I was discussing this phenomenon with Jonathan Gudai, Chief Executive Officer ofAdomni, a digital out-of-home (DOOH) platform. "What we're seeing," he told me, "is that more traditional advertising tactics like out-of-home advertising are gaining new relevance. The entire medium is being brought into the digital world, with all the value that brings: audience-based buying, data-driven communications and, ultimately, attribution."
Adomni is sitting at the heart of the transformation that is changing how out-of-home ads are planned, purchased, delivered and measured. This is no small task and has involved creating a platform that simplifies the process of understanding when audiences are out in the world and pinpointing specifically where they happen to be. The platform also offers a UI (or, if preferred, a set of APIs for processing automated purchasing instructions from DSPs) that allows any desired inventory to be assessed and purchased transparently, without bidding or other additional, unpredictable costs. Impressions are then delivered across a national network of screen-owning partners consisting of everything from large format billboards, to displays at sports stadiums, to TVs at bars and restaurants, to kiosks at local businesses.
"What's happening is that digital out-of-home is starting to resemble video both in how it's bought and how it can be used," Gudai explained. "It provides the ability to tell a story with motion."
While OOH marketing has shown it can be effective on its own, when matched with mobile audience data the capabilities start to get reallyinteresting. Initially, of course, mobile provides the specific movement patterns of consumers, which can be gathered via anonymous device IDs. This allows marketers to find and target specific locations and particular screens with confidence, knowing that they are hitting the audience they want.
But there is more to it than just reaching an audience. The big screen communications that are happening with consumers in their physical environment are making a big impact on the mobile ad campaigns running on consumers' personal devices. AnIAB article cited a recent study showing that OOH and mobile ad campaigns running in parallel raised mobile click-through rates by 48%. The study went on to demonstrate a 306% lift for secondary action rates (SAR) when running the duo of mediums versus mobile-ad-only campaigns.
"You get a new level of influence when you pair screens," Gudai told me. "For example, imagine you are the UFC, and you want to pinpoint locations frequented by young males gathered with their friends to watch a sporting event. DOOH can deliver this. And when we pair DOOH with mobile, we can do things like show the group an ad for an upcoming pay-per-view event on a big screen -- like a billboard -- and then reinforce it with an offer delivered to their personal, small screen devices offering a direct promotion -- say, $5.00 off a fight pass streaming purchase if you click on the ad."
(This was a timely example, given a study just released by Nielsen reinforcing the value of marketing to consumers gathered in, say, bars and restaurants to watch sports. Compared to last year, NFL fans are between 10 and 12 percent more likely to watch a game out of their home, with 75 percent of these viewers indicating that they were "somewhat to very likely to notice a brand or product advertised" while doing so.)
In addition to stepped up engagement, this same mobile data also creates the path to attributing ROI to DOOH investments. "At the point of transaction, we can use anonymous mobile data to match people who have purchased or interacted with an ad to those who have viewed or interacted with our DOOH displays," Gudai said.
"Today, digital out of home is two percent of total ad spend," he continued. "Non-digital out-of-home takes the overall medium to four percent of total ad spend. As advertisers seek new ways to engage consumers, this will continue to grow. It's the next great advertising medium, as search and social have become crowded and expensive for marketers. We expect more and more dollars to continue flowing to OOH, as performance marketers look for new ways to drive results in an affordable way."
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