August 7, 2020
The world of Digital Out-of-Home advertising is evolving faster than ever before. Here are some emerging trends worth keeping an eye on.
Something strange has been happening in advertising over the last couple of years.
Where once online channels, like search and social pay-per-click, were utterly dominant, a new challenger has appeared: Digital Out-of-Home, or DOOH.
With ad spend on DOOH expected to more than double to a whopping $15.9 billion by 2027, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: DOOH is here to stay.
With that in mind, we’ve compiled 5 game-changing DOOH advertising trends which are set to gain traction in 2020 and beyond.
Let’s jump in.
Wearable smart tech has been a bit of a slow burner, but with over 60 million wrist-based wearables shipped across the world in 2019, the market is growing rapidly.
The rise of wearables like smart watches presents an interesting opportunity to brands – especially those looking to crack into the DOOH market. Unlike static installations like posters and banners, wearables allow for location-based DOOH ads to be delivered to a consumer at exactly the right place.
Of course, consent will need to be given before ads can run (and rightly so) – but after that, the sky’s the limit. Just imagine being able to deliver a customized discount offer to consumers who pass nearby your store. The best part? It’ll appear right on their wrist with no need for a dedicated DOOH installation.
This is just one example of Digital Out-Of-Home breaking away from conventional conceptions of advertising and enabling a new way to interact with prospects.
There was a time when voice control was just a thing of science fiction.
Today? It’s built into every smartphone on the market and it’s in many homes in the form of smart assistants like the Amazon Echo and Google Home. With just a simple sentence, we can play our favorite song, check the weather, order a pizza, and more. Voice control has become far more than just a way to impress our friends – it’s a genuinely useful tool for searching the web and buying new products.
So, we hear you ask, how exactly does this tie into DOOH?
Well, one of the bigger trends to keep an eye on in 2020 is voice-based DOOH advertising.
There's a huge untapped opportunity across the voice assistant space, with many voice searches currently being totally unserved by ads. Some of this is due to the lack of ad infrastructure, but some of it is also down to brands not yet pushing hard in this direction. In 2020 and beyond, that’s set to change.
Part of the reason that Digital Out-Of-Home advertising is yet to take the full leap into the programmatic space is network infrastructure.
If you’ve ever found yourself relying on mobile data anywhere outside of a big city, you’ll know that connectivity can still be unreliable.
Thankfully, the solution is just on the horizon in the form of 5G.
You might assume that 5G simply means faster mobile internet, but it’s so much more than that. This is a technology which genuinely has the potential to change the way we live and interact with digital services. With speeds exceeding 100 gigabits per second, 5G is up to 10 times faster than its predecessor, 4G, opening the door to a world of new possibilities for real-time mobile experiences – including DOOH.
5G will assist the delivery and optimization of DOOH ads in a couple of important ways:
5G will finally make more advanced technology a reality in more varied geographies. With 5G connections, tech like ad-supported VR and AR will finally be a possibility – even in the most remote of places.
The programmatic revolution isn’t isolated purely to DOOH – it’s an idea which is already in full swing across digital channels.
That’s mainly due to ease, of course – tracking complete user journeys (and retargeting them) is simple with cookies and pixels. But in the real world? It’s a little bit more tricky.
But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Far from it, in fact.
The concept of programmatic DOOH is all about leveraging AI-powered systems to make on-the-fly ad buying decisions based on real-time metrics.
For example, imagine a system whereby your ad is triggered when more than 50 people have used an elevator, or at a certain time of day. The vision of programmatic DOOH is to transform all ad placement purchases into algorithmically driven decisions. The only problem? Judging the performance and metrics of DOOH isn’t as straightforward as digital channels.
Luckily, 2020 looks set to give rise to technologies which will finally make smart programmatic DOOH a reality for even more advertisers.
Big changes are already taking place in markets across the globe. The UK, for example, has recently seen a growing shift toward national programmatic campaigns, a trend that is only set to continue as more signage and digital inventory becomes available.
When you think about the specific demographics who engage most with mobile adtech, you’ll most likely think of Millennials and Gen-Z’ers.
The buying habits of these groups differ wildly from those that came before. With instant access to their peers via social media, as well as the influence of – you guessed it – influencers, purchase decisions can be made rapidly.
It’s here that DOOH personalization comes into play.
With a smart DOOH infrastructure in place, ad spaces will be able to adapt in real-time to deliver highly personalized ads to specific people nearby. As a generation who grew up alongside retargeting, the concept of personalized DOOH placements based on time, location, mobile device, and other key metrics will come very naturally – and it’ll repay advertisers in kind with solid ROI. Vertical Impression is the first elevator advertising company in the world to offer dynamic ad targeting based on who’s riding the elevator.
Let’s get specific with an example of real-time DOOH personalization.
Imagine a phone manufacturer wants to target different phone models to different generations. With DOOH ad personalization, it would be possible to display a relevant ad for the new device whenever a certain demographic walks in front of the screen.
It’s this shift in thinking versus conventional means of advertising that really sets DOOH apart from other channels in this space.
There’s no doubt that Digital Out-Of-Home advertising is about to become a common part of consumers’ daily lives. Because of this, shared spaces like elevators are increasingly set to become prime advertising real estate for brands.
There’s never been a better time to be ahead of the game.
At Vertical Impression, we can help your business take full advantage of elevator advertising with an advanced AI-powered platform built to create results.
Want to know more? Get in touch today and our team will show you exactly how DOOH could take your business to the next level.
