You step out of your
house and head towards the tube station. Along the way you see a row of billboard
advertisements. As you walk into the station, another set of posters invite you
to attend a play, or buy the latest night cream. The train arrives and you hop
on. Yet, another set of advertisements displayed. You reach your destination;
and voila more brands promoting themselves, this time in the form of Digital
LED displays.
Welcome to the World of
Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising.
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| Out of home advertising! The advent of a new era |
It’s amazing to see how the OOH advertising industry has transformed from mere billboards to more innovative forms viz video advertising out of home. I recall my first visit to a popular shopping district called ‘lot 10’ in Kuala Lumpur; I was amazed to see a huge three dimensional Digital LED cube used to advertise a new telecom brand instead of the regular rectangular shaped digital screen. And the digital cube was a huge attraction for visitors in that area.
The OOH advertising industry’s innovation in measuring the impact of outdoor ads is now also comparable with other media sources and is another feather under its cap. Instead of DEC (Daily Effective Circulation) which merely measured circulation, EOI (eyes on impression) is the new measurement system which shares data on the probability of the ad actually being seen, based on demographics, ethnographic reach, frequency, and position of the ad.
But can this new measure help
us to attribute direct sales to this medium? Is OOH advertising used more
effectively for brand recall or can we, as marketeers, clearly
ascertain the value of leads generated through this medium? Ultimately, isn't ROI our measure of success.
What about the
effectiveness of digital out-of-home? Stands to reason that, digital OOH is
likely to be more effective, given the flexibility to update the message
quickly compared to static billboards.
Till such time that the
OOH industry comes up with adequate research to show that there is a direct
impact on sales, it’s going to be necessary for there to be a clear call to
action on any outdoor campaign, whether it’s a QR code that directs viewers to the
company facebook or twitter account, or push customers to download a mobile
application.
But what would be equally
exciting would be to see other innovations from this industry. Perhaps a
predictive interactive advertisement which displays messages based on the
weather, your mood or the traffic situation. Or better still, a chip in the
billboard that interacts with the GPS in your car or your mobile phone and based on your destination
displays targeted advertisements. After all the world is becoming more &
more intelligent.
Now that would be
something interesting to watch out for.
