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01 Jun 2022

Phantom Goes Global

By Phantom

No, New Zealand’s billstickers haven’t launched an international subsidiary. Nor have we started pasting up posters in Oslo or Abidjan (yet). But we have been checking out some of the most exciting developments on the world stage.

This May, I have been in Toronto for the World Out of Home Association Annual Congress. This is the first in-person congress since 2019 as the 2020 and 2021 congresses were casualties of the pandemic. 

On the surface, this is a mutual admiration society of the big OOH companies and associations swapping notes on the latest model of corporate jet and working out how to pay the least amount of tax possible through their global subsidiaries. But there are also some diabolically intelligent, collaborative and creative people that can expand your world view. 

I’m here because I want to know what everyone is up to and to ensure our strategies are unique in market, which in turn sparks new ideas. Phantom Billstickers has existed on the fringe for over 40 years. We survive by innovating; we don’t just copy what others are doing. Phantom are the originators and we’ve been doing this since it was illegal, man. Those that follow rarely know how to innovate. 

‘NZ Town’ at the Congress consisted of a contingent from Lumo who are setting a high standard globally for pure play digital outdoor. And of course, I was there flying the Phantom flag for the world’s most innovative street poster company and reinventor of the premium framed street poster. It’s reassuring to see locally owned media leading the way. There were far too many Australians around so the best rugby banter was with the three South Africans at the conference. 

Spreading the word.

It wasn’t all strategising and socialising. I managed to sneak out of the swanky AF hotel and stick up some Phantom Billstickers poetry posters by Janet Frame, Tusiata Avia, Daren Kamali, Tracey Slaughter and Serie Barford. A friendly policeman caught me in the act of putting up a Tracey Slaughter poem outside the Royal Canadian Yacht Club. In a firm but friendly way, he pointed me in the direction of the more acceptable places to post posters in the less sparkly parts of Toronto. 

I used to think to myself, no way I’d want to be putting up posters by the time I’m 40. I’m somewhere north of that number now, and I can tell you there’s nothing I’d rather be doing. There’s still nothing that beats delivering a street-level message that surprises and delights the unsuspecting pedestrian. 

Down to business. 

Back at the Congress, highlights were hearing from US operators Scott Wells (CEO of Clear Channel) and Sean Reilly (CEO of Lamar), who is the grandson of founder Charles W Lamar. Lamar famously acquired the unprofitable Pensacola Posting Company on a coin flip. Had the coin toss gone the other way, Lamar would have ended up with the more profitable (at the time) Pensacola Opera House and the American OOH industry would be very different. Lamar is now one of the most profitable OOH operators in the world. 

Clear Channel and Lamar have huge classic format networks and have realised that, while digital conversion has significant financial upside for the media owner, innovating classic inventory is an important pathway forward for the industry. There are a number of factors that mean some of the best sites will remain classic and a multitude of reasons that will prevent them being converted to digital outdoor. 

The case for classic posters.

Wells convincingly made the case that, just like digital online advertising, OOH can offer targeting, measurable impact, scale, simplicity, flexibility, transparency, accountability and the ability to nurture consumers. This was a refreshing angle that I’ve been banging on about for several years. 

Digital means so much more than the way the display is delivered. It should be harnessed at every stage of the supply chain. Reilly shared the secret sauce of a linear structure across their 200 US offices and a relentless discipline on operational excellence, something dear to us at Phantom. This renewed focus echoed calls from WOO president Tom Goddard at the start of the Congress to not forget classic formats and to continue innovating in this space. 

And it makes sense, given that 63% of spend on outdoor is still classic posters. 

While there is no doubt that digital punches above its weight, the percentage of inventory that has been digitised globally is still relatively small. Instead of shifting spend between digital and classic OOH, the industry can use the strength of digital outdoor to free advertisers from the shackles of digital online models. We can do this by demonstrating the real-world engagement power of the medium. 

What’s measured gets managed.

Calls for unified and cohesive measurement and methodology featured frequently, along with entreaties for companies to collaborate with industry bodies. Perhaps it’s time for the local industry body in Aotearoa to break the hold of the triopoly of multinationals, rewrite their rules to include all formats, and to start collaborating. 

At the moment, this seems like a challenge. You’d have to ask the locally owned operators to cross their fingers and hope that a body that has done nothing to support and grow their segment of the industry – and has even advocated for outlawing operators that don’t fit their mould – will start to act in everybody’s interests. Forgive me if this doesn’t fill me with confidence. 

But let’s look at it positively. Australia’s award-winning CEO of the OMA, Charmaine Moldrich, was impressive in her ambition to unify the industry and create collaboration across the board. Under Moldrich’s expert guidance, a unified Aus-NZ OOH association starts to make sense. 

Where are the Kiwis?

There was plenty of engaging content from some of the globe’s major OOH buyers, and it’s a shame there wasn’t better representation from New Zealand in this space. I’d gladly pitch in to get better representation from NZ media buyers to educate on best practice for OOH purchase. Any takers?

