Commentary

Why Programmatic Will Save Digital Outdoor

by Sean Hargrave , Staff Writer, December 4, 2015

As outdoor ads become more like TV/video, they can likewise use programmatic techniques for ad buying. Sean Hargrave discussed the linking of digital outdoor with programmatic in a recent post for London Blog, reposted here:

It's really interesting to see the advances in digital outdoor. The channel is absolutely ripe for digital innovation -- yet for years, for some reason or another, it has never quite happened. I remember being taken to a mock-up of a tube station a decade ago with digital projections of ads across platforms and escalators packed with LCD screens, all conveying a latest offer. It was a world away from posters with chewing gum stuck on models' noses, and yet it is only just starting to take shape now -- and even then, only in some stations with campaigns that simply replace posters for pixels.

When you're travelling, at an event or shopping, digital outdoor can add to the sense of occasion. It makes it all the more bewildering that it seems to be little more than a moving copy of the posters that would have previously inhabited the space now devoted to LCD screen of various sizes.

Marketing Weekreported recently on some of the latest technology that could change this. Trading automation is a really neat step forward so brands can buy slots automatically on a screen-by-screen basis. Rather than rely on humans to input codes and set campaigns up, creative can be sent to a screen automatically. Anyone else see a programmatic future here?

Outdoor has always lacked data in comparison to online -- however, that could change slightly with cameras that can tell brands something about the audience in front of a screen and inform advertising decisions. One can imagine the audience in front of a LCD screen at a train station or tube concourse changes somewhat after rush hour is over and commuters are replaced by shoppers and daytrippers.

Well, the technology covered in Marketing Week can make these observations, it claims, and then adjust the images on the screen to the awaiting audience. It will not be as good as online data, which will include behavioural data, but it does push the technology forward and it does provide a means of backing up assumptions of who uses an area at different times of the day with more reliable data.

I hope the outdoor industry sees this as an opportunity to become more real-time. Digital screens are one thing, and so too is automated trading. It's only when the screen's creative and advertising messaging is informed in real time that the medium will truly live up to its potential.

Offers in shopping malls can be tied to stock so brands are not sending disappointed shoppers to an outlet where the reduced items have all gone, but instead flag up the next offer that can be taken advantage of. At events, messaging could relay something about what is going on. At Wembley Stadium, for example, sponsor EE splashes messages around the foyers about its coverage and love of sport. How about polls for who will be the first scorer of what the end result will be, perhaps with people entering via a hashtag? Why not use the immediacy to the action to its advantage and relay this on digital screens that can now be addresses individually in real time?

Readers of this column will know it has always puzzled me that digital outdoor has simply replaced still images with video, which adds very little to the mix. I just have a feeling that the people who are talking up 2016 as a year when outdoor "gets it" and finally innovates to make the channel a real-time vibrant, compelling medium might just have a point. The industry has had false dawns before, but surely now it's clear that digital innovation will make people want to interact with campaigns to get the latest poll information from a brand's campaign, the best new offer at a retail outlet or whatever the latest data shows would be the most appropriate use of each screen's space.

In fact, I was talking with a company the other day that specialises in screens that display ads in restaurants in bars and restaurants near major rail stations. How do they ensure the public is glued to messaging? Part of the service puts up train running times so passengers know if they have time for one for the road (or perhaps 'for the rails) and as they find this out, they will be engaging with branded messages apt for the audience and the time of day. Genius.

out-of-home, outdoor, programmatic, tv, video

3 comments about "Why Programmatic Will Save Digital Outdoor".

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Clare-Marie Harris panno from Posterscope USA, December 4, 2015 at 3:35 p.m.
Here are some links and info to update your thinking on Digital OOH. You might want to view to familiarize yourself with some of the newer uses of DOOH.

Apotek Love this DOOH Hair-Raising Subway Ad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdQgsmYKxLM

PepsiMax – experiential DOOH http://ok.ru/video/4712891653

Chevrolet created a millennial-targeted campaign in New York, LA and Chicago. To promote the Chevrolet Trax, billed as a “city-smart SUV,” the work utilized street-level interactive media. Passersby selected their interests on a dynamic outdoor screen. After they were asked to choose between subjects, “hidden gems,” various locales in their city, were revealed. The fun, impromptu effort promoted the new car and offbeat urban destinations. Plus, Chevy #HiddenGems drove attention; it garnered over 3 million market impressions, with about 2,000 consumer engagements per week.

Programmatic is the transactional part. There is so much more!!!!!
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John Grono from GAP Research, December 5, 2015 at 1:12 a.m.

Of course this does not apply to all OOH signs that will eventually be digital. For example Australia's highest audience signs (and this would be common around the world) are very large format signs. One example in Sydney ('the silos') is 200 metres long and is visible for hundreds of metres and is offset from one of our busiest roads.

We looked at cameras in signs (static) over a decade ago, but their audience was 'small fry' compared to what the industry really needed - reliable transactional audience data to the large format signs.

While these systems are admirable, and real-time is a common goal, they tend to be retail and transit. There is a risk to the industry with real-time in that the faces that build real reach and work for brands are just too far away (distance wise) from their audience to capture such data and always will be. The technological focus on trying to gauge individuals and their responses and the ability to adjust creative if needed could very well end up in granular data that results in reduced audiences.

I'd put my focus on better creative on those "can't miss 'em" signs and watch the cash-register ring!

Brent McKay from Bulzi Media Inc., December 15, 2015 at 2:30 a.m.

Clare-Marie, those were two fantastic examples of very clever OOH engagement tactics but they are not scalable. OOH has struggled to compete with Digital because OOH is not measured like Digital (including digital OOH). When a web or mobile ad is delivered it generates a record of the impression and the audience profile, which is reported to the advertiser in credible way. In fact, the consumer profile is measured prior to the ad insertion and the ad itself is delivered to the consumer based on the profile in real time. OOH has relied on historical estimates which do not resonate with the next generation of planners and buyers. Digital has set the bar to much higher level: actual audience vs. average audience. Camera analytics are a step in the real-time direction but limited in terms of the number and accuracy of the consumer attributes that they can measure. Bulzi Media has developed mobile phone based measurement technology which allows for real-time measurement of impressions and 950 consumer attributes in real time. Check us out at www.bulzi.com.