To Omnichannel or Not To Omnichannel…
What’s the question?
by Nick Coston
Ok, I know we’ve been through this a bunch of times, but for those stoner kids sitting in the back row who may not have heard me all this time, I’ve been in OOH for 25 years now. Not a record by any means, but enough time to know my bulletins from a poster, my shelters from a two-sheet, my urban panels from retail media whatever-they’re-called these days.
I’ve given talks, sat in on hundreds of conference sessions, dined with CEO’s, interrupted hundreds of conversations and made fun of a lot of people including myself. Mostly myself. It’s so easy.
But until this past week, I never, ever used the word “omnichannel”. Never. I swear. I didn’t even know what it really meant. It was too big a word for me to even comprehend. When it was used in my presence I felt as if someone was speaking Mandarin to me. I kid you not. Also, I don’t speak Mandarin. Do you?
These past few weeks I’ve noticed an uptick in the usage of this word. It’s really two words made into one you know. That too threw me off. Any who, not to be left behind, again, I entered the unknown world of “Omnichannelism”.
The first thing I did was “google it”. I know what that term means.
Then I decided to have some fun with my enlightened moment in time. I texted exactly 100 of you, all OOH peeps, some I haven’t spoken to in years. Some were CEO’s, both active and retired, two people weren’t even alive anymore. Whoops. Thought that counts. Twenty-five percent were too lazy to answer, I’ll deal with you after school. There were a couple that I know just flat out can’t stand me, but I just had to razz them for the heck of it. Yep, they too stiffed me.
But seventy-five did respond, most between 5:00pm and 6:15pm. Were you people that bored or was it my charming way of interviewing you? Don’t answer that.
“Hey there, I’m doing a survey among my OOH media contacts and here’s the question: without looking it up, off then top of your head, how would you define the term “omnichannel” in relation to our industry?
No cheating…Answers will be shared, without names” (I broke that promise rather quickly).
That was the simple text question. It wasn’t brain surgery. For most.
After the first fifty were texted, someone shot back “who is this?” Guessing my name hadn’t shown up I said proudly “it’s me, Nick Coston”, thinking they would be excited to hear from me.
No reply. No Christmas card for you this year, Bill.
Most replies were intelligent and answered the question that was asked. I learned a lot as no two answers were the same. No answers below were edited or changed.
The first reply?
“It means all channels it means across all media sources or advertising outlets. It means everywhere, ubiquitous”.
Good points, bad grammar. Next up:
“Not sure but off the top of my head I would say ubiquitous”. After two mentions of that word, I looked it up. It means “omnichannel.”
Ok, that part I made up.
My favorite reply’s?
“Hi! It’s when you don’t use one medium-you add social or digital media with billboards to tie one message together. Happy summer!”
She’s hired. Or,
“Haha, you’re asking the wrong person. I literally have no idea! I guess if I heard it in the context of a sentence, I would have a clue. I guess I’m just old school”.
That was from a twenty-plus year OOH vet. A very honest one at that.
And then there were the short, to the point answers,
“More than one media channel”.
“I never liked you”.
“How did you get my number?”
“It’s the dream.”
“Who is this? Must be another random survey”.
“It’s the new integrated marketing plan”. –Tim Rowe, who asked to put his name on it.
“I had no idea you were still alive”.
“Just think how much money we would have made if we had all these tools when we were young”. Young?
“The Cool Kids”. Thanks Rick…
“Hey Nick, always great to hear from you. IMP, omnichannel is activating one channel (ie OOH) with another (ie TV or Meta). What’s the consensus so far? Thanks. And what does Webster’s Dictionary say? While we are at it, could ask people what bi-weekly means?”
The longest answer goes to a certain VP Ad Sales at a large place based digital network: “This is an interesting question as I’ve seen it come up on signature lines for people I’ve met with recently…this is my NO CHEATING response, in the context of a persons title having omnichannel in their title…meaning they work with or alongside several different media channels (or partners) and in my experience often refers to Shopper marketing , or tasked with finding new distribution channels/partners. So curious what your survey finds.”
She then went on to quote ChatGPT and got a rather long response that you’ll just have to research yourself, it’s that long.
“Multi-or all networks and OOH mediums. The whole shebang”. Yea, ok, that’s more my language.
“When OOH in integrated into other media/marketing channels as part of a cohesive strategy. How’s the poll going?”
And my favorite snide answer: “Some people think it is omnichannel if you buy Captivate, Atmosphere and GSTV.”
I’ve heard that.
“Don’t really use the term that or understand it completely” answered a 25-year OOH veteran (not me).
Out of seventy-five responses, no two answers were alike. Not even close.
There was one response that came from a guy I consider one of the brightest people in OOH:
“Omni channel should refer to sales outlets; 1) sales team 2) Resellers. Of which Programmatic is one through am SSP-DSP partner, and 2 through other agents who have access to publisher’s inventory and can “resell” keeping a markup. 3) Automated directly into media buyers’ systems (Media mix models) and strata etc 4)
There was no “4” that followed. I think his wife called him for dinner.
After all this, what does “strata” mean?
Anyone?
“Omni-channel? I’m thinking it means putting money in different buckets. Am I right or wrong? Please tell me I’m right. My jerk boss reads you all the time. He steals all your jokes as his own.”
You just can’t make this stuff up.
