Six Flags, as you probably know, has some great amusement parks. And some not-so-great ads featuring a creepy "old guy." But what you may not have known, is they also operate one of the biggest place-based digital out-of-home networks. In about an hour or so, they will announce a story that crosses those two things over to generate some awareness for cereal marketer Post Foods. The news will be that Post has tapped Six Flags to run a national promotion featured on 12 million boxes of Post's cereal brands – including Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Pebbles, Honey Combs, Waffle Crisp …

"Only things which work on an unconscious level really have a change of breaking through" to influence consumer behavior, says Dr. Carl Marci, CEO of Innerscope. That's because we're "irrational... emotional creatures" (Marci distinguishes between "rational" and "rationalizing" -- he says we experience the world and "try to rationalize events after they've already happened."

Joe Philport of the Traffic Audit Bureau -- in the audience at the Digital Out-of-home Forum -- just said he thinks the OVAB metric is "outstanding." Awww! Industry love-fest. Philport is hopeful that the similarity and overlap between the TAB and OVAB metrics will make media planning a breeze... once people in the industry get a handle on how to use the numbers, which he believes will take about a year.

"TV measurement is broken in America," says Tony Jarvis, by way of introducing a point about looking for standardized measurement in DOOH. "The issue isn't 'Do we follow television or not?'" says Debbie Reichig, SVP, Biz Dev & Marketing, Clear Channel Outdoor. "You have to have two different sets of measures. Something to measure across and something vertically." Calling television measurement "a yardstick that allows business to be done in a multi-billion-dollar business," Paul Lindstrom, Senior Vice President, Nielsen Co. asks,"Do you want something like that? Of course you do." "Although television is great and billions of …

Tony Jarvis giveth, and then he taketh away during his comments on the measurement panel at the Digital Out-of-Home Media Forum this morning. “Nielsen has taken a great first step with measuring a fourth screen report,” Jarvis said of Nielsen’s recent launch of a new syndicated research report measuring audiences for place-based, digital out-of-home video networks. “This is Tony talking,” Jarvis reminded the startled audience. Then he explained the “dilemma,” which is that Nielsen only measures so many place-based networks, begging the question of how the industry assesses those networks measured by other firms, like say, Arbitron. …

This just in: Fox Broadcasting Co. has announced a two-year initiative to research and test how human beings interact physiologically and neurologically with different media screens (ie. TV, online, mobile, etc.). Fox said it will work with Boston-based Innerscope Research, which uses various biometric technologies to gauge how people interact with various screen content. Fox said the research will focus on “engagement measures for on-air and cross-platform promotions,” utilizing Innerscope’s “Brand Immersion Model,” which helps explain physiological responses to advertising and media content. “We’ve seen repeated confirmation through various ROI measures that television’s role in building brands and influencing …

Earned media is hugely unpredictable. But it's become an increasingly large part of the media mix. Usually it's, 'I put this in and get and get this out,'" James Davies, Chief Strategy Officer, Posterscope USA  pointed out during the strategic planning panel. "There's a huge opportunity for digital out of home in this context." He sees instances where people might be prompted by signs to take actions on their mobile devices, spreading a paid message into earned realms, such as a Facebook wallpost or the like.

If the most effective thing to buy is a Super Bowl spot, you buy that, John Leeman, SVP Group Director Communications Planning, Carat pointed out during the startegic planning panel. "But there's a lot of waste," he says. "Addressability is still a problem," says Nadine McHugh, Managing Director, MindShare. "And what's more addressable than digital out of home?" Everyone is pushed to do more with less, these days, she says, calling it "the whole procurement challenge right now." And planners can look to new channels to get the performance that is demanded. "You have a really good opportunity …

That's what I just learned from the folks at Clear Channel Outdoor, which donated its Los Angeles area digital billboard network for a six-week campaign to raise awareness and funds to help preserve the city's – and entertainment industry's – iconic HOLLYWOOD sign. Clear Channel's "Save the Peak" campaign helped raise the remaining $3.05 million of the $12.5 million total needed to buy and protect 138 acres surrounding the HOLLYWOOD sign. Specifically, the Clear Channel campaign and aired almost 2 million spots on 84 digital billboards throughout the Los Angeles metro area. All to save one analogue billboard …

That's the way Starcom  out-of-home chief Jack Sullivan describes the digital out-of-home media sector. He calls it an entirely "new space" in the industry, and a great opportunity to tell marketers a "new story" about how to reach consumers. And a new way to tell consumers some new stories. The problem, he said, is that the industry has so far been talking a little too narrowly and a little too traditionally to get that story across. "I'm not sure we have a compelling story yet," Sullivan said during the Big Buyer's panel at the digital ooh forum. …