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DOOH versus static billboards

Should you invest in traditional billboards or digital displays? It's a difficult question to answer because it depends on a few factors.

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February 28, 2020 by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace & Food Truck Operator

When it comes to creating a media buying plan for advertising, it can be difficult to sort through the myriad of options available. After all, you have everything from targeted social media advertisements to billboards to even newspaper advertisements (if your audience still reads the paper that is). However, if you were to break down all the advertising mediums into two categories, they would be traditional static and digital.

In the billboard world specifically, depending on your state's laws, you can pick either a traditional billboard with a printed image or a digital-out-of-home display to get your message across.

The real question is: which one is better?

It depends

Now you would expect someone writing for a website called Digital Signage Today to say, "Well of course DOOH is better!" However, the thing is, it depends on your overall expertise, goals and other factors.

For example, not every DOOH provider is going to have the same business practices or platform. Some might be very easy to work with and get you the best bang for your bucks. Others might be a bit more complicated. There's also the issue of whether you have the right expertise to develop good digital content to put on the displays. It's not enough to just recycle static content, you'll need something a bit more eye catching than that.

There's also the issue of how the display will handle bad weather. Some displays are built to withstand the elements…other's not so much.

Also, you will have to consider placement. While that DOOH billboard might be brighter and more expressive than a traditional billboard, it might not have the ideal location for your business. If you are looking to target a particular geographic market, and there are a lot more static billboards in that market, you will need to follow the money.

All that being said, DOOH still does have some pretty big advantages over traditional billboards

The big advantages

First of all, DOOH is far easier to update than static billboards. If you want to swap out a billboard advertisement, you will have to design the piece of content, have it printed out professionally then have a crew go down to the billboard, tear down the old piece and put up the new one.

With DOOH, it's ideally little more than a few clicks online and a few file uploads, without the need for any onsite work.

There are other advantages to DOOH including:

• Sensors can measure the real impact of a campaign.
• You can integrate multimedia content such as animations, videos.
• The screen's brightness will catch a lot of eyeballs.

The bottom line

For these and other reasons, DOOH can be a truly effective addition to your advertising portfolio. However, you will need to carefully consider your own goals, abilities and vendors in the area so you can determine what is best for your advertising budget. The goal, after all, is to make money and boost your brand's image, not to just use fancy technology.

About Bradley Cooper

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Bradley Cooper is the editor of ATM Marketplace and Food Truck Operator. He was previously the editor of Digital Signage Today. His background is in information technology, advertising, and writing.

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