Outdoor media provider oOh! Media is expanding its experimental marketing offering by partnering with a brand activation company to meet increasing demand for outside-the-box campaigns.

The joint venture will combine oOh!’s experimental division oOh! Factor with Sydney and Melbourne outfit Driving Edge to form oOh! Edge, aiming to provide innovative solutions that integrate billboards with human interaction.

The company hopes bringing together both partners’ expertise and services will allow it to offer a wider variety of campaign options, which will be tailored to a client’s needs from concept stage through to the activation at shopping centres, universities, airports, public spaces and beaches.

It promises end-to-end solutions including the design and building of presentation structures, print signage, and demonstration areas – spruiking anything from new cars and food stuffs to IT products and their applications.

The company confirms print will remain a vital component of its offerings, and campaigns could include printed billboards, banners, leaflets and so on.

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oOh! chief executive Brendon Cook says since becoming the first out-of-home media business in the world to have an experiential marketing team in 2004, there has been a significant increase in demand.

“Both businesses have proven successful in executing great campaigns and by bringing them together we will be able to deliver even larger scale creativity and experience,” he says.

Commercial director of retail sales, Blair Hamilford, says the joint venture allows oOh! to make use of Driving Edge’s set of 10 permanent Connect kiosks in high traffic zones at key Westfield Shopping Centres, that allow brands to offer sampling, demonstrations and create new brand experiences to inspire purchases.

“We now have even more of an opportunity to make an impact on consumers and their path to purchase in the retail environment, delivering unrivalled experiential expertise across many away-from-home platforms,” he says.

“It is an industry first retail activation platform which is extremely well suited to becoming part of oOh!’s retail offer.”

The kiosks are heavily branded with print advertising and have been used by big brands including including P&G, Sony, McCain, Western Digital, Kresta, Nestle, Coles, Medibank and Pepsi.

Hamilford says the two companies have known about each other’s businesses for quite some time and following conversations specifically related to the Connect, it was agreed that a joint venture was the best course of action.

“Driving Edge has built a significant reputation and customer base during its ten years in operation and brings with it great products, processes and people that complement our existing experiential offering and will place us in a stronger position to meet the growing demand for engaging consumer interactions,” he says.

Digital Edge founder Guy Marshall says oOh!’s key market position as the category leader in out-of-home media and specifically its commitment to driving innovation within the category were the main reasons his company got involved.

“The opportunity to provide existing and new clients and agencies with an enhanced experiential offering is very exciting and a key driver in why we came on board,” he says.

Hamilford says all eight Digital Edge staff will be involved in the venture and all operations will be moved to oOh! offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. He says clients are feeling positive.

“We’ve had a great response from clients and a number of concepts are in development,” he says.

oOh! prints with Priority Printing Solutions, Billboard Media, Sumo Visual Group, and Opus subsidiary Cactus Imaging.

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