The countdown has begun and digital marketers are rethinking their marketing strategies. From the Cambridge Analytica debacle to GDPR arriving on the scene this month, the wells of consumer data could dry up of relevant data. Even in the U.S., Californians will be voting on a referendum (California Consumer Privacy Act) in November 2018 that could enhance data privacy laws and reduce the value of online consumer data stores. If this happens, no longer will digital marketers be able to rely on apps that innocuously track consumers’ locations and then create natural person profiles that can be used for retargeting. The marketing and advertising landscapes might change significantly at the same time that marketing budgets are rising and CMOs are demanding relevant data to show their ROI.
This means rather than continuing on its astounding upward market value creation, the online marketing industry is going to contract and that money, searching for a place to find value, is going to go to the one market that does not rely on creating natural person profiles to validate ad spends: the Out of Home market. This shift in ad spends is going to have a significant impact on an industry that has a hyperlocal market and is impacted by regulatory restrictions. When you combine these factors with the traditional real estate value creator of location, creating valuable new supply as demand increases is problematic.
Therefore, taking into account the previous effects of data on the digital market, what forecasting shows is that downward pressure is going to be exercised against the digital market while the OOH market’s value is going to be lifted by innovation in physical data that will provide relevance to advertisers and media buyers and create increased ad spending by them combined with the depreciating value of the data that the digital market contains.
In order to reap the rewards of an increased ad spend by media buyers and advertisers, OOH owners need to position themselves to not solely rely on location or weekly impressions, because national advertisers are going to have different ROI data requirements than local buyers. According to Darin Plautz of Waitt Outdoor, national buyers already want data that can help them determine “Which locations had higher demand and distribution throughout a region.” This demand for data that surpasses weekly impressions will only increase and trickle down to local buyers, which presents a problem for OOH owners because the tools that they rely on are not providing them with the data they need to increase revenue. A common complaint expressed by multiple individuals interviewed for this article was that the tools that they currently have are not helping them close deals and increase revenue.
The one truth in business is, if you stop evolving you die. Make sure that you have the data required to take part in the increased OOH spend that is to come and be around for the future.
Modified: 2 years