Leon Mobility: On digital out-of-home advertising, urban micro-mobility, sustainability and access.

It has been a while since we first spoke to the world about our latest venture called nubsee, the most advanced advertising and charging network anchored by ingenious artificial intelligence. Since our last article barely touched the market we cater to, we will be reviewing the specific areas or segments that come under our vision at LEON mobility. So, today the focus of our discussion would include our key market segments like digital out of the home advertising, urban micro-mobility, and sustainability and access. These segments operate together as a well-connected system that lays the foundation for nubsee, a network that strives to improve the quality of life in today’s modern cityscape. Now, let’s talk about why each of these areas are deemed important and how we utilize their maximum potential to empower urban infrastructure.

1.    Digital Out of Home Advertising

It is everywhere and clearly inevitable! Out-of-home (OOH) advertising grabs attention consciously and subconsciously as it is totally integrated into people’s lives. Once an individual steps out, they would see it as billboards, signs, around the bus stops/train stations, airports, on the other street furniture, cinemas, stadiums, in fact, all over.

But is this information shoved into people’s mind always the most relevant and necessary? Or are the companies just wasting their funds with hefty and knackered traditional ad campaigns which fail to address the right audience at the right moment. There are several issues with conventional advertising requiring simple solutions that we tried to explore while designing nubsee. Let’s discuss them a bit more in detail to understand where we are coming from.

One-to-many mediums without an adblocker. We live in a rapidly changing world and therefore the traditional modes of advertising no longer fit the picture. Ad fraud, bot traffic, brand safety scandals or too many banners on websites make it difficult for the media genre to get their word across. It is also stated that adblocking costs advertisers billions of dollars and the yearly losses are only on the rise (Statista, 2019). However digital out-of-home advertising is not affected by this and clearly has a broader reach. These digital ads are designed to be an inherent part of the city’s infrastructure and do not even require moving a brick for their installation.

Advertising expenditure for out-of-home on the upswing. The genre out-of-home is resilient and has great potential due to the digitalization of screens. This is also stated by various forecasts for the advertising market. Out-of-home advertising is the only traditional advertising medium that has grown worldwide in the last ten years (Magna report). In Germany, net advertising expenditure has increased by five percent in each of the last five years. This development is due to the spread of digital screens. In 2018, digital advertising space accounted for 24 percent of sales in the OOH market in Germany (Nielsen). So, when out-of-home and digital advertising are combined, as per fact, this is where most of the businesses will invest in the future.

The internet giants discover out-of-home for themselves.  In the part, the genre out-of-home used to be the advertising mode of brands such as retail, entertainment, gastronomy or tourism (Magna/Rapport). However, in the last two years, major internet companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple or Netflix have begun to use outdoor advertising in various markets to promote their reputation or advertise new services. In Germany, Amazon is already among the top 20 donors in the OOH sector. Where online ads have become mundane, digital out-of-home ads require creativity which is why they capture more attention.

Programmatic advertising improves data availability and controllability. With the increasing digitalization of out-of-home advertising media, the importance of programmatic advertising and the automated purchase and sale of inventory, is also growing. Statistics say that 82% of the Digital Advertising revenue is expected to come from programmatic advertising in 2024. As estimated by Leon mobility, around five percent of DOOH space in Germany is currently controlled by Programmatic Advertising. As soon as real-time bidding for Programmatic Out-of-Home becomes established, outdoor advertising becomes more attractive as the consumer journey becomes more transparent. The most useful feature is that Programmatic allows one to see – in real time – how their campaign is performing, so that they make informed changes as they go.

Digital outdoor advertising has proved to work better. A study by the Wall Street consulting firm PJ Solomon shows that out-of-home works better than the media genres such as TV, radio, online and print. The advertising recall of the test persons for advertising on digital OOH surfaces was between 47 and 82 percent. The values  achieved through television  were between 22 and 62 percent. Furthermore, an analysis of video ads on digital screens in the supermarkets (in-store TV) showed that the products advertised generated between eight and 181 percent additional sales, depending on the industry. This ascertains the need for digital out of the home advertising and it is high time for marketers to reap maximum advantages of the medium that nubsee offers them.

These are some important observations which assisted us with devising the solution in the form of nubsee. It is a platform which combines out-of-home with offline programmatic advertising providing real time information throughout the city. The nubsee network uses intelligent sensors for pattern recognition and prediction and generates most relevant user specific information which then suggests a purchase option pertinent to the user. Through its top-notch AI sensor, nubsee enables the advertisers to reap maximum benefits without wasting money. For instance, it can estimate the targeted consumer’s age, social status, interests (pets, healthy lifestyle, etc.) and process all information through its IoT AI edge devices supported by nvidia. With the help of anonymous, GDPR compliant data, nubsee identifies things such as what would be the most appropriate chance to play out "dog advertising" if a large quantity of pet owners is predicted at a certain time.

