MY fans buy DOOH ad to celebrate virtual K-pop singer's birthday: Industry players weigh in

Fans of K-Pop virtual boy group PLAVE have bought a digital out of home (DOOH) ad in Malaysia in celebration of member Bamby's birthday. 

The ad by X user @cupidtobamby went live on 14 July 2024 at Apple Vacation in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. It featured two photos of Bamby, a birthday wish, a hashtag and PLAVE's social media handles. 

The birthday DOOH wish went live for 15 seconds every 10 minutes on 14 July from 7am until 1am the next day. A donation drive was also initially set out by @cupidtobamby in May in preparation for the ad. 

Don't miss: MY DJ buys billboards to celebrate birthday: Are personal ads really a thing in OOH?

According to media intelligence firm CARMA, conversations on social media about the DOOH ad are 83.2% positive and 2.9% negative.

Many netizens were celebrating Bamby's birthday, with some sharing their experience of catching the ad early in the morning, added CARMA. 

In addition, its word cloud includes words such as "happy Bamby day", "my sweetie" and "birthday". 

A rise in personal ads?

Speaking to OOH players in Malaysia, utilising billboards for personal reasons such as birthday wishes are not uncommon. 

"It's a new trend and it will make DOOH more in demand," said Stephanie Wong, chief operating officer of Big Tree in conversation with A+M. 

"It's making DOOH easily accessible with very low barrier to entry," she added. However, as virtual influencers gain momentum in a new era of social media campaigns, Wong said it's created a "new space with regulations trying to catch up." 

"It might be risky when ads are incorrect and wrongly claimed," explained Wong. 

Meanwhile, Henry Low, CEO of Spectrum Media, is of the opinion that such ads are good for the OOH industry. 

“The move is good for us – it’s going out of the box. OOH is not so much promoting your logo, your creatives or your brands. It could also be used for these sort of birthday wishes, proposals and more," said Low.

To me, OOH is about doing things that are not the norm, as long as it complies with the regulations.

Whilst Low is not sure if it could classify as a trend yet, he considers it a good movement that benefits the advertising industry as it adds vibrancy and provides other streams of revenue. 

“I’m not sure whether this could be a trend, but it can be a good movement if it is done more often. I wouldn’t mind it because it’s giving ad money to media owners and the industry," said Low. 

“It’s not your usual ad, it’s something out of the norm, so I would say it does add a little bit of vibrancy," he explained.

The rise of influencers as independent brands

Similarly, influencer marketing agency X10 Media thinks that using OOH as a channel is "perfectly acceptable." 

"At the heart of it, everyone has free rein over their budgets. If they feel like this is the language or channel of communication that resonates within their community, then it is perfectly acceptable," said Nicolle Sing, SVP of X10 Media. 

In addition, Sing is interested to see how creators can further tap into the channel for audience engagement. "Previously, brands used to be the main advertisers of OOH spaces. These days, the rise of content creators being their own brands have segmented this industry," she said.

"It is interesting to see how this will continue evolving as the creators' views and interests for audience engagement are different from organisational brands," added Sing. 

True enough, recently, MY FM Malaysian radio deejay Gan Mei Yan, also known as Mavis, took over OOH spaces across Kuala Lumpur with a host of personal billboards.

The deejay first gifted herself two billboards along the LDP expressway and on the Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road 2 highway in celebration of her 40th birthday. She later put up another billboard alongside the federal highway to celebrate her 20th anniversary at MY FM. 

That's not all, shoppers at Pavilion KL might have also come across digital OOH ads where the deejay is seen dancing and wishing herself a happy birthday. Accompanying the digital OOH ads is a contest where she asks onlookers to record a video of themselves dancing with the video and to post a birthday wish on social media detailing why they like her.

The birthday billboards, according to media intelligence firm CARMA, was positively received, with sentiments leaning 66.7% positive and 0% negative at the time. 

The rise of virtual influencers

Speaking on the rise of virtual influencers, Sing said it is still in its early stages. 

"There has been a visible rise of virtual influencers, especially with a deeper penetration of AI in content creation in recent years. However, I feel it is still too early to tell its real impact in the industry," said Sing. 

In May this year, it was reported that 37% of consumers would be more interested in a brand if they used AI influencers. This number rises to 46% among the Gen Z with 27% of consumers across generations being indifferent and unable to tell the difference between AI and human influencers.

These were the results of social media analytics firm Sprout Social’s 2024 influencer marketing report which also revealed that 17% of influencers are optimistic about how AI influencers can create better brand partnerships in the future.

The growing acceptance towards AI influencers especially among Gen Zs may be attributed to less emphasis placed on the authenticity of influencers. More specifically, 35% of Gen Zs value influencer authenticity as compared to about 50% of Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers.

Photo courtesy @thingkingofggu, X

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