Ströer presented with silver at the ANNUAL MULTIMEDIA AWARD

Ströer’s Vooh! app convinces jury

Last April, Ströer launched Vooh!, an app which combines classic outdoor advertising campaigns with appealing website content. Vooh! stands for “virtual out-of-home” and it uses smartphones to turn posters into exciting interactive features for advertisers. The judges at the ANNUAL MULTIMEDIA AWARD gave the latest innovation from Ströer the prize “Silver at the ANNUAL MULTIMEDIA 2012” in the Mobile Apps category.

“By creating this app, we have opened a new door for advertisers and responded to changes in the culture of media consumption. Out-of-home advertising has become the gateway between the real and virtual worlds: Customers can interact directly with their consumers, anytime, anyplace and anywhere”, was the delighted reaction of Christian von den Brincken, Managing Director for Marketing and Strategy at Ströer Sales & Services GmbH, when he heard about the award.

Vooh! is characterized by its impressive user-friendliness. Consumers only need to download the app and point their smartphone at a poster, and, with its technologically advanced image recognition system, Vooh! takes care of the rest. In contrast to other systems available on the market, Vooh! does not just work on static out-of-home advertisements such as posters or transport advertising. For this, Ströer uses the image recognition system developed by Berlin-based system house Prisma, which can be readily used for advertising contexts ranging from classic advertising columns to the Out-of-Home-Channel.

Customers with a lot of information to convey, such as automakers, technology manufacturers, cell phone producers, film distributors and event operators, can make great use of an option that combines out-of-home media with Vooh!. They can use the app to give consumers access to the entire range of content stored behind their logos or key visuals, thereby establishing a direct connection to them.

“The customers’ target groups are normally made up of young, technology-friendly people who are receptive to information and content and therefore open to this form of communication. They are not only quick to adopt new technology, but they also have a lot of contacts in social networks that enable technology to spread from person to person”, explained Christian von den Brincken.

MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN currently deploys Vooh! as part of its out-of-home campaign. Using Ströer’s Out-of-Home-Channel and Infoscreens, MEDIENTAGE MÜNCHEN is advertising its convention in Munich, which will take place from October 19-21. Anyone who takes a photo of the ad with their smartphone immediately receives the latest event schedule for the media conference and has the chance to take part in a prize draw.
L’Oreal, BASE, radio station SAW and Berlin shopping mall Schönhauser Allee Arkaden have also used Vooh! as a highly effective means of expanding their advertising campaigns in the virtual world.

Vooh! is available as a free download for iPhones and Android smartphones.

As a prize-winning product, Vooh! will be profiled in the 2012 Annual Multimedia Yearbook, which will be available as of December.