The top trends to watch in OOH

Today, nearly 55% of the world population lives inside cities, and by 2050, urban areas are projected to house two thirds of people globally.Managing fast growing urban areas while building sustainable connected smart cities has become one of the most important challenges of the 21st century. This presents an incredible monetisation opportunity for OOH companies and allows for further engagement with growing audiences.In a world where media are increasingly more fragmented than before and people can choose what and when to consume content, premium OOH inventories have remained the core channels that can reach mass urban audiences rapidly, consistently and effectively at anytime - it cannot be easily skipped or blocked in outdoor environments.This may explain why OOH has been the only ‘traditional’ media category to show consistent growth in the last ten years and is still predicted to continue its growth by 4% each year to reach US$33bn by 2021*.How to effectively communicate with the mobile population in the physical world According to recent findings by ZenithMedia, Hong Kong’s smartphone penetration rate will reach 92% in 2018, ranked the 3rd worldwide after the Netherlands (94%) and Taiwan (93%). As connectivity is increasingly happening in active urban spaces, at JCDecaux Cityscape, we have taken this opportunity to develop the most effective ways to analyse, connect and engage with these mobile devices in real time to improve the offline and online performance of our clients’ advertising campaigns.Trends to watch in next five years OOH market trend: Digitalisation of OOH is undeniably a major trend going forward, and while digital currently represents only 5% of OOH inventory, the opportunities it offers mean it is already bringing in 14% of the sector’s total revenue, a figure set to grow to 24% by 2021*.DOOH is mainly developed in indoor avenues, such as airports, metros, shopping malls but revenue coming from DOOH ads used on street furniture is predicted to grow. This segment is opening up, as cities are competing to be better connected and provide smarter services to its citizens and tourists.We can see a trend whereby DOOH is also being used more creatively, pushing contextual dynamic contents to specific audiences, and also complementing social media campaigns, either through integration or through content creation.At JCDecaux, we have developed highly sophisticated tools to help advertisers enjoy dynamic contents powered by compiled data, such as audience profiles, purchasing habits, weather conditions, road traffic and so on. With more connected advertising inventory and the development of IoT, online to offline solution will become more systematic in our field, and the silo between digital and conventional avenues will gradually disappear to offer a more seamless and ubiquitous relationship between consumers and brands.Once digital expands to the right scale and data connectivity become the norm, programmatic ad placement will certainly be the next hot topic- as evidenced by the disappearance of trading price per poster jargon in more advanced markets where discussing engagement, impressions, conversion rates has become the new common vocabulary within our ecosystem.OOH advertising products: Notwithstanding the development of the digital, boundless creativity, innovation and talent will have to remain the fuel of a system which will be more connected and automated than ever before.In the context of Hong Kong and Macau, where we already have digital inventory and engagement solutions, we believe that it is the beginning of a new era and will accelerate with the support and appetite of all stakeholders.*Source: Magna Global’s Media Economy Report 2017By Yoann El Jaouhari, managing director of JCDecaux Cityscape. This story appeared in the Marketing Magazine Hong Kong Futurist issue as “A new chapter in outdoor media”.