Every month, OAAA’s editorial team sits down with an industry leader to discuss the latest insights, trends, and best practices for the OOH industry. This month, we’re excited to spotlight Natrian Maxwell, GM, Emerging Channels at The Trade Desk, who shares what excites him the most about OOH right now, his message for brands that haven’t bought OOH before, and why more and more brands are ditching the idea that DOOH is just a larger place for a mobile ad.
Read Natrian’s Q&A on The Drum.
OAAA: What excites you about OOH right now?
Natrian: OOH is arguably the most creative and agile channel in advertising right now, one that’s changing the stereotype of just a billboard on a highway. People are back commuting, traveling – spending a lot of time outside their homes, and advertisers have this amazing opportunity to meet their audience in fresh and innovative ways. Combining this with access to real-time data like weather and location, DOOH can adapt and personalize with these environmental factors in a way that’s never been possible before.
OAAA: What message do you have for brands that haven’t bought OOH before?
Natrian: Advertising is a holistic form of communication to get in front of your audience, and if you aren’t including OOH as part of that then you aren’t using all the tools in your toolbox. But that’s okay, getting into OOH is much easier than you think and here are the terms you need to know to get started!
Static, PDOOH, DOOH, OOH –There are multiple forms of OOH advertising whether it’s a static ad like we’ve seen with billboards and posters for decades, or the newer digital ads we’re starting to see in places like mass transit systems. Programmatic DOOH is the most sophisticated approach to DOOH, because this allows data like location, weather, time of day and other signals to quickly determine the most effective creative at the right time for an ad.
Exposure Zone and Impression Multiplier – The sheer number of people you can get your ad in front of is reason enough to get into OOH – everything from a billboard in Time Square to the urban panels on New York street corners become a place for a memorable ad experience at massive scale. The amount of impressions you can make in one DOOH ad buy can be more than any other channel available today.
Footfall – This also isn’t just a spray and pray approach –it’s important to have data partners that can prove the efficacy of your ad campaigns in the DOOH space to understand the audience passing those screens and the actions they take after being exposed to an ad.
Street Furniture, Car Toppers and Placed Based – DOOH devices are not keeping someone from their favorite show or a news piece. Ads oncar tops or street furniture like bus shelters are there purely to inform or entertain, so why wouldn’t you want to reach consumers in that environment?Whether it’s arenas, retail video networks, gyms or other places consumers spend their time outside the home, these are ad locations that are both non-skippable and unintrusive, unique to any other channel in advertising.
Immersive and Dynamic Creatives – Some of the most creative ads we’re seeing these days are in the DOOH space. These are no longer just static images on a big screen – we’re seeing video, interactive, shoppable and 3D – formats that are all-consuming and powerful.
Media Owners – Knowing who to work with, their capabilities, and how buy from these companies makes all of the difference to realize what’s possible in today’s DOOH landscape.
OAAA: What do you envision as the next big thing for OOH?
Natrian: I think we’re going to see the dynamism and creativity in DOOH evolve. We’ll see brands building DOOH campaigns that compliment campaigns they’re running on other channels instead of just thinking of DOOH as a larger place for a CTV or mobile ad. As we get more and more data that proves the efficacy of DOOH, this channel will explode. I can’t wait.
Published: November 29, 2022