Google crashes the Out-Of-Home party with Display & Video 360 Ads - Your Daily Dose of Digital - 26/08/22

Well, this could be kinda spicy! Google Display & Video 360 has crashed the Out-of-Home space by adding digital OOH to their mix, encompassing screens in public places such as airports, bus stops, elevators, shopping centers, stadiums and taxis, meaning brands can now can run different versions of their messaging based on the location of the screen or the time of day, and align it to their broader, 'traditional' digital campaigns.

According to a Google blog post from yesterday: "Today’s customer journey is rarely a straight line. Consumers are constantly moving between touchpoints and channels, and brands need the right tools to keep up. Digital out-of-home is an increasingly popular option that brings the best of digital technology to a traditional advertising medium. It helps brands engage shoppers at moments when they make key decisions or take certain actions such as walking in a shopping mall or lining up at the grocery store checkout. Today, we’re making digital out-of-home ads available to all Display & Video 360 users so that they can reach people out in their real-world journey with the efficiency of programmatic technology."

Google made a point of saying that digital OOH ads placed via Display & Video 360 are not personalised, and individual identifiers or user location data are not used, with advertisers reaching people based on contextual information of the screen location.

Despite this dialled-back targeting, Google gave an example where this application of it's ads is still able to deliver better targeting than traditional static OOH: “A fast-food spot can quickly advertise on a billboard in a bustling business district during the lunch hour for office workers to see. Later that day, the same billboard can promote an upcoming performance at a nearby concert venue.”

Although, I do wonder if we'll see more dynamic ad triggering, particularly for Android device users. Imagine the scenario in the future where the ads above urinals in the mens' toilets no longer advertise "those little blue pills" to every male who frequent them, instead these are replaced by digital OOH screens which are triggered to show a display ad from an audience cohort within which you sit.

Even further in the future, I believe there is scope for all OOH advertising to become a part of mixed / augmented-reality using wearables so ads & offers are simply hyper-targeted call-outs from stores on the high street, or through dynamic AR screens replacing those in bus stops, shopping malls (and yes, above urinals too!) - I digress...

The article continues: “With digital out-of-home ads in Display & Video 360, brands can combine the emotional power and captivating formats of traditional out-of-home advertising with the efficiency of other digital channels. With a single plan, they can reach people on screens of all shapes and sizes. And it can be done rapidly and efficiently. Marketers can activate, pause and optimize digital out-of-home campaigns in near real time. They can tackle everything from strategy and activation to reporting and optimization, all in one place.”

There are clearly huge advantages for making this move when it comes to adding OOH to the mix within the Google environment, where brands can combine the emotional power and more engaging formats of traditional out-of-home advertising with the efficiency of other digital channels. Advertisers will be able to reach people on screens of all shapes and sizes with a consistent visual and messaging, amplifying reach beyond desktop & mobile, enhancing brand recall.

There are also efficiency gains, as advertisers can rapidly activate, pause, and optimise digital out-of-home campaigns in near real-time. it also makes it easier to report and optimise all in one place.

Another benefit to programmatic digital out-of-home is the flexibility it provides. While traditional buying tactics are usually geared toward one general region, digital out-of-home allows brands to run different versions of their messaging based on location of the screen or time of day.

According to Google's Q&A article, the benefits of consolidating and simplifying your DOOH workflow in Display & Video 360:

• Discover a diverse set of DOOH inventory in Marketplace through programmatic guaranteed deals or preferred deals.
• Discover inventory within marketplace and plan your campaign using a request for proposal (RFP) based on:
• How many times an ad will play
• Billboard placement details
• How many people will view the ad (provided by the publisher)
• Build and execute campaigns using automated executions and real-time bidding (RTB) to scale up or down.
• Efficiently reach publisher defined audiences in international markets.

Reach / accessibility is also excellent and at scale. Today Display & Video 360 already partners with exchanges Hivestack, Magnite, PlaceExchange, Str?er SSP, VIOOH and Vistar Media. These exchanges give access to large media owners around the world like ClearChannel, Intersection, JCDecaux, Lamar and Str?er. All of this inventory can be secured via programmatic deals.

ASOS (the online fashion brand, famous for recently acquiring old high-street stahlwart Topshop/Topman) has been one of the first to adopt and trial this new opportunity. According to Google: "ASOS used Display & Video 360 to quickly select digital billboards with the map UI and arrange relevant Programmatic Guaranteed deals with leading publishers like Intersection in the U.S. and JCDecaux in the U.K. This streamlined approach allowed the brand to lean on a central platform to buy, implement and measure their campaign. As a result, the team fast tracked the process of booking hundreds of digital billboards, generating 22 million viewed impressions across the two countries."

Whilst I'd say the jury is always very much 'out' when it comes to impression volumes for OOH (I mean, until we're using eye-tracking tech to record actual visual dwell on OOH I don't think we're getting a true picture), 22 million additional impressions is a pretty impressive volume in a time where advertising with brand goals in mind (over BOFU conversion goals) is clearly going to have to be a focus for most marketers - ASOS/JCDecaux undertook some research which showed a reported 14% increase in brand awareness and a 22% increase in brand consideration in the exposed vs control areas (although, again, I'd argue there may be other factors in play here).

I'd be keen to see the commercial value in running OOH through Google's platforms rather than buying more directly (as there is no doubt an efficiency/time-saving there, which will also have a cost-saving advantage), as this + reporting + agility would add up to a pretty compelling combo if there were significant financial advantages too.

What do you think about Google stepping into the OOH arena in this way? Will you be trialling display expanded via these digital out of home opportunities? Let me know in the comments.