MANILA, PHILIPPINES – In what is constantly being referred to as the “Age of Content”, more and more advertisers are shifting their focus to content creation and zooming in on social media and web as their primary channels in reaching their audiences. Although content’s growing importance is undeniable, it is without question that the medium of its execution is equally as important – an element of advertising that has seemingly been reduced to a mere afterthought.
We got the chance to sit down with the leaders of Game Plan Marketing Solutions Inc. (GPMSI), a local Out-Of-Home (OOH) advertising provider that specializes in non-traditional, small format, out-of-the-box executions; and AD Nagata, one of Japan’s biggest OOH companies with over 30,000 clients and 73 offices within Japan alone, also sitting on the number one spot in terms of market share, according to Teikoku Databank, Ltd. 2018. adobo magazine discusses with them the relevance of out-of-home and how they plan to transform the advertising landscape in the Philippines through a grand business venture – GP-Nagata.
GP-Nagata is AD Nagata’s first operation in the Philippines, which AD Nagata President Ichiro Nagata shared to be founded on the vision of developing and beautifying areas outside Metro Manila with stunning out-of-home advertising that goes beyond the usual LED billboards and looped digital posters.
Out-of-home, although remains to be one of the most ever-present channels of advertising (especially in the Philippines where traffic is rampant), is also usually subject to underestimation and belittlement in this age of content. The rise of ultra-targeted marketing has also added to this misconception, as OOH is also largely associated with mass communications and therefore, “less targeted”. Mark Bernal, President of GP-Nagata, and Peter Antolin, General Manager of GP-Nagata shared their thoughts on this by expanding the possibility of exploring other OOH mediums to communicate a focused message.
Brands targeted to children can tap waiting sheds in front of public schools, a tourist destination can utilize idle hotel television sets, and maybe even surfboard rentals can deck out a surf board to attract potential customers – these are just some of the examples Bernal and Antolin gave in emphasizing OOH’s evolving role in modern day advertising.
“Digital is a form of OOH. OOH could be waiting sheds in public schools, your cellphone, a TV or a refrigerator in your hotel room, the ‘for rent’ surf board in La Union. There are different forms. We need to remove the idea that OOH is “billboard”.
This partnership sets a lofty goal: to make GP-Nagata number one in the Philippines. In order to achieve this, it intends to provide unparalleled creative inputs, strategic support, and technical know-how to attain industry-leading execution quality of billboards, large and small format advertising, and further increase GPMSI’s dominance in public market executions, as well as other community-based endeavors. And as a total solutions company, it also recognizes and aims to serve clients’ needs for digital advertising.
