Reaching the On-The-Go Consumer

Reaching today’s consumer is becoming more challenging than ever due to the fragmented media landscape.  Knowing this, the effectiveness of Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising has become a more significant tool for brand marketers to take advantage of.

While traditional out-of-home is one of the original advertising mediums, digital advancements are continuously being introduced – giving consumers the dynamic interactivity, social connectivity, and relevant local brand messaging they value, in real time. Furthermore, brands can cultivate and foster authenticity as the messaging is being driven by consumer data more so than ever.

Out-of-home (OOH) is projected to grow almost 12% in spend by 2020 – faster than any other traditional media – thanks to opportunities in digital, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. Digital OOH (DOOH) accounted for $2.7 billion in ad spend in the US last year.

As digital inventory grows, OOH media sellers are eyeing programmatic budgets. US sellers like Clear Channel Outdoor, Lamar and Outfront Media are building platforms or partnering with vendors to allow for programmatic buying and targeting on their digital inventory.

With the shift in tactic, this brings OOH back into the media mix with potential impact on spend allocations. As an expanded tactic, Digital OOH translates into greater reach and impact on touchpoint frequency.

In digital, buyers follow cookies or device IDs to target an individual. In OOH, buyers follow the movement patterns of aggregate groups of people along their daily routines to target a mass audience. As such, mobile location data is critical for planning, targeting and measurement in OOH. With location data and mobile retargeting, marketers can measure attribution for DOOH buys by matching an impression to their CRM files to see if the ad drove a purchase in-store.

The infrastructure is growing. Broadsign launched the first programmatic OOH exchange more than a decade ago in Canada. Vistar Media, which launched in 2012, houses 90% of US DOOH inventory. Both are used to automate buys on unsold inventory.

In January 2016, Clear Channel launched a private marketplace (PMP) with Rubicon Project, opening inventory on almost 1,000 digital boards to programmatic through real-time bidding (RTB) pipes.

Programmatic, as it applies to DOOH, is mostly ‘programmatic guaranteed,’ where inventory is reserved and purchased in an automated fashion.

 Like most digital technology, it’s all about the elegance of the implementation and the quality of the creative.  DOOH is continuously exploring new roads of innovation in creativity, delivery and opportunity. With full motion video, dynamic real-time content, social media engagement, mobile geo-targeting, multi-screen messaging, gesture recognition, and more, DOOH advertising rivals the innovation of every digital platform with its ability to reach consumers other mediums simply cannot.

Third-party data like weather and traffic triggers make DOOH a canvas for dynamic creative. US media seller Lamar ran a campaign for Paramount Pictures’ “Baywatch” revamp that similarly triggered different creative images based on the weather.

 The amount of flexibility to utilize DOOH is endless. Additionally, heat mapping insights can actually help align with more out of the box targeting suggestions. A few thought starters:

Combining hyper-local content and CoOp methodologies

Partnering with hot restaurants in certain “foodie” DMAs (Seattle, SF, LA, NYC) to drive awareness, reservations and walk-ins.

Game Day + Event Support

Geo-fence stadiums or venues to activate media across mobile and DOOH before and after game or event.

Retail Store Activations

Drive consideration and foot traffic to stores among target audiences around collection releases or store events.

The increasing connection of DOOH to its partners is a virtuous cycle that has only just begun. As the digital industry continues to evolve, so too, will DOOH screens.  DOOH is an exciting medium to watch as it continues to integrate itself into all forms of media, connecting with consumers. We look forward to continuing to share its evolution with you.