2.    Free Urban Micro-Mobility

Ever since man has stepped out of the confines of physical space, there has been an effort to improve accessibility and with recent technological disruptions, micro-mobility has acquired great importance. With the options such as light-electric-vehicles (e-scooters, bikes, mopeds, etc.) people find better ease of access but the problem of charging electric vehicles still remains there. To solve this issue, we at Leon Mobility, found that user-based charging is the most cost-effective way to fuel light electric vehicles. So, nubsee serves as an electric filling solution that can enable the users to enjoy simple free rides to their choice of destination. Let’s evaluate some more reasons why a mini charging unit such as nubsee can accelerate urban micro-mobility and save millions for the sharing companies.

Spending huge sums of money on charging is uneconomical and unnecessary. It is a rather unpleasant fact that fleet operators and sharing companies squander millions of euros on the charging of electric vehicles. Everyday workers and freelancers collect the vehicles to recharge them and place them back for the next day's use. Collecting used batteries in diesel transporters regularly is a huge effort in itself. When asked from the sharing and mobility providers, they confirmed that a charging network like nubsee would be hugely beneficial; they need it widely to help them save both time and money.

Light electric vehicle usage is on the rise. More and more people are now using e-scooters, bikes and mopeds which have unique charging requirements. It is estimated by McKinsey Centre for future mobility, that around 60 percent car trips in the US, China and the EU are less than 8 kilometres and can be easily replaced by light electric vehicles. Micro-mobility can practically make up for all the trips that are less than 8 kilometres i.e. more than half a ride in Europe. This being said, charging appears the main issue which hinders an individual’s ability to enjoy LEVs at their ease. Given that there are nubsee charging stations widely disturbed over the city, this problem can be solved and can boost mobility.      

Nationwide free charging will accelerate micro-mobility. One of the highlights of nubsee’s charging is that it is completely free until the vehicle is fully charged. Users all over would be practically paying close to nothing which will enable more individuals to opt for electric vehicles. Easily available, inexpensive and environment friendly is what the future of micro-mobility will look like.

3.    Sustainability and Access

In recent times, the increasing concerns for planet and environmentalism has led the city planners to focus on sustainable city concepts. Projects to support carbon negative action, space reprogramming, sharing networks, and others are articulated to make cities eco-friendlier. Not only these initiatives but the need to embed resilient infrastructure in the cities is also an integral part of the sustainable concept. At LEON mobility, we have a knack for ideas that create ever evolving and viable solutions for a green future. Let’s simplify it down by describing how nubsee can be used to solve so many sustainability issues and provide better quality of access to the users.

Conventional charging methods are highly damaging to the environment. As briefly explained before, traditional charging methods require the diesel vehicles carrying batteries to charge them for the next day. This leads to the generation of ridiculously harmful gases in the environment (carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, etc) which further contributes to climate change. The purpose of replacing diesel/petrol vehicles with electric vehicles is to make the cities greener but carrying the electric batteries in diesel omitting trucks entirely negates the purpose. With a nubsee installed every few kilometres, there would be a positive contribution to the air quality as these carrier vehicles will longer be needed.

Improving infrastructure with smart, compact urban furniture. A smart and sustainable city is not only the one free movement for shipments but rather a city which is up-to-date, well-connected and also monitors the traffic flow with great precision. There are numerous methods to support this but a lot of them are questionable because of the interference they might cause in the infrastructure. Our cities are already crowded, and many solutions are not scalable and unsustainable due to their size or installation requirements. We propose nubsee, which despite using disruptive technology does not cause physical disruption in the cities. Easily installed on walls, lamp posts or bus stops, nubsee would make an already existing infrastructure smarter with its powerful sensors that control information, navigate traffic, inform about train delays or weather warnings etc. These benefits are just a few to name.  

The power of IoT in enhancing the quality of life. The Internet has acquired an essential part in today’s life mainly because it is able to reach the areas which were previously inaccessible. The current IoT (internet of things) market is growing at a fast pace is one of the three most impressive technological advancements witnessed before 2030, according to McKinsey. While designing nubsee, we focused on an intelligent system that revolves around IoT to improve the quality of life and can become a useful companion assisting the users whenever required. nubsee conducts precise environmental analysis, generates info, enables user interaction, all in all taking the smart concept to the next level.

Enabling access not only in metropolises but also in smaller cities.

The micro-mobility moment is playing a role in replacing traditional vehicles with electric vehicles and enables access in the bigger cities. Due to a lack of charging stations, people in small cities are unable to use the light electric vehicles. The nubsee network can be adjusted in a small city infrastructure as well providing accessibility to the maximum number of LEV users. Hence, more and more people might have a chance to switch to electric vehicles which is sustainable for the environment in the long run.

Conclusion

This article was an attempt to elaborate why and how nubsee through its advanced AI system helps our targeted user segments such as digital out-of-home, urban micro-mobility and sustainability and access for the users. These segments can avail a great deal of unique opportunities provided through the nubsee network for a technologically advanced yet sustainable future.

In the coming months, we would be talking about our perspective on the smart cities and how city dwellers can use nubsee to pump up the revenue stream and make their cities smarter by incorporating smart urban furniture to solve multiple problems.