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Settling the frontier of digital out-of-home

Digital media and dynamic signage analyst recounts key takeaways form recent events looking at the still untamed digital out-of-home landscape.

December 3, 2014 by Lyle Bunn — Strategy Architect, BUNN

The pioneers get the arrows and the settlers get the land … so goes the old saying. The promise of dynamic place-based media for advertising and customer engagement impact continues to move forward and the settlers, both advertisers and network operators are prospering.

Frontier towns in geographic expansion experienced the challenges of getting their products to market, and this is the continued challenge being met by the very high-growth digital out-of-home sector.

Strategies for exploiting the enabling value of DOOH were outlined by over 40 agency, brand and network presenters for more than 700 media professionals who attended the "Video Everywhere" summit hosted in New York City on Nov. 4 by the Digital Place Based Advertising Association. At the event, both Oppenheimer and Schick provided excellent case studies to outline their successes. "The trend is our friend," reflected DPAA CEO Barry Frey, noting that digital place-based media use by advertisers grew 11.2 percent in 2013 to $1.1 billion.

This theme also was part of this year's Customer Engagement World in New York City with presentations by Frito-Lay (PepsiCo), American Express, Time Warner and others over the following two days. And on Nov. 16 I also presented a webinar to media planners and buyers wanting to learn about digital out-of-home.

The focus was on maximizing communications spending noting that brand relationships are a journey, just as consumer decision-making is a journey.

Further key takeaways from all of these included:

• Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the Association of National Advertisers, said, "Digital out-of-home is the right place at the right time."
• Jeanine Poggi of Advertising Age reminded that, "Advertisers must be nimble."
• Rich Greenfield, ‎media futurist and media and tech analyst at BTIG: "Consumer behavior is increasingly about ad avoidance and that consumers are becoming more individual." (This drives the need to present contextual messages in out-of-home environments.)
• Martin Cass, CEO at MDC Media Partners and Assembly: "Media Buyers and networks all have to focus on how they add value to the brand."
• The "moment" must be the media planning and buying target. The moment in the consumer journey must allow consumers to easily share your brand with their friends in share-able and "snack-able" pieces. Ideas live on media, noted Joe Mandese, editor in chief of MediaPost.
• All media in the "paid-owned-earned" media model must leverage all elements of the strategy. Media guru Jack Meyers reflected that below-the-line merchandising spending at $400 billion annually is double above-the-line advertising spending.
• "Understanding consumer needs is more important than understanding consumer media behavior," noted Natasha Hritzuk, ‎global consumer insights director, Microsoft Advertising, adding, "The screen is becoming more agnostic, and the transition is toward consumer audience targeting." Content must enable decision-makers by making decisions better informed and easier. Content has to pivot to the need. We see mobile as personal, the desktop as "the sage" and the tablet as immersive, ideal for discovery.
• "Mobile is not a device; it is a lifestyle and a platform," as reflected by Anthony Martinez, communications strategist for Coca-Cola.
• Context must travel across platforms.
• "Turning data into insights that drive content that is targeted and contextually relevant is the next key step," declared Jose Avalos, worldwide marketing director, visual retail, digital signage, Intel Corp.

Schick presented a campaign strategy that targeted male shaver users in the health club environment as a way to battle the dominant Gillette brand. Campaign success of 48 percent brand awareness, 55 percent purchase intent and 53 percent actual purchase based on intent was presented during Schick's Video Everywhere case study.

Oppenheimer reflected its challenge in reaching 350,000 financial advisors who market more than 750 individual funds. In using lobby and elevator displays in financial corporate centers, they experienced 78 percent brand lift, 34 percent inquiry increase and 52 percent taking brand engagement action.

"Search before purch" by consumers was articulated by Rebecca Walt, vice president and director of digital retail strategy, The Integer Group - Omnicom Group, in outlining the "pre-tail, retail, post-tail" cycle, while noting that "brands that fail to develop brand awareness and purchase intent are at the mercy of consumer spending."

"Transitioning retail space from a supply chain utility where dwell time is minimal to a place where experiences happen and memories are made is a critical success factor" said Audrey Hendley, senior vice president and general manager, prospect engagement and new member acquisition at American Express. She added that "the funnel is our friend," noting that the transition in the prospect funnel from awareness to consideration to evaluation to purchase offered measures that impact success while also providing insights into the rejection experience that could be corrected. Her formula includes designing all communications with the outcome at various stages in mind driven by knowing the customer, knowing where they are, saying the right thing and making purchase easy.

Digital Place-based is at the intersection of art and science.

The technology industrial complex is enabling the marketing industrial complex to do what it does best in providing higher value-added to brands.

Beyond out-of-home budgets, display networks are being in-store TV through which broadcast budgets are being tapped. In what is now being called the OuterNet, Internet budgets are increasingly being tapped, in part reflecting media planner/buyer frustrations with online advertising.

"I am buying video," said Jeff Dow, senior vice president, analytics and digital strategy, Starcom Mediavest Group, adding, "We want to blend that playout with other relevant content and the environment."

The Video Everywhere panel of media agencies, which also included representatives of GoDaddy, MEC Global, Havas Media, Zenith Optimedia and Magna Global reflected a target of 30 percent to 40 percent purchasing on digital out-of-home by 2015.

In order to make this happen, they asked network operators to enable:

1. Real-time decisioning;
2. Little or no use of arbitrage, re-selling (as associated with online/internet buying; and
3. More information on viewer context.

Each acknowledged that a high level of fraud typically exists with Internet advertising, and that, because of viewing habits, advertising on "linear TV is dead with the exception of live sports."

DOOH as a media is encouraged to draw from the strength of the TV advertising ecosystem that includes local syndication, bundling of channels, up-fronts and long-tail viewer targeting.

The frontier is a busy place, given digital media options for brand building. As each new medium is applied, its weaknesses are revealed. The impact of Amazon and iTunes for shopping are excellent examples to the digital out-of-home sector and to digitalization of the link to consumers and to settlement of digitally enabled frontiers of commerce, including advertising and consumer engagement.

Lyle Bunn is an analyst, advisor and educator in North America's digital media industry. He has received numerous industry recognitions, has published more than 300 articles and guides, and has helped to train more than 10,000 media professionals. He can be reached at Lyle@LyleBunn.com.

Photo courtesy of Marion Doss.