Article
Top 10: Digital out-of-home is an advertiser's most powerful tool
DOOH's inherent characteristics and maturity make it a valuable arrow in the brand and agency quiver.
October 23, 2008 by Lyle Bunn — Strategy Architect, BUNN
The new medium of Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH), also known as out-of-home video advertising, in-store TV, captive audience TV, digital signage or dynamic digital display, offers advertisers one of the most targeted and powerful ways of reaching consumers.
It extends the reach of TV to be "OOH TV." It also allows in-home Internet to be the consumer-addressable "OuterNet" and serves as amiddle mediato drive consumers to a Web site or motivate mobile download, e-browsing, e-commerce and permission marketing.
Agency representatives and DOOH network operators are excited about the value of the media for advertising. In moderating a panel that focused on the viability of digital signage as an advertising media, Chris Borek, senior manager, in-store digital marketing for Target said "the retail floor is the ideal place for dynamic display advertising because it serves products' branding and merchandising goals at the same time."
Donna Speciale, president, investment and activation, Mediavest USA, in addressing the Strategy Institute's DOOH Investors Conference in New York said "the outlook is more and more positive, asOVAB's traffic auditwork keeps moving forward, as ad sellers learn how to sell it and as buyers become almost like broadcast media buyers, this media will advance rapidly."
Steve Mueller of Outdoor Services said, "We've spent time assessing the effectiveness of DOOH and we like what we see. Our ultimate mission with out-of-home is to intercept customers with messages when they do not expect it. We especially like the ability to day-part and deliver highly localized messages."
Almost a million displays are operating in North America and savvy advertisers and communicators are achieving their branding, merchandising and awareness goals through these advertising, retail and staff or patron digital display networks.
The Top 10 reasons why DOOH is so powerful |
1. It gets proven branding, merchandising and "call to action" results. 2. Location – Location – Location! 3. Measurability – viewers and demographics 4. Demographic targeting 5. Time of the day-week-month placement 6. Price (It is a bargain for ROI-ROO) 7. Ease of flight planning and purchase 8. Growing inventory of networks, locations and displays 9. Positioning with other "digital" marketing channels 10. You cannot, not look at relevant digital signage content (It gets noticed) |
Here are the Top 10 reasons why DOOH is so powerful:
1. It gets proven branding, merchandising and "call to action" results.
While the measurement standards to be introduced by the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) on October 29, 2008, reflect actions toward a measurement standard, many networks, retailers and brands have been conducting impact studies for years. Neilson, Arbitron, DS-IQ, Transearch and others have well-developed methodologies and are able to provide metrics which define branding, merchandising effectiveness.
WalMart recently announced that it is proceeding to deploy its next generation of in-store TV to further maximize its achievement of retailing goals, reflecting the proven capability of DOOH as an advertising medium.
Other retailers, advertisers, investors and communicators are equally bullish on the power of DOOH to generate return on investment (ROI), return on objectives (ROO) and return on effort (ROE).
2. Location – Location – Location!
DOOH brings "the power of place," as described by Suzanne Alecia, president of OVAB, while presenting with agency representatives at the Strategy Institute's DOOH Investors Conference.DOOH presents messages at the point-of-purchase. Proctor & Gamble have named this the "First Moment of Truth," meaning that all consumer messaging must start at the point of product selection and be focused on securing a consumer desire and alignment with a product to assure purchase intent.
Waiting areas in which a captive audience can be presented with messages (such as elevators, transit, medical offices, etc.) offer high value to advertisers.
3. Measurability – viewers and demographics
As referenced at point one, measurement is advancing rapidly. Eye and shopper tracking tools such as those available from CognoVision, TruMedia, Quividi, VideoMining and Zoom allow advertisers to know who is watching (i.e. age range, gender, etc.) to enable testing and tuning of ad impact, or a new paradigm of advertising called "dynamic ad provisioning" whereby an ad is presented based on the demographic of who is watching. 4. Demographic targeting
There are several dimensions of this, including the ability to target a demographic based on the location or time of day in which an ad is presented.
