pDOOH – Through the lens of agencies
Programmatic digital Out of Home (pDOOH) is a hot topic across the advertising industry, and rightly so; there's a lot to get excited about - greater time efficiencies to agencies and suppliers, the ability to buy platform agnostically to reach an audience through one interface delivering greater campaign flexibility; being able to pause, start, stop, optimise, and target their campaign all at the press of a button as well as greater flexibility around budgets and timing through real-time optimisation and bid management.
We have seen how pDOOH has been welcomed by advertisers globally and listened with interest to the challenges and successes the more established markets have experienced in the last few years.
Now, with all the major Out of Home companies in Aotearoa offering pDOOH across their channels, we too, are stepping into the world of pDOOH with excitement and consideration.
Natasha O'Connor, General Manager of OOHMAA, sat down with Rob Thomas, Head of Digital and Data at Spark Foundry and Catherine Hamilton, Head of Investment at MBM, to hear their thoughts on how agencies in Aotearoa are planning to approach pDOOH and what the near future holds for pDOOH in our market.
The adoption of pDOOH by Agencies
The benefits of pDOOH are undeniable. As an industry that loves the latest new thing, it would be understandable for advertisers to leap at the opportunity to embrace pDOOH, and they have; however, it's more of a 'considered' leap. Agencies know that all new technology should be used for the right reasons; in the case of pDOOH, that reason is that it addresses the needs of a particular brief or objective.
Clients who have identified pDOOH as able to deliver on their campaign brief have been quick to respond positively to pDOOH. We predict that as pDOOH uptake grows and normalises, new Out of Home clients will warm to the technology and want to test the effectiveness of pDOOH on their campaigns.
Catherine Hamilton from MBM commented, "We don't see it replacing our outdoor strategies across all clients, but rather as a tactical opportunity. That said, pDOOH also enables those clients with smaller budgets an easier entry point to Out of Home. With this in mind, client uptake has been steadily growing.'
New considerations pDOOH has bought to users
Whether in agencies, marketing or Out of Home owners, education is required to ensure the adoption and growth of pDOOH with a focus on:
The benefits of DOOH as a medium to media planners including comparisons to other digital mediums, taking into consideration brand safety, viewability, and ad fraud
The capabilities and benefits of an audience buying approach and how programmatic trading can bring value to clients
How to transact programmatically, including what a one-to-many buy looks like in comparison to a one-to-one targeted buy
The other challenge is where pDOOH will sit within the agency.
Rob Thomas from Spark Foundry said, "Where the responsibility of pDOOH lies in a team structure is a significant challenge all agencies face. Naturally, the inclination will be to hand responsibilities to a programmatic specialist. The specialist will understand the tech side; however, they will have little understanding of how Out of Home operates in a media mix and the context of how the channel has operated over the past decades.
"It is our view that planners and specialists will need to work together, using their different expertise to clearly identify the role pDOOH will play in a campaign and execute efficiently. This could be as a tactical data-led execution, a late market dealing or an extension to a nationwide 1+ coverage campaign, all of which would be a successful use of pDOOH.
Our approach to planning at Spark Foundry revolves around being audience-first to deliver famously effective ideas, and we feel that pDOOH has the potential to complement that strategy. Over time we will learn more as we test the channel and expect greater uptake from clients as the proposition takes greater shape," adds Thomas
pDOOH complementing the role of traditional Out of Home Strategies
A superpower of traditional Out of Home is the ability to reach mass audiences, perfect for long-term brand campaigns or big 'new news' campaigns where impact and reach are paramount. pDOOH adds another layer to this, giving advertisers the ability to access moments that matter, with greater flexibility to use data to introduce more time-sensitive, action-orientated messaging. It also allows advertisers greater flexibility and more ways to utilise the benefits and impact of Out of Home.
pDOOH affords greater flexibility around budgets and timing through real-time optimisation and bid management, appealing to and encouraging clients with budget challenges to engage with Out of Home potentially for the first time.
Programmatic DOOH is still in a young space in Aotearoa with a few details to work out, but we see it taking all the things we love about Out of Home and amplifying them for the right type of campaigns.
Ensuring we're building on a solid foundation through education, upskilling, testing and developing a set of standards will see pDOOH reach its full potential in Aotearoa.