Rebooting Ireland

Rebooting Ireland: Brands Adapt to Navigate the Out of Home Retail Environment

By Business & Finance
11 May 2020

The Irish and global Out of Home (OOH) environment has been affected by the current Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, brands have had to adapt their strategies to meet the changing landscape of OOH advertising.

Kinetic, the specialists in Out of Home (OOH) communications for brands, have worked with a number of Irish brands to utilise Digital Out of Home (DOOH) in the growing retail environment. These brands include Brennans Bread and KBC Ireland.

A recent campaign launched by KBC aims to remind consumers of safer methods of payment and the fact that they offer free contactless payments to their customers. The campaign planned by PHD and Kinetic ran across several retail formats including Digitowers, Adshel Live, Tesco Live, dPods, Ivisions, Super D, Retail D, Digihubs, and Digishelters targeting retail stores.

Brennans Bread’s latest campaign brings humour to consumers yet holds a perfect relevance to the current circumstances. The creative, developed by JWT Folk, describes truisms we are all experiencing on a daily basis – the DIY haircuts, our new love of gardening, the well walked dogs, and the multitaskers. The campaign, planned by Mindshare and Kinetic, is running across dPods, Digitower, Tesco Live, Adshel live and Ivision screens.

Aoife Hudson, Deputy Managing Director at Kinetic said:

Since March, there have been huge changes in consumer behaviour – and in particular, shopping behaviour. The flexibility of Digital OOH has made it the perfect platform to allow brands to quickly adapt their communications to be fit-for-purpose in the current circumstances.

In mid-March when shopping peaked, Kantar reported that grocery sales increased by 22% on the same time last year. Consumers were inclined to spend more, an average increase of €122 was spent on groceries than in preceding 12 weeks. All supermarket groups reported an increase in sales.

Aoife added:

These figures provide an opportunity for brands to remain present and continue communicating with their audience through the OOH and DOOH platform. That opportunity requires thought on tone and relevance to the current situation. It has been encouraging to see some of our clients do that effectively.

The success of these campaigns prove that, while Covid-19 has certainly caused complications, there are still opportunities within business sectors for adaptation and further development.

To learn more about Rebooting Ireland, see here.