“Often we find that time, budget and other constraints hamper the effectiveness of the outdoor leg of advertising campaigns. In the past, we have conducted creative workshops for advertising campaigns grappling with out of home,” said Nuno dos Santos, Continental Outdoor Media creative manager.

He added that “an agency can solve its outdoor campaign challenges” by consulting major out of home companies who have the expertise to set campaigns apart in particular areas using different outdoor mediums.

Continental Outdoor Media has consulted to clients such as BMW, Chicken Licken and Magnum in ensuring that the companies’ outdoor advertising campaigns drive business and growth.

“We draw some of our inspiration from extremely effective and memorable overseas outdoor campaigns,” said Dos Santos. He cited the example of the outdoor campaign executed for The Economist magazine: A large lightbulb in the centre of a red billboard was lit up each time a person walked past it. So everyone who walked past it experienced a literal ‘lightbulb’ moment.

With the advancement of outdoor technologies, a specialist understanding of the implementation and limitations of new technologies requires the expertise of dedicated outdoor advertising creative experts.

The outdoor advertising structure, whatever size and however well-placed, is merely the facilitator, or canvas, for advertising messages and communication.

“As John Farquhar said, ‘The strength of outdoor is the space it allows for the design idea and the way it dominates the landscape. The weakness, if one can call it that is that the creative idea must crystallise the core idea of the brand in one simple design that can be grasped at a glance.’ To achieve this takes real talent."

Continental Outdoor Media offers brainstorm sessions and invites creative to join them.