provides valuable campaign optimization opportunities by delivering a wealth of insight into which creative, media sites, and formatsare sparking the most social activity.  With aggregated and anonymized data on each social poster’s demographics and interests; SAS is avital campaign optimization tool.

     

    “I see SAS as one piece of a larger puzzle Kinetic is solving,” says Mauricio Sabogal, Kinetic’s Global CEO.  “We want to understand and measure how all the media that reach moving audiences interact, so we can leverage those synergies to create more effective campaigns.  This is a big step forward towards that goal.”

     

  • Mauricio Sabogal, Global CEO, Kinetic Worldwide on how Out-of-Home advertising is becoming the centre of media planning

    ‘Social media is the right partner for OOH’

     

    Digital has led to the explosion of Out-of-Home advertising in recent times. At the Outdoor Advertising Convention 2015 held last week, Mauricio Sabogal, Global CEO, Kinetic Worldwide, highlighted some  key trends in OOH and tells MxMIndia why this format works best in conjunction with other media.

     

    From a global perspective, how has OOH been doing?

    Out-of-home (OOH) has been growing a lot in the last five years, especially because of the explosion of digital out-of-home. Luckily, digital OOH is not coming out of the static OOH, so that means we are expanding the offer as a platform. While digital is eating in the budgets of traditional media, like television or print, OOH is becoming a real complement for digital advertising. We believe OOH is playing a central role in media planning, helping to activate and amplify measures through digital assets.

     

    India seems to be doing fairly well in OOH…

    I think because of geography, the difficulty in advertising and the penetration of other mediums in rural areas and small towns. OOH provides a real value for advertisers in this kind of environment. It is indeed difficult for the advertising industry to access the entire population. So in those environments, OOH works well.

     

    What trends do you see in OOH in India vis-à-vis the rest of the world?

    The biggest challenge in India is fragmentation. It’s the complexity in the markets, in terms of how to approach the population, and it’s a very complex market in terms of OOH as well. However, that challenge gives us the possibility to offer more value to our clients because of the need of an agency to integrate all the assets around, and create value for the business within the complexity. I see really good growth in India, especially because digital OOH is just starting, so in the coming years we can expect to see trends that we see in other markets.

     

    There’s so much competition between mediums. A person travelling in a car has his/her mobile phone, tablet, perhaps even laptop on, and might miss the billboard s/he passes. So how can one grab attention with an OOH ad?

    If you employ creative measures, you’ll get the attention. When you have competing screens, the advantage we have is the connection that OOH has with a mobile phone. The more interaction we offer with the mobile phone, the easier for the consumer to assimilate the measures and be engaged by the creativity in OOH.

     

    So is it one or the other, or it is necessary for mediums to complement each other for a brand to effectively pass on its message?

    OOH is becoming the centre of media planning. It’s the least fragmented, and offers the possibility to reach people in an easy way – particularly since mobile penetration is not yet that good, with [the reach of] smartphones beginning to expand. Also, OOH can be activated by the digital asset by default, especially through a partnership with social media which allows us to amplify the measures.

     

    While the number of smartphones in India may be large, the usage is still at a nascent stage…

    Not necessarily. OOH works depending on the situation. And in countries like India, the value that OOH offers in different towns and cities, is exactly how it is happening by country as well, depending on its development. In Korea, like in Singapore or the UK, the use and value of OOH is totally different, and the interaction that OOH allows is also totally different. That’s why specialised agencies matter; they understand the consumer and the local conditions and create the right plan for the right geography and culture. So no matter the difference in terms of development or technology, agencies are the ones provide the role that OOH plays in different spectrums.

     

    Among your clients, how do they look at OOH versus other media?

    I don’t think clients prefer mediums. It’s strategic planning matters that matters, and it depends on the conditions, the measures that need to be transmitted, the objective of the communication towards different mediums etc. When you are doing strategic planning, you are no longer rethinking in specific media; you are thinking of strategies to reach and engage the consumer. I’m not saying that the client prefers one or the other, I’m saying there are campaigns where OOH matters or where OOH is used in a better way than others. As I said earlier, creativity matters. Sometimes what is important is how creative the message is, and how we’re going to transmit that message depending on the medium and the amplification required.

     

    So would you say that OOH is stealing budgets from other media?

    At this point, I don’t see that. We are not stealing budgets from traditional media. When you see the trends, digital is taking most of the budget. However, the connection between digital and OOH is allowing us to take those budgets and put them into our sector. I believe the expansion of OOH is going to come from traditional media rather than digital, or more from expansion of our sector.

     

    Are the spends on OOH in India in line with elsewhere in the world?

    When you see advertisement invest by country, out of 100 per cent, about five to seven is on OOH, and that’s not different in India. The distribution of advertising shows that OOH represents between four and five per cent in India — a little less than in developed countries. What I hope is in the coming years, digital OOH helps us increase that percentage in the advertising expenditure.

     

    There is no definite way to determine how many eyeballs a particular OOH ad has grabbed. Do you think the lack of measurement parameters is a downer for the sector?

    Measurement has been very difficult for OOH. First, because it’s expensive and second, because of fragmentation. It’s difficult to put all the vendors together to create a trustworthy index. However, with the data available from cellphones and social media, we are using different methodologies to allow us to find the real impact of OOH and compare that with what digital is producing. Digital has a lot of data to track and measure effectiveness. So we are looking at the same data for how to measure OOH. The advantage is that once we are connected with social media, we can measure the effectiveness through social media data.

     

    Are you saying there ought to be some synchronisation between OOH and other forms?

    Totally. Social media, for me, is the right partner for OOH. While the latter provides the creativity, the idea, execution and amplification comes from social media. We have plenty of cases to show that OOH in combination with social media provides fantastic results.

     

    With OOH being essentially a one-way medium, how do you make sure your ads will help lead to sales?

    I disagree that it is one-way. It is changing, and today, with interaction with the mobile phone, OOH is becoming a two-way communication tool. Secondly, the value that OOH provides has different models. We are using econometrics to measure RoI and effectiveness in OOH. In fact, one of our companies is creating dynamic placing based on econometric modelling to allow us to place the advertising based on what the model suggests, and be more efficient and measure RoI for advertisers.

     

    Lastly, what trends do you forecast for OOH?

    The key trend is that OOH is moving towards the centre of media planning, while TV is moving out. I believe that OOH is the least fragmented, and giving us an advantage over digital, because in most countries, mobile penetration is poor. Also, the connection between the mobile phone and OOH creates a certainty for advertisers to reach people on-the-go.