Programmatic Digital Out-of-Home Advertising
Digital out-of-home advertising offers businesses the opportunity to create interactive, dynamic content that captures consumers’ attention and inspires them to take action. Unlike traditional OOH, digital OOH displays are able to update in real time and provide the ability to target specific demographics and deliver a personalized experience.
This allows for a level of personalization that is unattainable in other mediums, such as online ads. For example, British Airways capitalized on this feature with a dynamic creative that showed flight data based on the location of planes flying overhead.
What is DOOH advertising?
Programmatic DOOH advertising is the use of digital displays to deliver advertising content. DOOH ads are typically found in public areas like retail shops, airports, and sports stadiums. They can also be placed in high-traffic locations, such as commuter rail stations and bus stops. DOOH advertising offers advantages that other digital marketing channels can’t, including mass reach and the ability to deliver contextually relevant ads.
DOOH ads can be dynamic and change based on real-time data. For example, if a traveler’s flight information changes, the Programmatic DOOH display can change to reflect this and give travelers something helpful to engage with during their wait. This type of personalization can help drive engagement and brand awareness.
Additionally, DOOH can be used for retargeting. Advertisers can use strategies like geofencing to identify when a viewer leaves the DOOH venue and then trigger mobile retargeting with a personalized message.
Another benefit of DOOH is that it can provide measurement and verification in a way that other digital marketing channels cannot. This can help build trust and confidence in the ad channel for marketers and lead to increased budgets.
How does DOOH advertising work?
Digital out-of-home advertising offers brand lift through contextually relevant messaging. It also supports omnichannel marketing campaigns and is often used to supercharge mobile messaging. Because Programmatic DOOH is highly visible, unskippable, and ad block-proof, it can help overcome consumer fatigue and banner blindness. Plus, it can be tied to a wide range of data sources such as IR sensors that detect ticket sales at concerts and sporting events or POS (point-of-sale) systems that capture transactional data.
With new technologies, DOOH ads can be dynamic and personalized based on real-time information such as weather, night/day cycles, image recognition, and more. For example, a restaurant can use dynamic DOOH to serve up meal deals or a travel agency can deploy messages during unforeseen events such as flight delays.
Thanks to new technologies, DOOH is also becoming more measurable and can pass back data that helps marketers optimize their campaigns. For instance, brands can connect their DOOH campaign with a centralized customer data platform to re-target consumers who saw the ad. They can also measure the impact of their DOOH campaign by tracking brand lift metrics like awareness, consideration, and recall – all backed up by real-world audience insights.
Programmatic DOOH
DOOH uses multiple data sources to trigger content that is relevant to audiences in specific locations. This allows marketers to bypass the “spray and pray” approach of traditional OOH advertising. It also makes it possible to retarget the same audience with digital OOH advertising, even as they move between different devices. For example, a programmatic DOOH campaign could display content on a digital billboard based on the weather forecast for the destination of travelers on trains or planes leaving a certain airport.
Brands can also use creative dynamic content to amplify their messages with programmatic DOOH. For example, British Airways used a DOOH screen in London to display an ad synchronized with flight paths over the city. This created an immersive experience that helped to increase engagement and brand recall.
Although programmatic DOOH is still in its early stages, the technology is catching on. Many digital platforms now support it, including the open-source RTB protocol. Advertisers should look for a platform that offers transparent pricing and supports the CPM model. In addition, they should choose a partner with AdTech development experience who understands the unique requirements of DOOH advertising. For instance, DOOH devices need HD cameras and robust computer vision systems to measure viewability. They also need to account for device constraints, such as travel direction and minimizing passerby double-counts.
