DOOH Campaign Races to Protect Endangered Elephants

NEW YORK, NY – A DOOH campaign featuring a herd of digitally-generated 3D elephants is preparing to march across the world to raise awareness and end the slaughter of endangered animals in Africa. March for Giants, a four-day campaign will span three continents starting in Hong Kong on March 23, progressing to New York, then London on March 24, then reaches Birmingham the following day and ends in Manchester on March 26. The campaign supports the work of the conservation organization, Space for Giants.

The DOOH campaign, developed by Ocean Outdoor and created by 18 Feet & Rising, enables companies and individuals to generate their own branded adult and baby elephants to join the herd as it marches in real time. Corporate donors can create their own elephants decorated with their logo and brand colors for £5,000, the amount it costs to protect an elephant for life in the wild in Africa.

Individuals can name a baby elephant for £5, or sign up for a £5-a-month year-long donation, which protects an elephant for one year. Corporate donors that have already signed up to the March include National Express, Givergy, Made by Riley, The Delta Group, Westfield, Chantecialle, BCD Travel and First Avenue.

Despite a new court settlement that allows billboard company GEFT Outdoor LLC to operate two digital billboards in Indianapolis, the ruling doesn’t appear to open the floodgates to others hoping for the same outcome.

City officials say GEFT had a unique case that wouldn’t apply to the several other billboard companies that have been hoping to get past the city’s ban on digital billboards.

“The court’s order turns on state-law claims reviewing specific variance denials and has no effect beyond the specific signs at issue,” said Donald Morgan, the city’s chief litigation counsel.

The agreement between GEFT and the city, which will allow the company to convert two traditional billboards near Interstate 70 into digital signs, ends a legal fight between them that began in October 2015 when GEFT sued the city over its sign ordinance, claiming it to be unconstitutional. Judge Sarah Evans Barker issued an order stipulating terms of the settlement Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.

The city amended its sign ordinance in November 2015 to bring it into compliance. Digital billboards are still banned.

“They sued under the old ordinance,” said Republican Council member Jeff Miller. “This does not invalidate our ordinance. No one else can sue and [get a digital] billboard for the same reasons. That was a big relief to me.”

The Department of Metropolitan Development is in the process of updating the sign ordinance. It is currently gathering feedback from Marion County residents.

“This was a narrowly focused victory [for GEFT],” Miller said. “But it still raises the question to some residents about how it impacts the ongoing discussions with the sign ordinance.”

Miller said he expects the sign ordinance to come through the City-County Council for approval sometime this year.

Austin, TX – Eight sections deep in the city’s vast 1,100-plus-page draft rewrite of its land use rules sits a footnote that portends a possible legal challenge to come.

But, as an example of just how far-reaching CodeNext is, the warning deals not with sort of buildings Austin might allow, but the types of signs that could be placed on or near them.

In the newest Nielsen OOH research study, more than half of US adults 18+ report they have noticed a poster billboard in the last month. Given today’s highly competitive and fragmented media environment, another important finding is most respondents agree poster ads stand out more than other media, including online, mobile devices, radio, and newspaper advertising.

The study found 94 percent of those who noticed a poster in the last month looked at the advertising message, and more than half were highly engaged with the ad. Nearly 90 percent recalled seeing advertising, and 47 percent recalled seeing a specific ad. Millennials were most likely to notice posters, with highest viewership (71%) among 25-34-year-olds, while 65 percent of adults 18-44 report noticing posters.
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