Shine Sessions brought together Outshine's clients and partners at the Astoria Hall to explore the future of digital outdoor advertising and marketing. Throughout the evening, discussions covered growth, data, creativity, technology, and how brands can stand out in a world where competition for people's attention is intensifying.

Outshine's CEOJani Lepistö shared impressive growth figures. In Finland, outdoor advertising has become the third largest media channel, and digital outdoor advertising already accounts for 68 percent of all outdoor advertising. Outshine, for its part, expects its own revenue to grow faster than the market this year, while expanding its network and services.

At Shine Sessions, the focus was not just on the numbers. The more interesting question was what to do with these new opportunities. Outshine's EVP, Strategy & Marketing,Markus Grannenfelt crystallized the idea into a phrase that became familiar throughout the evening: The street frontage is the new homepage. The city is not just a place where an advertisement is placed. It is a medium where the brand meets people as part of real life.

Street frontage services are constantly evolving

At Shine Sessions, Outshine's continuously evolving services were also introduced. Outshine One takes outdoor advertising planning in an increasingly audience-focused direction and helps identify appropriate advertising environments for target audiences.

Outshine Live, on the other hand, brings the street frontage to the screen: the service allows you to monitor Outshine's digital campaigns in real time, seek inspiration, or search for an advertisement you spotted on the street.

Outshine Ranking is also evolving. The service, which lists Finland's most creative agencies, campaigns, and creators based on advertising competition success, will next feature a clients view and an international version.

Explore the services:
Outshine One | Outshine Live | Outshine Ranking

Data helps make better choices
Outdoor advertising's strength remains its ability to reach large audiences. Outdoor advertising reaches practically all 15–74-year-olds in Finland on a weekly basis, and Outshine's network reaches 80 percent of this target group.

However, a large reach alone doesn't indicate where a specific brand should be visible. Growth Strategist, Data & InsightJenni Suominen presented Outshine's next steps in leveraging data and research at Shine Sessions. Alongside validating the impact that emerged in customer research, Outshine is increasingly using data to identify where different target audiences should be reached. The idea is simple: when advertisers understand their audience, data helps find the places where reaching them is worthwhile.

And when the campaign is over, research can validate what the advertising achieved. Outshine's new customer satisfaction survey round is also

underway. In the previous round, Outshine's NPS was 76.

Digital surfaces can do more than display an advertisement


If data helps you choose the right location and moment, technology opens new possibilities for the content itself. Outshine's Interactive Media Developer Ilkka Helo presented the possibilities of dynamic and interactive implementations. Dynamic content can change based on, for example, weather, time of day, news, or other data. In interactive implementations, people can be part of the experience through their movements.

Outshine currently has 170 motion-sensor-equipped surfaces in Helsinki, Espoo, and Oulu. And you don't have to fit everything into one category.Custom execution can combine dynamic content, interactivity, and physical implementation.

Programmatic buying is also strengthening. Outshine's Programmatic ManagerEmma Salminen shared that 432 surfaces are already available for programmatic purchase and Outshine's network can be reached through over 60 DSPs.

The common thread in all this development is ultimately the same: technology is not an end in itself. It should help make advertising more relevant, more interesting, or easier to purchase.

Brands are built on the street, not at the checkout


Outshine's Commercial DirectorTommi Fäldt highlighted the role of street-side advertising in brand building. An advertisement visible in public space reaches a large audience and builds brand visibility in a way that cannot be skipped with a skip button or ad blocker.

The strength of street-side advertising is also context. Advertising can betargeted to where people move and make their choices: downtown areas, commute routes, shopping centers, or next to a pharmacy. A relevant environment can significantly increase advertising visibility.

On the street, you can influence where people are going and what they intend to buy. Inside stores, competition is often decided by which option ends up in the shopping cart.

Creativity as a competitive advantage

The evening's keynote speaker, PHS BBDO's SVP, Strategy & New BusinessMarco Mäkinen, brought the discussion back to marketing's fundamental question: how do you win when everyone else has access to the same theories, tools, and channels?

According to Mäkinen, the amount of marketing and the number of channels are growing, but at the same time, differentiation is becoming harder. Generative artificial intelligence makes many marketing tasks easier, but if the same tools are used in the same way everywhere, the result can be increasingly similar content.

That's why the value of genuinely distinctive and memorable marketing efforts grows. One of Mäkinen's key messages was to make creativity a competitive advantage. Marketers underestimate the importance of a creative solution relative to its measured impact. For Mäkinen, a creative solution is above all one that surprises, breaks with convention, and gets noticed.

At the same time, he challenged marketers to reconsider their media choices in a new way. Instead of a theoretically optimal media solution, the question should be where you get more impact, where the creative idea can best shine, and who is worth collaborating with.

Your own playbook beats copying


In theory, a winning strategy can look perfect. In practice, the first rock on the rally road can change everything. The same applies to marketing.

One of Mäkinen's key lessons was that you shouldn't try to win with someone else's playbook. First, you must identify your own strengths and build your work around them. You don't need to be the best at everything. What matters more is finding what you can truly excel at and using partners to complement other expertise. If you can't win in your current category, create your own new category.

And then things got lively
Shine Sessions wasn't just about talking about marketing. At the Astoria Hall, ideas were also exchanged over food, drinks, and good company.

At the end of the evening,Isac Elliot took the stage and concluded Shine Sessions with an energetic live performance. Wow!

Thanks to all the clients, partners, and performers involved. See you at the latest at the next Shine Sessions or perhaps already at our parties!

Turn up the volume and watch the evening's atmosphere in the video!