Digital Billboards: A Game Changer for Auto Advertisers in the Out-of-Home Market

Today billboards are a mainstay of the OutofHome OOH industry representing 66 percent of total revenue says B Media Group They39re engaging the people who at least until COVID19 spent 70 percent of their days outside the home Morgan Stanley Research says OOH advertising isn39t just on public placards it39s in doctor39s offices bus shelters mall kiosks old telephone booths on the sides of buses and on lampposts And OOH is increasingly digital DOOH According to The Myers Report digital OOH generated 28 billion in 2019 and it39s growing quicklyDigital ads work A recent Nielsen study shows a high notice rate and the ability to drive onlineoffline action for digital billboards digital street furniture and digital transit According to Movia of the 70 percent of people who recall seeing a digital ad in the past month 47 percent specifically remember the ad39s contentsWatch the live stream at MediaVillage today at 4PMOOH generally is effective Nielsen said in 2017 quotOnline activations including search Facebook Twitter and Instagram activity generated by out of home advertising indexes at nearly four times the rate we would expect given its relative ad spendamp8230Nearly five in 10 US residents age 18 or older 46 percent have used Google Bing Yahoo or another Internet search engine to look up information after seeing or hearing something advertised on a billboard bus shelter or other outdoor advertising or in a movie theater in the past six monthsquotLes Harrison represents clientagency partnerships and is head of automotive at Outfront Media formerly CBS Outdoor quotFor us digital is a small percentage of inventory but a growing part of revenuequot he said Harrison said auto companies are embracing digital buys including Ford Nissan and Jaguar Land Rover And some companies are using DOOH to get larger audience for livestreamed events often in conjunction with YouTubeIn an example of innovation in DOOH Porsche recently hosted guests to a drivein screening of Mad Max Fury Road on the top of the Grove in Los Angeles Using Hollywood as the backdrop star Charlize Theron introduced the movie to a private audience of 250 guests Toyota livestreamed the launch of the new Venza but hasn39t used DOOH yetKia39s Stinger buy was up in Times Square during New Year39s Eve That got it into countless selfies Harrison said He added that the billboard is close to where Good Morning America is taped and that fuels a lot more background engagement A challenge for the OOH industry is quantifying the impact of the advertising especially compared to Facebook and Google but Outfront and other players are innovatingOutfront Media is one of the largest out ofhome advertising companies there are three big ones and it owns or leases a wide variety of venues for advertisingamp8212electronic and traditional highway billboards screens in malls placards in public transitamp8212and also sells space on those assets For datahungry clients the company quantifies how well it worksLast year Quip a maker of electric toothbrushes put its message in one of the most public places in Americaamp8212an Outfront billboard in Manhattan39s Times Square The results are in via a mobile survey with Outfront partner MFour 78 percent of respondents said they39re likely to consider buying Quip and 82 percent gave the brand a quotgood to excellentquot rating Another survey revealed that some 50 percent of those queried recalled seeing the Florida Department of Transportation39s safety campaign quotAlert Today Alive Tomorrowquot And 70 percent said they will or have taken an action as a result of seeing the OOH messagesLucy Markowitz vice president of national sales at Vistar Media said that what is called programmatic OOH works well for brands that need to pivot their messaging quickly Examples might be a sale or other timebound announcements She also said that Vistar39s analysis is seeing greater engagement with OOH screens in gas stations convenience stores and other locationsAuto dealerships have traditionally put billboards near their exits on highways and that continues to pay off According to OOHTodaycom in 2019 a major dealership brand in California used billboards to reach specific market segments and saw a visit lift of at least 97 percent across each market 158 percent in San Francisco 142 percent in San Diego 122 percent in Los Angeles and 97 percent in SacramentoThe traditional billboard still dominates the OOH industry A small but increasing share of the Outfront inventory is digital offering a host of advantages to advertisers including the ability to go up quickly to have messages go up at specific locations at strategically chosen times and to get quick feedback about the ad39s effectiveness In this digital OOH can offer a more affordable alternative to Facebook and Google which excel in the metrics advertisers want but have significant brandsafety issuesLEDbased digital billboards cost from 5000 to 180000 to install depending on size One top buy would be a 14 by 48foot digital billboard with a pixel pitch of 16 millimetersamp8212that would cost 154000 plus parts and shipping Once it39s up a client can get their image in rotation with just a digital file The billboards are very bright even in daylight and Harrison said the displays are subject to local regulationAccording to Movia advertisers will pay from 850 to 7000 for fourweek campaigns with the ads circulating every eight seconds Obviously there be brand adjacency issues with these rotations too but Harrison says advertisers can specify their placement requirementsamp8212and control it more than is possible with the big online playersquotWe39re hoping the car players will become big users of DOOHquot Harrison said quotWe39re seeing a lot of interest in it We39re hoping the momentum continuesquotI joined Harrison Markowitz and Joe Kyriakoza general manager of IHS Markit in a lively discussion of the impact of OOH See it hereamp160Photo CaptionsAt top A live board for the Chevy Blazer Transit spaces are prime locations for DOOH OUTFRONT photoTraffic streams past a Porsche billboard in Atlanta OUTFRONT photoNissan gets the message out in Philadelphia OUTFRONT photoClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Digital Billboards: A Game Changer for Auto Advertisers in the Out-of-Home Market

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Jim Motavalli

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Digital Billboards: A Game Changer for Auto Advertisers in the Out-of-Home Market

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