By: Erin McFadden, VIOOH
Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic turned the whole world upside down and impacted nearly all industries, especially out-of-home. At VIOOH, we saw an increased client demand for campaign flexibility which became critical for brands due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. The result accelerated adoption of programmatic out-of-home, showing once used for the first time, advertisers became reluctant to return to more traditional buying methods for OOH.
This past month, VIOOH released its annual report, entitled ‘Programmatic OOH State of the Nation’, which provides a unique insight into the digital out of the home industry by combining survey data with in-depth interview responses. VIOOH in partnership with international research consultancy, MTM, surveyed 1,000 senior agency and advertising executives across the U.S., U.K., Germany, France and Australia.
Drawn to the flexibility offered by programmatic channels during the COVID-19 pandemic, agency and advertising executives are positive about the role programmatic OOH can play in their campaigns and they expect to increase their investment in future.
Programmatic OOH investment is being driven by strengths in targeting, measurement and ROI, the latter is increasingly important as marketing budgets come under more scrutiny. Additionally programmatic OOH is seen as a truly versatile channel, able to support brand and performance goals, and executives rank it competitively against other digital channels.
Overall, the outlook on the future of programmatic out-of-home is positive. Senior executives in the US, and globally, plan to continue to invest and integrate this new media buying method more frequently into multi-channel campaigns, which will ultimately drive innovation and growth within the sector.
Some key findings from the report include:
1. The increasing importance of programmatic technology also applies to OOH media:
- Just over two thirds (66%) of U.S. executive respondents (and 62% globally) say they had planned, bought, or placed digital OOH in the last 12 months, and the majority of these had used OOH programmatically (67% U.S., and 61% globally).
2. Responsibility for planning and buying programmatic OOH is split across OOH, digital programmatic and specialist prDOOH teams:
- Over two thirds (69%) of U.S. agency executives have planned prDOOH alongside other digital programmatic campaigns, and 55% have planned it alongside other OOH activity, reflecting a variety of approaches.
- When it comes to buying, in the U.S. this responsibility in media agencies shifts towards dedicated prDOOH teams (58%), although there are still overlaps with digital programmatic teams (74%) and the OOH teams (49%).
3. The future is in OOH’s inclusion in programmatic multi-channel campaigns and increased investment in prDOOH expertise:
- Nearly nine out of ten (86%) of American industry executives plan to integrate programmatic OOH more closely into multi-channel campaigns.
- The majority (86%) of American executives plan to invest in programmatic OOH expertise.
Modified: 2 years