Here were some of the stand-outs for me. Jeff Greenspoon, President of Global Solutions for Dentsu, spoke about accelerating growth for OOH in the digital economy. Keith Kaplan (Kappy), Global CEO of Kinetic, and Jeremy Male, CEO of US outdoor operator Outfront Media, had an engaging fireside chat on how Kinetic has reinvented the outdoor specialist model. It can be best summarised by the following quote from Kappy: “We don’t buy media, we activate audiences.” 

Rohan Tambyrajah, Chief Strategy Officer from PHD, and Adrian Skelton from the world’s largest independent outdoor specialist, Tailon, finished off day one with a presentation about harnessing the six forces of change to build the future of OOH. 

While not repetitive, the presentations from outdoor specialist agencies did echo some common themes about engaging with creative opportunities in OOH, making buying frictionless, and of course, having a unified and cohesive measurement model.  

Party time!

As usual, the social events were a highlight. A formal dinner and awards ceremony was held at the architecturally impressive Museum of Ontario. 

A big winner on the night was the ‘Should have gone to Specsavers’ campaign from Tailon (which was executed by our billsticking mates at Build Hollywood in London). Stunning work that deservedly took out the award for best classic creative campaign. Proof that paste and paper still has loads of relevance in the age of pixels.

There you have it. The WOO’s first congress since 2019 was well worth the trip to Canada. It was great to take a step back and view the progress our industry has made in the last couple of years. And it was reassuring to see that New Zealand’s OOH sector stands comparison with the world’s best – and even beats it in a few areas.

Through the cloud of the pandemic there has been a lot of innovation, and there remains optimism for a sector that was hit pretty bloody hard by the lockdown era. 

If anyone wants more information about the topics discussed above I’ll happily spill the beans in exchange for coffee. 

-Rob

19 May 2022

There’s a Tiger on the prowl. Watch out!

By Phantom

Tigers!

Tigers with lasers!

Tigers are cool. Tiger Crystal Ultra Low Carb is also extremely cool, especially when you crack one straight from the fridge.

A brand like this deserves a thrilling poster campaign, so Phantom Billstickers worked with DB and Dentsu to deliver one.

It’s up now at our prime Symonds Street site in Auckland.

It involves lasers.

Create a sensation with a laser activation

We’ve installed lasers to help Tiger’s powerful creative shine even brighter in the city night. It’s our first ever laser activation campaign, and it’s hard to miss.

Our lasers are there to light up the Tiger brand and draw attention to their posters at night. Check out the light show on Symonds Street if you’re curious.

And let us know if you’d like something equally ferocious to grab your customers’ attention.

16 May 2022

Being ‘net carbon zero certified’ is a good place to start

By Phantom

Last year we put up our hands to be audited by Toitū Envirocare.

The results are now in. Phantom Billstickers is officially ‘net carbon zero certified.’

Now, this doesn’t mean our operations have been decarbonised – far from it. It simply means we’ve submitted every aspect of our business to independent scrutiny and then taken concrete steps to offset emissions. For example, our carbon emissions identified in the Toitū audit have been offset against the Amayo Phase II wind power project in Nicaragua.

Going forward, we’ll continue to offset our emissions against other International Fairtrade Gold Standard projects approved by Toitū.

The time for greenwashing is over

When Phantom started out 40 years ago, the street poster industry was pretty much organic by default. Cheap paper, printers’ ink and flour-and-water glue were our key inputs.

Times have changed. There are transport emissions, solvents, paper usage and a tonne of organisational inputs to be calculated. It’s hard to measure their extent, let alone their impact. So we turned to the experts. 

Enter Toitū.

They ruthlessly analysed every aspect of our operations, right down to requesting logs of all our Uber rides. The result is a carbon audit with a high degree of scientific certainty. This will inform our strategies while we use their science-based tools to drive emissions down, year on year.

You can check Phantom’s carbon emissions on Toitū – it’s a matter of public record. Hold us to account as we move towards our ultimate goal of being carbon positive over the coming months and years.

And hold the rest of the OOH sector to account, too. 

Want to find out more about Phantom’s net carbon zero journey? Check out the programme we’ve signed up for. Or give us a call.

06 May 2022

40 years with glue in our hair

By Phantom
source: canterburystories.nz/collections/archives/music-posters

Phantom started sticking posters to walls way back in 1982.

That’s an awful lot of gluey buckets, flyaway paper and 4am starts.

It’s been one helluva ride. So what have we learned along the way – and what’s in it for property owners and managers?

Lesson 1: Make the business a win/win proposition

Back in the early 80s, the poster business operated under Wild West conditions. Councils, landlords and the law barely tolerated our efforts. Rival crews spent half the night covering the posters others had pasted up earlier.

This was not a sustainable business model.

At Phantom, we could see a much better way of operating. It involved making sure all the stakeholders had something to gain.

Property owners could gain revenue.

Advertisers could benefit from a higher level of quality and accountability.

Municipal authorities could gain an attractive and well-regulated streetscape. 

