Over the past few years, advertisement has changed beyond comprehension. The restrictions and limitations are no longer able to capture the beast of advertising, making room for thinking out-of-the-box and creativity.
There was a time when advertisements were placed on billboards, posters, hoardings, etc. with extra investment to be seen and noticed. On the other hand, for digital choice, the option was television, radio ads, or printed material.
But the technology is pacing at a faster speed, revolutionizing every step of an advertisement on its way.
Digital Out-of-Home Advertising (DOOH) is the latest, more influential, and challenging advertisement concept, giving a new ray of hope to the niche.
Wait, DOOH? You’ve probably heard about OOH (Out-of-Home) advertising. But what is Digital Out Of Home Advertising? Let us educate you about the brilliance and innovation of this technological advancement.
What is Digital Out Of Home Advertising (DOOH) & how is it different from OOH?
OOH (Out-of-Home) advertising is simply a traditional outdoor advertisement format, where the audience can view the ad at public places, transportation spots, routes, commercial spaces, etc.
DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home) advertising, on the other hand, is an amalgamation of offline OOH advertising with the addition of digital elements in it. It uses digital screens to deliver content to the people through elevator screens, digital billboards, and television screens.
The difference in both is that in OOH, the ad remains fixed in its place with a single image over some time. Whereas, in DOOH, the advertisement is displayed via digital screens with multiple animated images and stays there for a short time.
DOOH advertising can interact with people, making it a more energetic, interactive, and vivacious advertisement source.
DOOH as unblockable advertising source
Digital Out-of-Home advertising is an interactive and eye-catching advertising strategy that empowers the brands to digitize themselves and display content easily accessible to the general public.
The real reason DOOH advertising is progressing way faster than anticipated is reaching the target audience in real-time. Due to its real-time coverage and targeting, brands can boost their performance and channelize their flow.
With Digital Out-of-Home advertising, brands remain informed regarding the playtime of their ads. They can deliver useful messages without going irrelevant or inappropriate for their audience.
As per Statista, Global spending on DOOH advertising is expected to increase to USD 15.9 billion by 2027. In 2019, the growth recorded was USD 6.7 billion.
This figure confirms the potential DOOH advertising has and its ability to control the market. Because of DOOH advertising, out-of-home advertising statistics are decreasing.
In 2019 OOH advertising spending reached USD 39.42 billion, which is expected to decline to USD 37.1 billion by the end of 2022. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, OOH advertising reached USD 29.69 billion in 2020.
So, what is the main driver that is boosting and augmenting the growth of Digital Out-of-Home advertising? It is the arrival of the digital ad inventory, releasing businesses from the burden of traditional advertising format.
All the major countries and cities worldwide are expanding and modernizing their transportation systems by adding new and improved digital screens. These can prove as a growth opportunity to spread the DOOH advertising network.
Purchasing DOOH advertising is becoming much easier than older times, as the market is now converting programmatically. It means that brands can either buy or sell their advertisements and make actual progress with accuracy and in optimal time.
What is programmatic DOOH advertising?
The programmatic DOOH is the latest advertising form where there is no involvement of humans during the purchasing process. In this, brands can auction their DOOH advertising through a process called Demand Side Platform (DSP).
It will then communicate to an SSP (Sell Side Platform) that ensures an advertising spot or space for the brand. Hundreds of bidders bid on this through the DSP process to secure an advertising space they desire.
In the programmatic DOOH advertising, there are programmatic transactions. These allow brands to set detailed as well as precise conditions that trigger the DOOH advertising slot.
There is no limit in this virtual working condition, and brands can utilize the data as much as they wish to trigger the content.
Merits of Digital Out-of-Home Advertising
When it comes to the highly advanced and latest DOOH advertising, there are countless possibilities for businesses to succeed. Here are the top benefits that DOOH is offering, highlighting the brands and providing them with crucial insights.
Benefits of location based advertising
The location can leverage and elevate the brand presence without any compromise. There are two ways to get the most advantage of DOOH advertising.
Primarily, we all know that there are multiple locations in a city to display a digital ad. A city center, bus station, shopping malls, train station, commercial hubs, etc. are all hotspots where consumers can easily watch them, interact with them, and communicate with it.
