DOOH, the best of digital and traditional advertising

Rocío Malnero

Marketing Analyst

Some weeks ago, Google made available the purchase of DOOH (Digital out-of-home) advertising for all the users of Display & Video 360, so that they can reach people in the real world, with the efficiency of programmatic technology.

DOOH advertising has broadened the universe of possibilities of marketing actions which, until recently, were unthinkable. This type of format multiplies the opportunities of reaching audiences on public streets, at the right time and with the right message.

The current technological evolution offers the possibility to modify the content in digital screens in a dynamic way, depending on the time of the day and the context, using data sources such as temperature, geographical location, the public and the social noise, making it possible to identify audiences and incorporate new segmentation and measuring capacities.

In other words, the brands can renew their creatives on a recurrent basis. For example, it is possible to exhibit comments in social networks in real time, to show live content such as sports games or newsflashes and program communication pieces so that they are displayed according to the weather, whether it is cold or hot, or if it rains or the sun comes out. Possibilities grow day by day, and there are increasingly more advertisers that take the chance to experiment and go beyond.

Some studies have shown that the human brain processes more than 60 thousand ideas each day, receiving between around 3 thousand to 6 thousand advertising impressions each day. For this reason, it is essential to have as much online and offline presence as possible, and the need to attract and impact the public with eye-catching publicity is becoming increasingly important, in order to maximize our brand image and achieve brand recall.

What benefits does DOOH advertising bring to brands?

Apart from offering a world of possibilities and being considered innovative, less intrusive and extremely original, DOOH advertising usually has public positive acceptance.

This kind of ads is profiled as a very efficient communication alternative after seeing the end of third-party cookies. Its configuration makes it possible to develop omnichannel client experiences, based on interactivity. At the same time, it enables the segmentation of audiences through contextual targeting, an advertising method that substitutes cookies, that shows ads based on keywords and smart algorithms that analyze the content of websites and assess it according to security, relevance and suitability. Both possibilities are considered as the most valued digital marketing tendencies of 2022.

Brands can take advantage of it in order to:

Gain exposure and achieve brand recall.
Obtain conversions and increase visits to brick-and-mortar stores.
Increase the potential of storytelling, appealing to a greater emotionality in order to engage users to participate even more in the social network community.
Increase the interaction between brand and audience.

DOOH Advertising in Google

These ads will be found on sceens on stadiums, airports, bus stops, malls, elevators, taxis and more.
Campaigns can be activated, paused and optimized almost in real time.
To measure its impact, editors will offer an impressions multiplier that estimates the amount of people that may have seen an ad.
Brands will focus even more in its strategy, thus improving their communication according to the context.

This kind of format will be much more convenient for brands with international presence, as they may execute different versions of messages, and reach their global audiences using one single tool.

Furthermore, Google has announced that DOOH ads placed through their display network will not be personalized and will not use individual identifiers and/or any user location data. Instead, they will use the information of the environment, the screen location and the time of day.

DOOH gaining ground in the metaverse

The first circuit of outdoor advertising is being developed by Uttopion, the first spanish metaverse, together with the company Exterior Plus. This amplifies the future of advertising in the virtual world, and brands will be able to experiment and apply in first person hybrid communication actions that combine reality and virtuality.

More than 500 advertising spaces form this first DOOH circuit in the metaverse, distributing into different formats as digital mupis, monopole billboards or advertising marquees. These advertising formats pride themselves in effectiveness as they are not very instrusive, and are integrated naturally in the daily life of the offline community.

Furthermore, companies can also make the most of different sites, experiences and events celebrated in the world of Uttopion in order to boost actions that are more interactive with their audience through activations, games and meetings, among others.
Thus far, Uttopion has two thematic communities: Musichood, dedicated to music and SportsVilla, focused on sports.

This initiative is part of a bid for the metaverse as a new communication channel to reach different audiences in the most disruptive and innovative way.

However, Uttopion is not the only virtual world that seeks to develop DOOH advertising. The british company Ocean Outdoor has also proposed to implement advertising DOOH campaigns sinchronyed with the real world in the virtual environment Somnium Space.

Focusing on games and virtual universes, these represent a kind of real estate for brands, where it is very fruitful to develop publicity and, as the consumer invests a similar amount of time in the physical and the digital world, it is key to make the most of opportunities offered by DOOH advertising.

In this metaverse, this kind of publicity format will be displayed as NFT, and will copy the size and design of billboards that also exist on the offline world. This space is positioned as one of the best places to develop creativity and reach a potentially unlimited outreach.