Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising continues to rapidly transform the advertising landscape, combining physical and digital spaces and creating dynamic, engaging impressions. Imagine walking through a bustling city square where dazzling LED advertising screens capture your attention, adapting content in real-time to satisfy the interests of surrounding people. Imagine digital screens in your local grocery store displaying colorful advertising campaigns and interacting with you, offering personalized promotions based on your shopping preferences. This is an exciting frontier of advertising where the boundaries between digital and physical blur, creating captivating moments that engage consumers on the go.

Behind the bright screens and captivating visual effects, Digital Out-of-Home now uses advanced technologies such as programmatic buying, real-time measurement and analytics, and geotargeting to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. Its evolution is driven by growing digital support for outdoor media, transforming static billboards into dynamic canvases with kaleidoscopic content, creating numerous effective and measurable touchpoints. This is achieved using specialized digital signage players that ensure content playback on digital screens.

Firstly, what is DOOH?

Digital Out-of-Home advertising refers to digital media displayed in public places, such as digital billboards, screens at transit stations or in stores, and interactive kiosks. Unlike traditional Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising, which typically consists of static images, Digital Out-of-Home uses digital technology to display dynamic content that can be updated in real-time, allowing advertisers to deliver relevant and timely messages to their target audience. This involves the use of pDOOH, which enables programmatic buying of advertising space.

DOOH operates through a network of digital screens controlled by technological platforms that manage the display, distribution, and timing of ads. These platforms allow for programmatic buying, where advertisers bid on ad space in real-time based on specific audience criteria, while targeting capabilities ensure that ads effectively reach the optimal audience. Specialized video wall software is used to manage these processes, ensuring efficient content management on digital signage.

OOH in DOOH: from static to dynamic advertising

Traditional OOH advertising has long been a core marketing tool—imagine billboards on highways or advertising content on train sides designed to capture the attention of passersby. Despite its appeal, the static nature of this advertising limits its ability to kinetically engage the audience.  Digital Out of Home, inherently relies on the digital component, allowing for the creation of compelling content that can be displayed and updated in real-time using specialized Digital Signage software.

Innovations in DOOH displays

Achievements in DOOH technology over the past few years have made the advertising landscape more dynamic, interesting, and interactive. The basis of display is the ability to alternate advertising in the same physical space, with digital screens cyclically showing several advertisements. This maximizes the use of infrastructure and increases potential revenue without the need for additional physical installations. Digital screens are more environmentally friendly compared to printed billboards, reducing the need for physical materials and waste. LED billboards are particularly effective, providing high brightness and attractiveness.

Effects such as innovative lighting installations near DOOH advertising screens enhance visual impressions, synchronizing with the content of the advertising screens to create a more vivid experience. Full-fledged digital advertising screens have changeable, personalized creative content, especially effective for dynamic industries such as cinema. The boundless potential applications inspire brands and agencies to develop campaigns specifically for full-fledged Digital Out-of-Home, including video advertising, which provides high interactivity and audience engagement.

Another attractive innovation is synchronization across different spaces, where objects are animated on several consecutive screens, creating an engaging and connected storytelling experience.

Programmatic DOOH and Digital support

The integration of DOOH into cross-channel strategies goes hand in hand with the growing adoption of programmatic buying, allowing advertisers to optimize campaigns in real-time and measure results with greater accuracy. Programmatic has certainly advanced, enabling media buyers to set specific audience and environmental criteria, such as demographic data, time of day, or weather conditions. When these conditions match, the ad is displayed automatically. This makes the buying process more efficient and ensures that ads are shown to the best audience at the best time. Specialized software for LED screens is used to ensure efficient content management on digital signage.

The importance of measurement and ROI

As Digital Out-of-Home advertising continues to expand its presence in the advertising landscape, the need for reliable solutions for measurement and attribution becomes increasingly key. Advertisers cannot be satisfied with just knowing that their ads are being displayed; they need reliable and complex methods to quantify the impact of their DOOH investments and how these campaigns contribute to overall marketing success. For this purpose, advertising screens that are part of the network are used.