The second dimension is the ability to present messages on multiple DOOH displays while a target demographic goes about its day. SeeSaw Networks describes how ads might be presented to reach the "Millenial" demographic (18-25 year olds) in a given day through displays at bus shelters, coffee shops, on campus, in a food court, gas stations, bank machines, in malls, in a bar, bathrooms and through street furniture.
5. Time of day, week or month placement
DOOH allows advertisers to present ads at the time of year, month and day when they will be most effective. This targeting reduces ad spending waste to further address the dilemma presented by John Wanamaker, the pioneering merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure who is considered the father of modern advertising when (in about 1920) he said, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted… I just don't know which half!"
6. Price (it is a bargain for ROI-ROO)
While offering better approaches and new paradigms of message targeting, DOOH is typically sold on a CPM (cost per thousand viewers) basis. Inherent capabilities for message targeting combined with attractive CPM rates make DOOH attractive on the media plan, providing high return on investment and return on objectives.
7. Ease of "flight" planning and purchase
Planning and buying media sits somewhere at the intersection of being an art, science and craft, requiring discipline and tenacity on the part of ad agency and branding professionals. Longer-standing ad mediums such as TV, radio, print and Internet have older approaches to assist in media planning and placement, although these are developing very rapidly in DOOH. Media planners and buyers charged with investigating DOOH will find it increasingly easy to access network information and third-party metrics. Gaining a proposal from a DOOH network operator is a phone call or email away.
8. Growing inventory of networks, locations and displays
As of mid-October, the 28 member networks of OVAB accounted for over 34,500 locations and 400,000+ displays covering all DMAs and providing total gross venue traffic of $2.4 billion monthly and $27.5 billion annually, according to Suzanne Alecia.
InfoTrends Inc. reports that DOOH is growing at 25 percent CAGR toward $2.6 billion by year end 2011. The number of 837,000 displays currently installed in North America is growing by 18 percent annually. The 43 percent of these displays that are used primarily for third party advertising is growing at 58 percent annually. Other displays are used for location branding, and staff or patron communications.
The "fourth screen" of DOOH (so-called after TV, computer display and mobile phone) has a growing inventory of usable and accessible displays. While this ad-based display inventory will grow, it can be easily imagined that displays not currently carrying advertising or sponsored messaging will in future provide part of its playlist for revenue-generating purposes. 9. Positioning with other digital marketing channels
Economies, "speed to messaging" and communications flexibility are provided when content creation, composition, management, transport and presentation are all done digitally. This allows the cost-effective re-purposing of ads across media platforms and DOOH is positioned to leverage or excite other media platforms. This supports brand goals in creating ubiquity and omni-presence with targeted demographics.
Messaging on DOOH can provide a Web site address, mobile download number or a telephone number, which when dialed from a cell phone provides a pre-recorded message specific to the ad display location for exhibit, product or other information, wayfinding, voting, etc.
Given the ability to recycle 99.5 percent of technology components and to carry a large volume of ads in a completely digital communications supply chain, DOOH can be considered very "green."
10. You cannot, not look at relevant DOOH content (It gets noticed)
Motion compels us to look at what's moving — perhaps this behavior is burned into our DNA from our "caveman" days when motion represented either a possible meal or a threat. Dr. Hugh Philips, a cognitive psychologist has described in POPAI seminars that human beings "select" or "de-select" what they notice based on the relevance of what is presented. That being the case, motion video and animation coming and going on a dynamic display offers high probability of being seen, and relevant or interesting messages can then fulfill the objectives.
Lyle Bunn is an independent consultant serving as advisor, planner and educator in the Digital Out-of-Home industry. This article expands on presentations by Lyle Bunn at the DOOH Investor Conference and The Digital Signage Show, both held in New York in Oct. 2008.
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