(Credit: Reveel)

Digital Out-of-home (DOOH) has not had to fight hard for a place within strategies compared to its static counterpart; that still has a hard time remaining on strategies due to inflexibility, high cost and low reach in relation to broadcast mediums. Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) was a solution to many advertisers’ challenges in that it created an efficient and cost-effective way to include OOH into the media mix. Advertisers are primarily driven to utilise the medium due to its semi-flexible and tactical nature which allowed brands to pivot from static to Digital Out-of-Home.

As the format evolved; more efficiencies (method of buying), allowed advertisers to invest even less and still ensure guaranteed visibility on OOH from slot-based buys to SOV. This meant that advertisers could buy moments and time bands to ensure relevance and recency giving brands more value on the format. With the increasing pressure to remain valued and circumventing loadshedding challenges, the format further evolved into Programmatic Digital Out-of-Home (pDOOH) giving brands complete flexibility and only buying audiences relevant to the campaign objectives and only paying for spots that flighted. This allowed the format to reinforce its relationship with digital even further to the point of Programmatic Digital Out-of-Home (pDOOH) being included as its very own line-item tracker on budgets akin to online. But brands still required additional measurability and MROI. Suppliers solved for this with their “attribution” solutions, showing the effect of Programmatic Digital Out-of-Home (pDOOH) efforts on uplift. There has been an increasing association of pDOOH with online; with suppliers adding omni-channel offerings to the mix. However, it should not be lumped into one basket, it should; by the very nature of where it is found “out-of-home” not be targeted, bought or implemented the same way but rather lead by Out-of-Home location & landscape specialists with a lens on one to many, not one to one targeting.

(Credit: Kantar)

In a nutshell, what’s changed? Automation, tech, data, optimisation, measurability, and attribution.  Exactly what clients are looking for ultimately BUT this does not mean all DOOH budget should be allocated to pDOOH. Like there is a role for each channel, there is also a role for each format, and it should be bought, implemented, and creatively optimised for the role it was intended. Fit for format and fit for strategy to ensure each campaign is geared towards success.

What’s next? We are already seeing blurred lines from Computer-generated imagery (CGI) or Faux OOH, does this fall within digital or OOH gambits? Next is likely artificial intelligence (AI), it would be exciting to see how this translates to DOOH or if it does. With the focus on Attention Economy and advertising carbon measurement (which DOOH & OOH have very low carbon emissions per impression) and in addition the channel being voted top 5 of South African’s preferred method of communication, why are we not seeing DOOH budgets translating to a bigger piece of the media pie?

What solutions can DOOH offer? How can we buy and report across the expanse of DOOH? Impactful multi-screen dominance nodes? screens that talk to each other? more dynamic campaigns? more compelling case studies that show the direct uplift on sales? more award-winning campaigns? changing the narrative on limited budgets on DOOH which create a drop in the ocean affect and won’t turn the dial in a very cluttered landscape? It will require a collaborative effort for the further growth and greater piece of the media pie allocation. Imagine how unstoppable DOOH would be?