Commentary

OOH Data Partnership Finds New Ways To Connect Online, Offline Campaigns

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) media buyers may now have a way to track campaign success for dwell times, app downloads and more. Kochava, which provides real-time data for mobile and connected devices, has announced a partnership with consumer insights and measurement company Cuebiq to improve attribution for out-of-home advertising.

The partnership could also give marketers a way to attribute an online search to an OOH campaign. 

"It's something we're exploring," said Cuebiq EVP Lawrence Chan.

Marketers have struggled to understand the value of offline ads, such as attributing billboards to mobile app installs. Chan believes that for the first time, brands will have the ability to accurately attribute OOH campaigns to app downloads, similar to mobile or desktop.

“Let’s say the ad was for the McDonald’s app,” he said, explaining that the combination of the two technologies can track and identify devices that have been in close proximity to the billboard.

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Programmatic and digital are the fastest-growing segments for OOH. The partnership, which joins location data and ad-serving logs, helps marketers that buy media on digital billboards throughout the country to better understand what is driving more downloads of their apps. It also helps to provide insight into audience segments.

Cuebiq declined to provide the names of participating brands, but categories participating in early tests include direct-to-consumer, retail, gaming and fantasy sports.

Through the partnership, brands also can measure dwell times. The combined technologies can measure and analyze user behavior, target high-value consumers, and re-engage them on connected devices.

Chan touts the technology as being privacy-compliant for GDPR and ready for the California Consumer Protection Act, which is set to go into effect January 1, 2020. Both laws involve IP addresses, browsing history and geolocation data.

The Kochava-Cuebiq partnership relies heavily on geolocation data. So I asked Chan whether in situations where a user keeps their location discoverable through the app and device, this automatically gives permission for brands to use the device’s location to serve an ad.

“The quick answer is yes and no,” he said. “Users will have the ability to understand the type of data and why we use it.”  

There are also ways to opt out, he said, even after opting in. Chan said Cuebiq only collects first-party data versus bidstream data sources. The latter he said are considered as risks to brand safety and brand reputation.

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