Opinion: Digital out of home and its verification capabilities the next big thing for advertisers in APAC?

For the uninitiated, Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) refers to ads, and video showcased outside the home at billboard locations such as bus shelters, shopping centers, and large roadside billboards. The message delivery is supported by rich and dynamic digital technology, maximised with real-time capabilities to target consumers on-the-go. DOOH encompasses a variety of screen shapes, sizes, and levels of interactivity. From digital billboards and signs atop taxis to place-based digital messaging at airport gates, gyms, and waiting rooms.

Previously Out- of- Home (OOH) was a primarily static billboard and it limited the amount of supply in the market to the numbers physical assets that existed with limitations on creatives that could be used, which were primarily vinyl. DOOH solves those key challenges. You can take a location and now rotate the ads of multiple advertisers. Now one location can facilitate 6 ads a minute, potentially, and each advertiser gets sufficient exposure time to the audience that’s passing by and a lot more advertisers can be put through the same asset. With so many permutations on the form, including an infinite number of inventory locations, screen types, and interactive modes. DOOH is positioned to become a huge component in many campaigns.

There are plenty of good reasons to be bullish about digital-out-of-home (DOOH) for one thing, people are coming out of quarantine and are starting to get back to their routines- offices, restaurants, shopping, gym, and marketers will be keen to get their attention. As it becomes increasingly challenging to reach today’s consumer in the fragmented media landscape, the effectiveness of DOOH advertising has become more significant to brand marketers. DOOH provides a bridge between context, location and creativity. It ranks high in relevance and favorable recall—vital components of any media campaign, due to its high-level impact and flexibility, relevant to each unique environment, public or private, outside the home. DOOH is about the audience and not the medium.

The channel is continually exploring new roads of innovation in creativity, delivery, and opportunity. With full-motion video, dynamic real-time content, social media engagement, mobile geo-targeting, multi-screen messaging, syncing and touch screen interactivity, augmented reality and more. DOOH advertising rivals the innovation of every digital platform with the ability to reach consumers other mediums simply cannot. Contextual billboards can be tailored to time of day, local weather, and even traffic conditions.

The digitisation of the OOH market has created a lot of new supply and it will take some time for that supply to be absorbed by the buy-side. But I expect the buy-side will absorb this excess supply quickly because DOOH helps address the audience erosion problem that is plaguing media channels that have ad-free subscriptions offerings that take an important demographic out of the audience pool.

Verification will allow advertisers to buy ‘Quality’ DOOH inventory

The dynamic and contextual nature of digital out of home increases the possibility of incorrect ad delivery which makes third-party verification critical to the success of the medium. 

With advertisers booking multi-geography, contextual creative on DOOH, it’s important that those plays are measured and verified to know for a fact it ran as per the agreement. For eg. If a brand wants to run a 10 sec sunblock creative of SPF 30 in Brisbane or Singapore when the temperatures touched 32°C and run a waterproof sunblock creative of SPF 50 for 15 sec when temperatures soared to 35°C in Gold coast or Jakarta, how would the advertisers know if the relevant ads kicked in during specific temperatures and in the right geographies and for the right duration? 

Having a third party focused on verifying and measuring these specifics will become key. Additionally, measuring quality will enable advertisers to buy quality inventory, differentiating from some of the excess supply in the market-leading to price stability.

The concept of exposure time is becoming important in digital online and people are transferring that to the digital out-of-home space with the primary concern of how long an ad is in view. Third-party verification can help provide detailed reporting on those parameters. Third-party verification partners can help verify 

• Was delivery reflective of what was bought?

• Did the contextual ads run in the right geography?

• How many times did the ads run?

• Did the ads run at the right time?

• Did the ads run for the duration it was booked for?

The potential of DOOH is unlimited and is all set to grab increased marketing spends and we’re seeing channel partners, agencies, and brands increasingly working together with verification partners to help measure and verify their plays. This collective collaboration will enable the medium to thrive and grow to its full potential without transparency challenges clouding digital advertising. DOOH is an exciting medium to watch as it continues to integrate it’s forms of media, connecting with consumers.

DOOH will see the arrival of programmatic at scale. DOOH will no longer be a niche specialty in Marketing and programmatic will make it a must-have for all.

The writer is Laura Quigley, senior vice president for APAC at Integral ad science.

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Opinion: Verification in the digital OOH space
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