• by Kelly Samardak , April 23, 2009

MediaPost's Digital Out Of Home Awards, Crowne Plaza Hotel, New York
April 22, 2009

Last night MediaPost held its first annual Digital Out of Home (DOOH!) Awards Show at the Times Square Crowne Plaza.  I covered the end of day cocktail reception as well, which netted me the most personality-filled photos, of course.  I have two things to say about a very neglected chunk of the advertising world (ahem, we're talking about you, Digital Out Of Homers): they're jolly.  They're smart about cocktails.  I ran into more than one attendee armed with two beverages at a time because "Why would I want to get back in line?" Take a peek at what's in on the outside...

I dumped my bag and coat on the traveling coat rack and immediately got sucked into a big flatscreen with moving graphics...ooo, it's  like TV.  Manning the mesmerizing booth were James Lisk, Stategic Communications Specialist and Foster Tennent, Director of Sales, both of Perception Research Services.  They were demo-ing this eyeball-tracking tool that simulates a driving experience and tracks where your eyeholes dart to.  While I watched, I saw a school bus pull out in front of a Budweiser billboard.  "Do you test to see if people are safe drivers at the same time?" I asked.  I mean, wouldn't that be a useful measurement?  Slap up some DOOH ads, throw in some road hazards and test to see if your ad is TOO eyecatching.  Do you guys know if the technology or simulation exists to simulate a person walking through, say, NYC?  I would LOVE to participate in THAT study.  Especially if they also rigged me up to heart monitors and anger detectors.  You could test to see if your campaign soothes the savage pedestrian beast.   I'll write up my proposal and we'll be in contact.

Moving around the room, I met Richer and Richard. No, I didn't spell that wrong.  I thought I heard it wrong being that I'm subway-deaf, but it's right! Richer Alceus, Assistant Communications Planner, and Richard Jameson, Communications Planner, both of Mediacom, were observing from the side of the room as strange triangular and rolled foods trundled by.  Amy Kelly, Marketing Manager at Kinetic AND DOOH Awards judge, was chatting up another guest when I interrupted.  The last time I saw her was at the Le Metric/BettyConfidential.com event where maybe, just maybe, as she and her guests left Saks, they accidentally upended an extremely expensive Juicy Couture display.  I'm saying, allegedly.

The ding-ding-dong people cattle call ushered everyone into the award presentation area, where tall tables lined the back and dinner party circle tables faced the stage.  The stage was modest, with velvety gold chairs resting against the podium.  As the show began, judges doubling as presenters John Capone, Editor of Media and OMMA magazines, Manolo Almagro of Show+Tell, Tony Jarvis of Clear Channel Outdoor, and Joe Mandese, Editor in Chief at MediaPost, discovered the chair layout gave them an opportunity to do step aerobics every time the presenter changed: the podium was blocked, so they had to do a little up-and-over the stairs during the changing of the guard.  An unintentionally fun break-up of content, if you ask me.

All finalists were winners, but the big winner of the night was InWindow Outdoor, which took home three trophies in total, one being the big Best In Show award for its work with client "Coraline"/Laika Studios.  You can find the winners and links to their inspiring and often chortle-worthy work on the DOOH Awards site.

My favorite part of the night was when Kelly McGillivray of Peoplecount accepted the award for Most Innovative Research/Metrics/Planning System for the company's work for TAB Eyes On Ratings and saluted "nerds in high heels," proud to be in an awards show that actually had a category honoring research in metrics.

Send all kinds of awesome invitations to kelly@mediapost.com . May is party-scary!

Rifle through the online photos !