Outdoor Ad Industry’s Pitch: Real People See Billboards

The outdoor advertising industry on Monday is rolling out a new campaign meant to capitalize on marketers’ growing fears about whether the digital ads they buy are being viewed by real people.

Brands have been pouring dollars into online marketing, but are worried about ads that can be buried in corners of websites that aren’t viewable, and about computerized “bots” that goose traffic results artificially without any humans seeing ads.

The new campaign from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, dubbed “Feel the Real,” makes the pitch that out-of-home ad platforms like billboards and transit shelters don’t suffer those problems.

The campaign, launched to coincide with the start of Advertising Week, includes billboards that tout “This ad is real,” rail posters that say, “You are consuming an advertisement. You are real,” and signs on telephone kiosks that ask, “Media planners, do you have a reality problem?” In total, the campaign will feature more than 1,600 outdoor displays.

Some signs close to media agencies will call out the agency’s name or its executives. A billboard outside of Ogilvy & Mather’s New York office, for example, will say, “Hey, Shelly, does this ad feel real to you?” in reference to the agency’s chairman emeritus Shelly Lazarus. The media space for the campaign is worth more than $2 million and was donated by OAAA’s out-of-home media member companies, the organization said.

“In a world where digital and its ability to deliver what it promises is under significant scrutiny, out-of-home has a unique and compelling point of view that having one foot grounded in the real world matters,” said Matt Dowshen, president of PNYC, the agency behind the “Feel the Real” campaign.

It’s the first time the industry trade group is addressing issues such as ad viewability and ad fraud head on, said OAAA Chief Executive Nancy Fletcher. The ultimate goal, of course, is to encourage advertisers to ramp up their spending on outdoor displays.

“We really look at out-of-home as being a perfect complement to digital and that together both campaigns are stronger,” Ms. Fletcher said.