The use of digital screens in the outdoor market is set to deliver some stunning new opportunities for both brands and consumers, says Primesight’s Lee Anderson.
Stop and reflect for a moment on the sophisticated advertising campaigns that mesmerise audiences today. The complex screen technology, real-time consumer interaction and the very tangible possibility that what appears on these screens will soon become even more relevant and immediate for the audience.
This is not only exciting, but it’s actually happening. Furthermore 2014 looks to be a year filled with so many hot conversations around this area.
In the last few years there has been an increase in the extent to which screens have pervaded our society. Huge advances in touch technology, primarily driven by Apple, have rapidly increased our ability to interact and connect in free and seamless ways.
This and the popularity of social media has proliferated the consumer habit of ‘second screening’ but it poses the natural question as to whether this is a positive evolution for advertisers, or negative. The current debate most definitely exists about more than one screen holding simultaneous visual attention.
There is also a significant trend towards programmatic buying; in video advertising, for example, this grows more common and according to announcements by the likes of Xaxis earlier this year, may soon extend outside the boundaries of computer screens to the outdoor environment.
Outdoor screens allow consumers to engage with advertising in a unique way.”
We are already seeing this heavily reported in the US in particular with The Wall Street Journal and Adotas both running prominent reports on the subject in 2013. As this technology finds relevant audiences in real-time by automatic systems – audiences can be located by demographics, by interests or through keyword searches – it poses the question; what does this mean for people’s relationships?
Media buyers, meanwhile, will believe that their skills, judgement and knowledge will always be required to make advertising work, however automated it becomes.
To me, it feels like it’s all coming together and that ecosystems are joining up – from ad networks to rich media to automation, and right through to Blippar’s use of augmented reality to enrich experiences for brands.
The bit that makes my hairs stand up on the back of my neck is the speed in which this is happening, inside and outside, in a cultural world and high stimuli arena. Interestingly, this points towards the active space in the outdoor market.
If you think about the outdoor market, digital currently accounts for 20% of all outdoor spend and is without a doubt the fastest growing sector. At this year’s annual advertising industry event, AdMonsters Screens, I discussed the development of digital out-of-home and the powerful relationship between outdoor advertising and screens; specifically how we’ve witnessed the growth of digital out-of-home derive from two distinct paths; pedestrian environments and roadside locations.
Pedestrian environments, such as cinemas and airports, provide increased dwell time and engagement, presenting the opportunity to increase the value of display to the audience. Birdseye pioneered this using our digital screens to deliver a game to cinemagoers that they could play before seeing Ice Age 2, with the campaign achieving 11,000 interactions.
Roadside locations can also offer a dominant position which warrants significant capital investment in large digital displays, and we expect to see the development of a more mature digital roadside market and a broader range of product entry points.
Consumers have evolved towards a more empowered status and advertising is now geared around multi-screens and multi-devices.”
Now, outdoor screens allow consumers to engage with advertising in a unique way; the audience doesn’t just see the advert, they can interact with it – such as downloading a voucher or playing a game.
Digital out-of-home also provides flexibility; you are no longer confined to buying advertising space for a full two week cycle and have the ability to use outdoor tactically for shorter periods of time.
As always, outdoor has embraced innovative technology to enhance its offering: geo-fencing allows targeted messaging to entice consumers in-store; e-commerce technology, like Shopwyre, enables interaction with posters across the retail vertical; and augmented reality works with outdoor to create mind-blowing encounters with brands.
In recent times, brands have utilised these advances in outdoor to create remarkable interactive and memorable campaigns. Ray Ban combined screens, mobile and outdoor to encourage consumers to interact with not just the brand, but also each other, and ultimately delivered a unique brand experience for each user.
Our campaign with O2 Tracks also demonstrates the interactive capabilities that outdoor and screens can offer when used in tandem by using touch-screen to allow the audience to make decisions on the content they wish to view. Consumers have evolved towards a more empowered status and advertising is now geared around multi-screens and multi-devices to target, attract and engage with the audience – it’s happening because consumers are demanding it.
It’s astonishing how far we have come since the first billboard in Egypt all those years ago and exhilarating how far we can go as the merge gathers even more pace in the coming years. I have no doubt that moving into 2014 screens will continue their inexorable pervasion of our lives.
Nowhere is this truer than in the outdoor space. This will deliver new and better opportunities for brands and people to come together. The consumer benefits from receiving current, relevant and contextualised content. The brand benefits from delivering enriched messages which are better able to change attitudes and actions.
Lee Anderson is head of marketing at Primesight.
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