So we started paying property owners for the space on their walls, giving them a brand-new revenue stream. Phantom then took responsibility for maintaining their sites, providing frames, cleaning up after taggers, and even installing upgrades such as lighting.

At the same time, we needed to persuade Councils to stop treating posters as an affront to civic tidiness. So we worked with them to modernise bylaws and create legally permitted street poster sites. This was the key to turning sterile and depressing streetscapes into a constantly-changing display of creativity.

It may sound obvious now but it was a big deal at the time. No one else was offering to pay property owners and doing the hard yards with municipal rule-makers.

In fact, Phantom Billstickers has been a global pioneer in transforming street posters into a reputable arm of the marketing business. 

Even today, few countries can boast a poster network with the nationwide scale, professionalism and quality of ours.

Lesson 2: Don’t rest on your laurels

Sticking a message on a wall may be one of the world’s oldest forms of advertising. 

But we realised we needed to keep evolving.

Clients weren’t going to commit serious money unless they could be sure their posters would look great. So Phantom partnered with suppliers to ensure our posters were beautifully printed and wrinkle-free – and didn’t fall off the wall in New Zealand’s rainy climate.

Advertisers and media planners also needed certainty. They wouldn’t commit to street posters unless we could prove their brand campaigns had appeared in the frames they’d booked, for the entire period they were paying for. 

Our response was a unique app, called Pasted, It captures every Phantom poster when it goes up and sends time-stamped, photographic proof to the client.

Phantom has also created some smart planning tools that give marketers the ability to target sites near their key stockists, so they can drive sales from people who are on a mission to shop.

It’s about adding value to poster sites – and making sure those marketing budgets continue to reach our site owners.

Lesson 3: Never lose your connection with the street

You’ve seen how the street poster business has changed out of sight over four decades.

But it’s just as important to remember that the fundamentals have never changed.

Phantom got into this business to help support the creative arts in this country. Selling tickets for bands, promoting music, providing a space for artists and anyone else with a vision they want to place before the public.

It’s a business but it’s also a passion. And the great thing is – it’s sustainable. 

By providing certainty for our partners, we can continue to fund ‘flora for the concrete jungle.’ It all starts on the street.

So what’s next?

2022 is our 40th birthday so we have some celebrations in the works

A book is being published. There will be festivities. And giveaways.

We’d like to share the good times with you, so keep an eye on your inbox and make sure you follow our socials.

Phantom on Instagram.

Phantom’s Facebook page.

07 Apr 2022

This is rough

By Phantom

Poetry written by those living on the street

At Phantom Billstickers, we’ve been pasting poems in public almost as long as we’ve been printing posters.

But we’ve never taken part in a launch like this before.

‘Rough Lives Speak’ is a new poetry anthology from a group who face more obstacles than most. People living rough on the streets of Auckland often have amazing stories to tell. However, they aren’t the sort of voices that usually get an audience.

That’s about to change. A Street Poets’ Collective called SPACE has been working with Auckland Libraries and Auckland City Mission over the past few years to run poetry workshops. This project has led to a book – Rough Lives Speak.

And now some of the poems from that book are appearing in Phantom frames around central Auckland.

Daren Kamali is helping bring the project to life. We asked him to fill us in on the story to date.

Daren, what’s behind the idea of poetry from rough sleepers?

“I’ve always had a dream to form a Street Poets Collective as I started busking in Auckland’s CBD doing street poetry during late 90s. The SPACE concept arose again when I started working at Central Library and noticed the library was rough sleeper-friendly. So I took this as an opportunity to give them a voice through poetry, and formed SPACE. 

“Apart from published material, most of the work such as photos, unpublished poems, videos and ephemera, will be deposited in special collections at Central Auckland Library.”

How is the project run?

“It’s an Auckland Libraries, Auckland City Mission and Connected Communities collaboration. SPACE started running poetry workshops and gathering at the City Mission in March 2021, and ran 21 weeks of writing and conversations before lockdown in August 2021. From these meetings we are creating an anthology that we’re planning to launch in June 2022. As of early February 2022, SPACE meetings and workshops have been held at St Matthew’s Church on the corner of Wellesley and Hobson Street in the city.”

Why poetry on posters, and why work with Phantom Billstickers?

“We wanted to work with Phantom as they publish poems publicly and in various locations in the CBD. That’s the primary focus of this collective – to get their words and voices to the public. And what a great idea for walking traffic to stop and read a poem or two from the streets.”

Any feedback so far?

“We’ve had articles, videos, word of mouth covered by the media and the general public, with amazing support from Auckland Council and Connected Communities in the sourcing and funding of the SPACE initiative.

“SPACE poets and artists cannot wait to see their work published and launched. We also have a bunch of readers who are eagerly awaiting the launch of the anthology ‘Rough Lives Speak.’”

Got an arts project, a concert or a cultural event that needs exposure? Call 0800 PHANTOM or email anton@0800phantom.co.nz to find out how Phantom can amplify your voice.

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