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ADCENTRICITY: DOOH headed for a collision

Firm says collision oncoming between DOOH, location-based services, shopper marketing, mobile marketing & social media.

February 16, 2011 by Christopher Hall — w, t

Digital out-of-home advertising network ADCENTRICITY is releasing its Q4 Digital Out-of-Home Market Review and its 2011 Digital Out-of-Home Outlook & Planning Guide today.

And when marketing exec Jeremy Lockhorn of Razorfish had a chance to take a look at the new reports, something ADCENTRICITY cofounder and CMO Jeff Atley wrote in the planning guide jumped out at him straightaway.

"On the whole, there are some very interesting – yet not necessarily surprising – insights and projections. AdCentricity has their finger on the pulse of the ecosystem and are sharing some valuable information," he wrote in an e-mail. "For me, one of the key points is this: 'There's a high-speed collision at a five way intersection oncoming between DOOH, location based services, shopper marketing, mobile marketing and social media.'

"I think they've hit the nail squarely on the head there. It's something we've been watching for years, and we're excited to work with ADCENTRICITY and others in the space to figure out what that intersection means to marketers and consumers alike. We don't have answers, but we've got some ideas. What's becoming clear is that consumers are rapidly adopting multiscreen behaviors and interactivity to the point where they're not just dabbling, but fully expecting these things to work together. Networks, content providers, marketers and venues will need to be ready for it."

In a telephone interview, ADCENTRICITY cofounder and President Rob Gorrie also pointed to that comment, but he also looked to some other key findings of both publications.

When looking back on Q4 of last year, for instance, he said, "top line, we're pretty damn happy with the activity in the space."

There was a bit of a dip in Q3, he said, but those dollars have started coming back to digital out-of-home advertising. Just as exciting, though, is that there are more new faces coming in all the time that have never before spent in the space, he said.

"What's driving that is the ROI and uplift results; people are seeing results," he said.

One of the key things driving that beyond the agency world is the increase in data from agencies like Nielsen that is getting beyond the agencies and to the brands themselves "and really opening some eyes," he said.

While finance and auto continue to be big drivers in the space, there is increased new interest from the telecommunications and entertainment industries, he said.

"One really to watch on the demand-side of things is the health-care and pharmaceutical side of the business," he said. "We're hearing some great, great, positive opinions out of that side of the business."

Also, while the firm didn't really expect to see much buy-in from the consumer packaged goods space for another year or so, ADECNTRICITY is starting to see "some great activity" from that sector, Gorrie said.

On the DOOH supply side, retail dominates, Gorrie said, but it's still the national banners getting most of the action as opposed to regional chains that also have good networks.

"People buy and sell what they know, so it makes it very difficult for some of the smaller regional brand names and regional chains to really get recognized on some of these plans," he said.

That goes for other sectors as well, and not just retail, Gorrie said, so there remains a need to educate agencies about the value of those lesser-known venues.

Gorrie also said he's especially excited to see an uptick in interest in networks in the hospitality, or bar and restaurant, sector. That sector promises excellent audiences and the ability to show consumer connection, he said, so it's nice to hear more noise coming from that area.

While the Q4 review is a look back, the 2011 guide is more than just prognostication, also offering a look at best practices, Gorrie said:

"I think what we're trying to do with pulling this all together into one guide for both the network and brand and agency communities is kind of saying, 'Hey, this is a big industry. It has a lot of moving parts to it; it can be extremely complicated or extremely simple, but there are a lot of best practices or good opportunities that you should be aware of if you're looking at it."

Gorrie talked yesterday about the need for the DOOH advertising industry to be less demographics-oriented and more objective-focused. Networks need to do more than just tell brands how many people they can reach, but where and how, and how they can make what they have fit with the brands' objectives.

"There's way too much complexity in the business – in the entire media business – to just be buying up everything that's out there just on a demographics basis," he said. "Those days are long gone."

So does the DOOH advertising business need to become more simple? Not necessarily, he said. There is a need for standardization, he said, but part of the utility of the medium is its dynamism and its complexity.

"Just because it's tough for the other side of the fence to always understand everything out there doesn't mean we should dumb down the entire medium just to fit a box," he said. "It's a very delicate balance."

Gorrie also said the coming year is going to be "an enormously good year for digital out-of-home in terms of growth, specifically in areas like QSRs and retail."

Other key reasons to read the report include a look at DOOH content and the need to look beyond what's shown on the screen and at its "ideation, localization and contextualization," Gorrie said. What does it mean to the consumer? How is it connected to the brand? And does it lead to some kind of action?

So how important is it for DOOH content to become more interactive as opposed to simply an ad running on a screen?

"Massively," he said.

That's when he also referred back to Atley's comment about the coming high-speed collision. Brands are already playing in all of those areas – DOOH, location-based services, shopper marketing, mobile marketing and social media – and working with lots of different companies to do so, he said, and all of them are running right at each other, throughout a consumer's entire day:

"This is going to be a hell of a year to watch all this stuff just come running at each other and explode and see where the pieces fall out at the end of the year."

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