Five questions with Kinetic WW’s UK CEO, Alistair MacCallum

The UK CEO of WPP’s specialist OOH agency reflects on how this year’s lockdown has differed from March 2020, the wider impact of Publicis’ split from Posterscope, and why the media industry needs to embrace neurodiversity

Hi Ali – how are you feeling about 2021 so far? How has the January 2021 lockdown differed from that of March 2020 for out of home (OOH)?

I think it’s fair to say that the start of 2021 feels a little bit like we are still stuck in 2020. The latest lockdown and uncertainty as to when it will end has been a setback, though we always anticipated a slow Q1 as Covid continued to impact on our lives.

We are still confident that we and our client partners are well placed to act quickly to capitalise on the huge market opportunity when we start to move away from this phase, and people start to be able to experience real life again. Current industry forecasts from AA/WARC align with our thinking that OOH’s growth year-on-year (yoy) will be significant in 2021 despite the bumpy start.

The impact on client business has been less pronounced than during the first lockdown. The industry now has robust device-level audience data that is helping us to demonstrate that certain formats are still delivering strong audiences.

Millions of people are not able to work from home and are still travelling to work each day, 30% of kids are still in school, and supermarkets and click-and-collect stores are still delivering POS opportunities. Audiences also remain strong in local communities as those at home are desperate to escape the drudgery for a while each day.

What impact will the Publicis split from Posterscope have on the industry and OOH specialist agencies?

The Publicis decision has been mooted for some time which, whilst a brave move given the current market, demonstrates that they have seen the future long-term growth potential for OOH as a channel. It is too early to speculate what additional impact this will have on the industry.

When you were brought on as CEO, you were tasked with leading a push towards digital – digital screens, smartphones, data and programmatic. Why is digital transformation so important to OOH and Kinetic? Does the introduction of DOOH, programmatic OOH, double screening and more over-complicate an already complex sector for clients?

I’m still as excited about the future of the industry as when I joined in 2019, despite the current challenges. Arguably OOH was the last broadcast media to go through real transformation. The pandemic has actually accelerated the adoption of technology, data and new routes to market which have helped to make OOH an ever smarter, faster, adaptive, and more innovative channel.

The use of data in OOH is enabling us to create more exciting solutions and better optimised advertising experiences for audiences. Automation is helping to make OOH easier to plan and buy with immediacy, a real necessity in times of turbulence.

This growing agility of OOH will be a key aspect of the sector’s recovery this year as more and more brands will want to reconnect with their audience once lockdown restrictions have been lifted. And all the investment on the buy and sell side into infrastructure is creating ever more opportunities to inclusively reach large numbers of people in a space that is public, trusted and brand safe.

As market leader, Kinetic is constantly looking to lead this transformation to grow the whole industry, not simply our own business, but also to attract fresh and more diverse skill sets to a really exciting sector.

You’re a trustee for Ambitious about Autism – why is that particular charity important to you, and is the industry doing enough to welcome neurodiverse talent?

I have very personal experience of the challenges that young people with autism can face. When at mSIX I was lucky to be introduced to the charity, which is a long-standing partner of The & Partnership and Talk Talk. We worked on an Employ Autism initiative to offer long term work placements to three autistic young adults.

Not only did it create real opportunities for the interns but demonstrated the value of diversity of thinking and mind to the business, and the teams that worked with them. I believe it also really helped in terms of dismantling perceptions and building understanding around the potential benefits of a more neurodiverse workforce (and one that is therefore more reflective of society).

All of the interns landed permanent roles across Group M after the programme.

I think a lot of positive steps have been taken across the industry to welcome neurodiverse talent, but I still think understanding and appreciation of the potential within people with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, etc. is still way too low. We are therefore missing out on large swathes of future talent that can help create better solutions to ever more complex challenges.

I wanted to continue to do more. Becoming a trustee of a charity that runs an educational trust, as well as its work to make the ordinary possible for more amazing young people, has been a great experience from both a personal and professional development perspective.

How do you think the UK OOH industry compares to other markets? Is it leading the way or does it still have a lot to learn?

There are certainly many areas relating to the transformation of the industry where the UK is leading others. The digital inventory available and the investment into it means that it now accounts for over 50% of revenues. We are certainly leading the global market from this perspective, but also in how digital OOH is being planned and integrated alongside other media channels (e.g. social, display), increasingly being able to work across common data sets.

I am continually surprised and delighted by the innovation and creativity in the UK OOH industry. However, this is also true of a lot of markets and we often find ourselves in awe of a campaign from Brazil, China or from another part of our global network that we wish we had been responsible for.

There is so much more potential to unlock in the UK OOH industry, and whilst we always want to get there first, we are constantly learning from what others are doing.