Inspiring & Celebrating communicate with the consumer, which is critical for success. all consumer packaged-goods advertising offers in Canada between January-december 2013 is eligible. award categories are: Creative Excellence in ooH Media a new ooH award and new creative testing service are part of a response to member needs from the out-of-Home Marketing association of Canada (oMaC). By rosanne Caron * * * * oMaC has been working on a number of creative initiatives to respond to feedback from its marketer and agency advisory councils on desired resources to help them develop effective ooH communication. Creative guidelines for indoor, transit and outdoor have been produced in an easy-to-use format for marketers and creative agencies to facilitate discussions on ooH advertising. and, oMaC has just launched a new award to celebrate the best ooH campaigns in the consumer packaged-goods category. the new award differs from others in that judging will be a twostep process. a jury comprised of industry leaders will review and select the best ooH campaigns; the finalists will then be tested by a shopper panel for message comprehension. the research component will gauge the ooH ad's ability to clearly Winners will be announced at the Best New Product awards show on May 22 in toronto. In addition, oMaC has partnered with BrandSpark International on the development of a new creative testing service. the new service is inexpensive, can be turned around quickly, and will offer two types of analytics. diagnostic testing will include creative benchmarking and timed exposure to the ad through the use of a t-scope. Creative optimization will examine which elements of the ad are noticed and relevant to the viewer. Clients will be provided with a report summarizing the results and recommendations for enhancing communication. Rosanne Caron is president of the Out-of-Home Marketing Association of Canada (OMAC), based in Toronto. She can be reached at rcaron@omaccanada.ca. contributors from our 13 | out of home magazine | may | june 2014 beauty; health & personal care; food & beverage; and household products.