The digital out-of-home business is full of prognosticators and seers. The proliferation of industry blogs that seem to be read mostly (only?) by those of us in the industry demonstrates the wide variety of opinions on any given DOOH topic.
Recently, Steve Gurley (the relatively new VP of Marketing and New Market Development at Symon Communications) released a white paper titled “Ad-Funded Digital Signage: Is There a Future In It?”. It wasn’t clear to me when I read it whether it was an official POV from Symon or not – I’m assuming not, as there isn’t any mention of the paper on the symon.com website; and I would think that dismissing an important source of growth in the industry wouldn’t be seen as in the interests of Symon, a fairly large provider of digital signage hardware and software solutions.
I certainly don’t agree with the premise of Gurley’s paper as stated in the title, but didn’t really give it much consideration after I finished reading it. I dismissed the paper for what it was – an essay written by a single, relative newcomer to the DOOH business that when examined was little more than an exploration of the benefits of mobile technologies rather than an objective critique of ad-funded digital networks. In fact, many of the benefits of mobile discussed in the paper are valid, but not exclusive of the success of advertising on DOOH. In many cases the two media solutions are very complementary.
I also wasn’t impressed with Gurley lifting a quotation from Adcentricity’s Q1 Digital Out-of-Home Market Review and using it in a contextually inaccurate way, but others including Ken Goldberg of Real Digital Media in his digital signage blog have set that record straight in his digital signage blog.
However, something happened late last week that made me realize that these ‘prognostications’ are treated by some more seriously than warranted. I took a call from the CEO of one of Adcentricity’s network partners, who had a nervous investor who had read Gurley’s paper, and was questioning the investment he had made in what is a very sound DOOH network. We set up a conference call with all of the appropriate people on the line, and I was able to successfully explain the quotation and framed the white paper in a wider industry context.
However, it once again reminded me of a constant irritant, and a significant barrier to growing the DOOH business – our habit of shooting ourselves in the foot.
As an industry, we need to be giving advertisers reasons to use digital technologies to deliver messaging to the consumer on her path-to-purchase. We need to deliver a consistent message about the benefits of the DOOH medium, and how we are collectively getting better every day at the delivery of quality audiences to advertisers.
Let’s talk up the good stuff. Let’s be honest about our shortcomings, and work to beat them. But let’s stop creating obstacles where none exist.
Recently, I’ve received concerned calls from several ADCENTRICITY network partners about unauthorized campaign flight audits occurring in their venues – all of which are private property. While this practice is not new and certainly happens across all industries, a growing number of organizations concerned about competition, privacy and general security issues, are implementing “clean store” policies strictly regulating access to their stores/venues by unauthorized commercial 3rd parties. In DOOH it’s further complicated by the fact that the network operator usually does not own the venues in which their screens are installed.
ADCENTRICITY’s position on audits is that they are a necessary and beneficial practice for DOOH. However, we also believe that these audits should take place with the full knowledge and participation of everyone involved. We actively encourage our advertising clients to inform us ahead of time of their intent to perform an audit so that we can work on their behalf to secure the necessary approvals, ensuring that the audit runs smoothly from a tactical perspective. While concerns that this eliminates the element of surprise and gives networks the opportunity to “clean up their act” have been raised, if full disclosure leads to a higher diligence around campaign delivery isn’t this the end result that everyone is looking for?
ADCENTRICITY is pleased to introduce the first edition Digital OOH Advertising Creative Reference Guide. This guide is a collaborative effort with 14 companies to share ideas and knowledge in “what works” when developing creative for the digital out-of-home medium. Some contributing agency experts include executives from Razorfish, Mindshare, and Saatchi X.
The objective of this Creative Reference Guide is to address basic elements of DOOH advertising considerations. This initiative has resulted in over 10 hours of on-camera interviews, dozens of creative and multi-media samples, and the firsy edition of ADCENTRICITY’s Digital OOH Advertising Creative Reference Guide.
Q2 has been busy here at ADCENTRICITY with some great new campaigns commencing. A few of our newest campaigns include Samsung LED TV, Rogers Wireless, Toyota Sienna and Valspar Paints. These are all returning clients for ADCENTRICITY.
Below you will see the great creatives for each campaign and the strong messaging that can be portrayed in a short but effective 15-second ad. Each campaign was hyper-targeted using ADCENTRICITY’s platform ADVenue and are currently playing on hundreds of screens across North America, reaching their desired audiences on the go!
The ADCENTRICITY Quarterly Digital Out-of-Home Market Review is an overview of RFP and purchasing activity across our almost 100 network partners and 200,000 screens for each quarter. The objective is to inform and educate on activity levels in the space; which advertiser industries are active; and where the media dollars are being placed by venue category and geography. The paper also serves as a review of identified challenges and sets the stage for the next quarter.
ADCENTRICITY’s platform, ADVenue, tracks all activity that happens across the DOOH landscape as it occurs. Because of this, we can bring you a true snapshot of growth, spending and insight that is unmatched in the industry. We understand that you need clarity and transparency in the Digital OOH space and hope that this report will help deliver these insights to you each quarter.
Some of the key findings we came across through the development of the market review include:
Networks operating in retail venues are dominating DOOH spending, following the same patterns as traditional media spending – with automotive, financial services and telecommunications by far the biggest categories
Packaged goods and entertainment brands are not yet moving as aggressively into the DOOH space, owing to traditional caution, demands for extensive testing, and with entertainment, a need for more education on how good creative will overcome cases where audio is not used
Retail locations (grocery, pharmacy, c-store, coffee shops) were the winners by actual spending through 2009. Of the 70 environment types available across 100 networks, the top six categories accounted for approximately 30 percent of all media dollars and they were overwhelmingly retail
While mainstream agencies have DOOH on their radar, and are allocating dollars, digital agencies haven’t yet adopted or fully understood this medium’s capabilities. Ironically, there’s a digital divide where there should be a natural fit
About ADCENTRICITY | Digital Out-of-Home Media Insight
ADCENTRICITY is North America’s largest aggregator and award-winning strategist for digital out-of-home media (OOH). We specialize in supporting both brands and agencies in understanding “what works” and efficiently activate a hyper-targeted media plan in-line with the campaign objectives. With high-touch service, unmatched insight, an advanced media platform – ADVenue, and in-depth supporting research, ADCENTRICITY is able to deliver intelligent media planning decisions that strategically meet your business needs.
