Oceans 10 (million)

Barry Fearn • 19th May 2020

There are numerous published forecasts when this will be and varied theories around whether the economic recovery will be ‘V’, ‘U’ or even ‘bathtub’ shaped.

One thing we do know though, is that this is a time for collaboration and spirit of hope and generosity. The first media owner out of the traps to really add value beyond discounted incentives to advertise were Ocean Outdoor, owners of several high-impact digital out of home screens across the UK, with their £10m free advertising fund, aimed at SMEs who have been affected by CO-VID19.

The scheme was announced in early April and within a few days, they had received hundreds of applications from across the UK to sift through. Several SMEs whom had been hit hardest by CO-VID 19 but were open for business, were supported. One client we applied to the fund on behalf of, previously had a solid track record of growth, coming off of the back of a record year of revenue, had suddenly lost 75% of their revenue overnight, had to put immediate growth plans on ice and make several staff redundant and others on furlough. This is a familiar tale of many SMEs across the country as we all know.

The Ocean SME fund is an unashamed win-win for all involved. Small and medium sized businesses are able to access their target consumers via high-profile digital out of home inventory – which is still reaching c50% of its usual audience across the country – creative agencies have new concepts to dream up and output to deliver – and Ocean have a pipeline of new prospects to speak to when the time is right.

For us at The Lane Agency, our team have relished the opportunity to collaborate on ideas across several of our clients – just like we did in ‘normal’ times. “Oceans 10” is a positive advertising industry move, perfectly aligned to an integrated agency with both media and creative arms of the business. Working closely with Ocean, we secured several hundreds of thousands of pounds of media value free of charge for our disrupted clients – and also, ultimately as another SME affected by CO-VID 19, secured some additional value which culminated in the beautiful curation of rainbow designs, created to showcase brilliant design, spread a little joy and say thank you. 

Your own designs can be submitted to the Rainbows.Gallery here: https://www.thelaneagency.com/rainbows/#section-user-submissions