At these spots, there are digital screens where you can easily manage your DOOH ad campaign.
Secondly, with location-based networking, the brands can track analytics using a mobile device. It can help you get insights about the consumers you are targeting and their behavior and perception about your brand in real-time.
Example: Euston Railway Station is a busy platform, and NCDV used it innovatively. They came up with a digital billboard campaign against domestic violence. The advertisement was about a man screaming at a woman.
The audience was asked to log on to the website of NCDV and virtually drag the man away. The station also displayed the real-time video of the man being dragged away with a scrolling message.
This video is created by NCDVUK.
Creative content generation
For the advertisement, content plays a vital role in attracting and appealing to the customers or targeted audience. DOOH advertising allows the brands to display their content with creativity and innovation.
Engaging content can lead to a personalized experience while creating an impact on society and the community.
By displaying content targeting the customers’ sentiments, values, and beliefs, businesses can drive higher engagement with the brand establishment. If the target audience is feeling gratified, rewarded, and pleased with the content’s message, their trust level will increase.Example:
On the occasion of gay pride in Israel, Facebook uses the DOOH advertising medium smartly. To cover the LGBTQ+ community’s sensitive topic and its freedom creatively, Facebook installed digital screens across the country.
The platform partnered with the Taggbox social wall to spread awareness with their social media wall that contained live feed, videos, and images.
During the pride walk, people were encouraged to share their experiences, uplift the community, and discuss their matters.
Personal, dynamic and context-dependent DOOH advertising
Delivery of personalized advertising in the world of traditional offline advertisement was never possible. With the influx of artificial intelligence and human behavior recognition algorithms, DOOH advertising made the impractical into a likely scenario.
The benefit of a personalized advertisement is that it helps shape the customers’ trust and belief and enhances their perception regarding the brand. It reshapes the customer’s first experience with the business that later on influences their judgment and engagement level with the brand.
With the smart feature of personalization and recognition, brands can now add sentiments, motivation and evoke emotions through facial expressions and words. In the offline environment, DOOH advertising can change the perception of the world for the better.Example:
At the O.R. Tambo International Airport, Douwe Egberts, a coffee brand, initiated a DOOH advertising campaign. They developed a facial recognition and analytical campaign named “Bye Bye Red Eye.”
In the airport lounge, people wait and mostly feel exhausted and tired. To get a free coffee from Douwe Egberts, the kiosk camera detects the yawns of the people. Just yawn in front of the camera and get a freshly brewed cup of coffee free of cost.
The video below is an example of a brilliant DOOH manifestation of the American car brand GMC. Here multiple techniques such as face analysis, narrowcasting and behavioral detection are applied.
Through these analyses, dynamic content is shown to the audience in order to attract passers-by but also to keep their attention.
The possibilities are infinite and a great deal is expected of this medium in the coming years and how exactly it will be developed.
Exceptional audience engagement
As per research, online display advertising has a low Click-Through-Rate (CTR). The audience now doesn’t feel connected to it and hence avoid it. The median CTR for online advertisement in 2020 first quarter decreased from 2.5% to 1.55%.
As per SmartInsight, the annual decrease of CTR recorded is 44% since the 2019 first quarter.
These statistics indicate that static online advertisements are not engaging enough to get the attention of the audience. With DOOH advertising, things are different!
Digital Out-of-Home advertising has the potential of creating and spreading massive awareness and engage the audience with proper content exposure.
These advertisements can be displayed strategically, in train stations, bus stops, airports, etc.
DOOH advertising is an expressive format that delivers the information, creates awareness, and interacts with the audience with personalization.
Example: Lancôme wanted to address the issue of the gender divide in the educational sector in Portugal. They launched a highly engaging campaign named #ShareASmile on International Women’s Day, with the facial analytical feature.
The DOOH displays were capturing smiles by females and donating one Euro for each smile captured with facial recognition software. The campaign raised awareness, engaged the audience to smile to donate. The raised fund was donated to fund scholarships for girls.
The bottom line
DOOH advertising is a modern and improved version of old OOH advertising. It has all the essential elements of engagement, exposure, and prominent reach and has many untapped opportunities, ready to take brands to the highest level of perfection.
