Digital Dooh and OOH Will Explode In 2020, Read How
According to the OAAA, the out-of-home (OOH) industry has experienced 35 consecutive quarters of growth, reaching $8 billion in 2018 alone. To illustrate this point, Lamar, one of the biggest legacy OOH media owners, has been reporting steady increases in its net revenue (most recently, 9.4% in Q3 2019 and 6.9% in Q2 2019). And, it’s not just the big players like Lamar who are experiencing paramount levels of success. With no sign of demand for OOH slowing down, out-of-home media companies across the world are reporting similarly impressive double-digit growth figures.
Much of this exponential growth and a resurgence of interest in this legacy medium can be attributed to a notable rise in buying DOOH as media owners increase digital inventory and programmatic marketplaces replicate the quick-and-easy biddable auction experience for transactions.
The somewhat meteoric rise of DOOH is set to continue in 2020 and here are five things that we can expect in the coming year:
There Will Be a Sharp Uptick in DOOH Spend, as Brands Shift Spend From Digital to Ooh Within Omnichannel Strategies With omnichannel DSPs getting into the out-of-home space, brands that may not have spent in OOH in the past are more likely to attach large-scale budgets to programmatic DOOH as part of existing broader marketing strategies. I anticipate that we’ll see more spend flowing into OOH from other channels, like digital, in the new year. This uptick in spending (which is already happening) is a result from publishers finding programmatic OOH buying to be quick and easy and omnichannel platforms directly integrating DOOH buying options, not to mention the overall advances in OOH measurement.
Advertising on the internet poses concerns for advertisers, given the issues around fake news, brand safety, bots, ad blocking and viewability issues. Moreover, consumers "trust" the messaging appearing on OOH as “reliable” – a stark contrast to opinions around trust in online ads, as research shows. OOH is a brand-safe, effective and viable option for marketers looking to avoid the risks from social and digital.
Anyone Can Be a Media Owner Today With the ease of installation and the lowering expense of implementing digital screens across owned assets, it’s becoming easier than ever for hardware and service companies to reap big rewards from signage. Screens that can be monetized are popping up everywhere, such as electric vehicle charging stations; vending machines and kiosks; cardio equipment at the gym; and entertainment and sports facilities.
These new media owners recognize the potential from their clientele as advertising audiences. For brands, these venues present new and innovative ways to connect with consumers at key points during their offline journey.
Political Candidates Will Flock to DOOH Kantar estimates that $6 billion will be spent on political advertising this election season. In an election year, the focus is squarely upon digital advertising practices and the walled gardens have been in the spotlight. Twitter, banned political ad content and Google thwarted the practice of highly targeted political ads on its platform for example. Political hopefuls know all too well that there are other effective channels beyond digital and social for legitimate campaign advertising as part of the marketing mix. DOOH provides privacy-respectful precision, at mass scale.
DOOH Infrastructure Will Get Better… and Smarter OOH companies will take advantage of connected infrastructure within Smart Cities and the advent of 5G (enabling direct communication with consumers more quickly) will further expand the possibilities of signage opportunities in populous metropolitan areas. As exciting technologies emerge that can be applied to advertising, and new datasets become available, the OOH industry will continue to incorporate those developments into their platforms and hardware to improve audience targeting and creative possibilities.
DOOH owners will prioritize new technology-driven products and services as offerings to advertisers. By embedding computer technology in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data, advertisers will then benefit from better anticipated consumer movement patterns and more granular information to better reach audiences. With more precise geo-located information, consumers will receive more relevant and meaningful content. For example, optic recognition technology is highly useful for automotive brands using OOH ads promoting their new car models on roads and freeways. Automakers can use machine-learning cameras to recognize the make and model of cars passing to identify the right drivers to target with OOH ads.
With such an exciting trajectory, DOOH is the fastest growing media channel and projected to reach $26.2 billion by 2023. As the digitization of OOH continues, creating new and exciting opportunities for marketers, the signage industry is sure to burgeon in the next 12 months, and receive more interest from advertisers than ever before.