In response to the question “What are your concerns, if any, when considering DOOH in your media plans?” respondents named measurement-related concerns as the two main ones. Although the percentage of respondents who mentioned these concerns has significantly decreased since 2021, it remains substantial.

Despite the outdated perception that Digital Out-of-Home lacks sophisticated measurement capabilities, the reality is that advanced tools and methodologies are capable of providing reliable and detailed insights, and marketers are gradually coming to understand this. Advertisers can use effective measurement solutions to assess the impact of their DOOH investments, allowing them to justify advertising expenses, optimize campaign effectiveness, and easily integrate DOOH into broader marketing strategies. For this purpose, specialized DOOH Display Solutions are used to ensure efficient content management on digital screens.

Key solutions for measurement and attribution

Various solutions, including third-party verification, marketing mix modeling (MMM), and multi-touch attribution (MTA), allow advertisers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness of their DOOH and make informed decisions. Ultimately, these solutions will ensure that Digital Out-of-Home fully occupies its place as a valuable and indispensable tool in the modern marketing mix. To manage these processes, a centralized video management system is used, which allows controlling the display of advertising content on different screens.

Third-party verification

Third-party verification is necessary to ensure visibility and accurate measurement of ad impressions. This includes independent verification services that confirm that the ad was actually viewed by the target audience. Third-party verification helps eliminate discrepancies and gives advertisers confidence that their ads will be displayed as promised. This level of transparency is crucial for building trust and ensuring effective use of advertising budgets.

Key benefits of DOOH advertising

Digital Out-of-Home offers a wide range of benefits that make it a powerful tool in the arsenal of modern marketing. Technological innovations offer unprecedented opportunities for creating highly attractive and targeted campaigns. Advertisers can use the flexibility of DOOH and real-time adaptation to quickly correct campaigns in response to current events, consumer feedback, or even inventory levels.

Data-driven targeting allows marketers to accurately identify the audience based on specific geography, time of day, or thematic events. Using technologies such as QR codes, social media hashtags, and augmented reality, DOOH offers the possibility of seamless integration with mobile and online platforms, creating an engaging cross-channel consumer experience. This expands the reach of campaigns while engaging consumers in an interactive, memorable way.

For consumers, these improvements mean more pleasant and relevant advertising impressions. In addition to commercial content, digital screens provide timely practical information, such as weather or transportation alerts. Such utilities make DOOH a valuable source of information, as well as an entertaining advertising medium.

Future trends in DOOH

As the Digital Out-of-Home advertising landscape continues to evolve, its future is influenced by several key factors, demonstrating the transformative potential of DOOH as it combines advanced technologies and sustainable practices to create more attractive and responsible advertising solutions.

Future Digital Out-of-Home displays will become increasingly intelligent, using location-based marketing to display highly relevant ads depending on where the viewer is located. These ads can be synchronized with mobile devices, providing a seamless and contextually relevant experience. Marketers will develop campaigns that smoothly transition from DOOH to mobile devices and the web, creating a cohesive experience across multiple platforms.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play a crucial role in dynamically personalizing advertising content based on real-time factors. Additionally, AI will offer precise modeled metrics for ad views, including detailed consumer characteristics, allowing advertisers to effectively optimize campaigns and more accurately calculate the return on investment. Machine learning algorithms promise to facilitate real-time programmatic auctions for DOOH ad spaces, making the buying process even more efficient and adapted to specific audience segments.

Virtual and augmented reality technologies will open new levels of interaction and engagement in Digital Out-of-Home advertising. Brands can use virtual reality (VR) to offer fully immersive 360-degree advertising experiences in public places, captivating the audience and ensuring a deeper level of engagement. Augmented reality (AR) filters on DOOH displays can allow consumers to visualize products in real-world settings using their smartphones, enhancing the consumer’s connection with brands and/or products. Both technologies will lead to the creation of interactive product demonstrations on-site or practical experiences.

The development and deployment of low-power displays, including those powered by solar energy, will significantly reduce electricity costs and appeal to consumers and brands concerned about the environment. An increasing number of suppliers will produce displays from recyclable or biodegradable materials, further strengthening the industry’s commitment to sustainable development.

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