DOOH – a new trend or a relic of the past?

DOOH – a new trend or a relic of the past?

DOOH (Digital Out of Home) advertising is the term used for outdoor digital ads. Essentially, it is the good old outdoor (OOH) advertising that we are used to seeing everywhere, but displayed on digital media. These commercials can be targeted and displayed when the number of target viewers around the ad space is at its highest.

DOOH: types and operation principles

This ad is subdivided into two types, depending on its location:

• Outdoor – on the streets;
• Indoor – inside public transport, business centres, and other public venues.

To place the ads, advertisers use the following structures:

• Large digital screens, or boards;
• Smaller wall screens;
• Media stands;
• Interactive constructions, often equipped with motion sensors.

How do we know when and where to display the ads? A Wi-Fi monitoring system identifies users by the MAC addresses of their phones and other devices. The targeting system also processes the geolocation information obtained from the carriers and video analytics from the cameras installed on the advertising structure. At that, the target audience data are completely impersonalized. Plus, the software often uses the current weather information to use it for targeting purposes (e.g. hot coffee advertised on a rainy day).

How to purchase DOOH??

RTB is one of the most popular ways to purchase DOOH advertising. The abbreviation stands for “real-time bidding” and is a type of auction where advertisers compete for the opportunity to show their content to a specific group of users. This ad can be bought at programmatic advertisement services or specialized DOOH platforms. Some of the largest market players are:

• Clear Channel Outdoor;
• Lamar Advertising;
• Outfront Media;
• Broadsign;
• Vistar Media.

There are other, less popular ways to purchase this type of ad; however, in contrast to RTB, they are less efficient due to their characteristics.

• Programmatic Direct – individual, non-auction purchase that requires a personal meeting of advertiser and publisher;
• Private Marketplace – purchase of advertising for a fixed price that is used with top publishers such as Forbes, etc.
• Non-programmatic Guaranteed – manual advertising embedding that requires a lot of resources.

DOOH Features

This type of digital ad enables you to achieve such goals as:

• Audience expansion and enticing of your competitors’ clients;
• Increased brand awareness: for instance, three-dimensional dynamic video clips can hold the attention of your audience for quite a long time;
• Real-time advertising customization that allows you to react to weather changes, traffic conditions, time of the day, etc.
• In contrast to OOH, DOOH allows you to analyze the placement efficiency.

Advantages of DOOH

Among the many advantages of this technology, we would like to point out the following:

• All the advantages of online advertising;
• Huge audience coverage;
• Targeting;?
• Possibility to customize the ads in real time;
• Advertising budget optimization, similar to the purchase of programmatic advertising of any other type;
• Quick ad campaign launch;
• DOOH cannot be blocked;
• Possibility to unlock your creative potential through the creatives;
• Suitable for almost any type of business.?

DOOH prospects

Looking at how digital outdoor advertising is gradually replacing conventional media, we can surely say that in the nearest future there will be no OOH; DOOH will occupy all the ad space. Today, it is already being used to its full, e.g. in 2016, during the European Football Championship held in Great Britain, the organizers used digital displays located at public transport stops to broadcast sports news and announce match results. Heathrow Airport management used their media to greet the newcomers and offer them leisure options depending on the weather at that moment.

Can you imagine the scope of coverage and the possibilities it provides? Such large-scale DOOH campaigns take place more and more often, thus, we suppose that companies are going to invest in costly equipment and software to provide the necessary targeting precision and increase the location geography.?