Out-of-home (OOH) spendings are predicted to grow almost 12% by 2020 – which means, faster than other traditional media. OOH has great prospects and is the most promising area in advertising due to its real-world impact and emerging technological possibilities. Unlike the mobile or web advertising which is so easy to block and mute, OOH is conspicuous, has a variety of forms and formats and can “catch” people on the go.
The amazing growth perspective can also be accounted for by the development of technologies enabling automating OOH advertising booking and purchasing. There are two key aspects of automating OOH to be aware of:
1. Faster process with less routine
Basically, automation allows buying digital out-of-home ad placement following the procedure very similar to that for the digital displays or videos. Contrary to the present situation, where planning and buying OOH media involves direct sales and much back-and-forth communication, automation helps to eliminate most of the manual mundane tasks and allows businesses to invest more time into creation of their artwork.
2. Collecting valuable data
Apart from easier placement of OOH ads, technologies allow more precise targeting and gathering huge amounts of consumer data which will make an invaluable asset for both brands and advertising agencies.
What ways of automated OOH advertising are available today?
Programmatic DOOH
As digital panels are getting more and more widespread, big advertising agencies start offering programmatic buying of ad spaces on the screens within their network. Basically, it allows involving humans in the process as little as possible, with software doing most of the work in taking and fulfilling orders.
Sophisticated options include choosing the conditions for the ad to be displayed or demonstrating one of its variants, depending on weather, audience etc.
Automated OOH booking
When it comes to traditional OOH media like billboards, things are more complicated. Nevertheless, advertisers in UK, for example, can use an online service like Signkick to choose among the available ad spaces within their inventory, media and formats in specific locations, book them and have their order fulfilled in about 10 days.
Automated TV and print advertising
Time Inc. in USA was one of the first to introduce automated booking of print ads across its titles. As to TV, automated serving ads was pioneered by Sky broadcaster in the UK with its AdSmart tool, followed and improved by the UK’s Channel 4, allowing to buy specific audience segments upon various platforms and devices.
Automated entire OOH campaign planning and launching
With so many OOH media already covered by automation, it is quite logical to be expecting a platform that integrates all of them. Meet TRACKLAM – an automated service that creates a marketplace for booking and selling all types of ads – digital, OOH, digital OOH, transit, TV, radio, print etc.
It doesn’t have own ad spaces, but provides a technology for communication between advertisers and media owners, convenient and fast selection of various ad media within the inventory of over 500 ad spaces, negotiating and having ads placed.
There’s also an important functionality of calculating the predicted efficiency and tracking the performance of the campaign. This way, advertisers can roll out combined campaigns employing various media without the need to switch between a couple of agencies or looking for individual media owners.
All in all, automation is a relatively new trend, but it’s very promising and no doubt is the future of OOH advertising. So, jump in and try its convenience now by signing up for TRACKLAM and take your advertising to the next level!
