OAAA Programmatic Panel Recap

Recapping OAAA’s Programmatic Panel: The Future of OOH

Is Programmatic DOOH the Way Forward? Yes and No.

Programmatic has been a pervasive yet loosely defined concept in Out of Home (OOH) advertising. Many in the industry differ on what programmatic really represents and the value it creates, but few disagree that various forms of automated and programmatic buying will play an increasingly important role in making digital out of home (DOOH) more accessible and easier to execute for all media buyers.

Last week, Talon’s Chief Transformation Officer, Josko Grljevic, joined a panel discussion organized by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) and moderated by TechCrunch senior writer Anthony Ha, to explore the meaning and impact of automation technologies and programmatic media trading on OOH. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Programmatic Remains Fragmented & Nascent

While there is much enthusiasm for programmatic buying in OOH, programmatic remains in a nascent state in large part because it is defined so very differently by different buyers and media owners. The advancement and, ultimately, the success of programmatic demands a new marketplace for DOOH media trading, where the buying and selling of inventory and audiences is automated and ordered around a set of protocols and common standards that both demand and supply side players agree on and are willing and able to adopt. Everyone will benefit from a holistic ecosystem in which media owners can expose their inventory to potential media buyers.

Automation Will Drive the Growth

Whether it is programmatic, automation, new data sources, dynamic creative, etc., OOH ad spend growth will accelerate if the industry is able to simplify and automate the media trading process. The goal must be to shift focus and resources to developing effective campaign strategies, expanding access to actionable audience insights and accurately measuring brand and business outcomes. However, as media agencies continue to collaborate across channels with more frequency, traditional digital buyers are becoming exposed to OOH buying for the first time and there may be a temptation to over-simplify. Can the buying tools developed for one-to-one advertising online really be just as effective when used to execute one-to-many OOH campaigns? At Talon, we believe the best solutions combine technology and data-driven audience insights with the expertise of OOH agencies to deliver scale, effectiveness and brand safety.

Don’t Ditch Static

Even as the OOH industry rapidly adopts digital, static displays remain a crucial component of effective brand advertising in OOH. Despite massive investments in new digital screens and conversion of static displays, there remain many environments in the U.S. where digital OOH is not currently available. OOH campaigns which combine both digital and static ad units enable brands to optimize for maximum reach, frequency and creative impact. These remain the primary levers that media planners can pull on to deliver returns on investment.

Fueled by Innovation, OOH’s Future is Bright

OOH is a stable medium that is well positioned to emerge from this crisis stronger thanks to long-standing and sustained investments in technology and data. OOH has a proven ability to amplify and augment the value of other media channels, and there is renewed appreciation for the power of unmissable public impact and contextual targeting. During this crisis, industry stakeholders have used the time to wisely accelerate investments in technology and partnerships, finding new ways to use data to understand how audiences and traffic patterns have shifted. This has enabled OOH companies to help brands understand new consumer behaviors and locations, and lead messaging pivots on a dime. The pandemic has also served as a reminder of OOH’s unique capacity to serve as a canvas for inspiring, dynamic creative that can be activated instantly around the world .

The U.S. market continues to evolve and adapt to a rapidly changing environment, and advancing both automated and programmatic buying is certainly key for the industry’s future. But for OOH campaigns to consistently deliver the business outcomes brands crave, they must always be guided by data-led planning strategies; feature creative that is compelling, bold and relevant; and be executed in a fully transparent way, regardless of whether that campaign is bought and sold programmatically or activated in some other way.

Click here to listen to or watch the OAAA panel discussion in its entirety.