Life in Programmatic Digital Out-of-Home
00:04:02 · Gavin Wilson
[00:04:02] S2: That's a really good question. And there's lots of things. I think if we start with the obvious, outdoor in general is an incredibly kind of a valuable channel, hugely visible, great premium locations. And obviously, you know, outdoor as a medium has been around for a long time. I think what programmatic does, though, is it does involve and incorporate quite a degree of flexibility. So it does allow that buyer to potentially look at moving budgets more seamlessly from other channels, maybe planning a little later in the cycle, you know, and having that ability to target audiences and plan cross channel. And again, let's think logically, you know, buying direct in outdoor is hugely valuable for those optimum spaces. But equally so if you're looking at an audience plan or an audience kind of ambition, and you want to plan those channels kind of side by side, the ability for outdoor to be to be bought programmatically now really gives you that flexibility. So I think planners and buyers like the ability to move that money around. You know, it's high quality, as I said, hugely viewable, but equally so you know, that money can move seamlessly. I think another thing is, if we look at channel by channel, Programmatic Outdoor is still incredibly affordable, still one of the slightly cheaper channels when you look against say CTV, or other channels. And that again, I think, you know, with a great measurement that's coming into effect, and obviously, the ability to look at cross channel uplift, I think gives buyers again, a bit more comfort that this is a channel worth investing in, and probably dialling up that ad spend as well. A few other things we've noticed from the report and from talking to buyers, Philippa, things like the dynamic creative is now really, really advantageous.
00:05:48 · Gavin Wilson
I think in this channel, you know, the ability to really tailor a message on the programmatic message that could be linked to something happening there and then could be an event, be a sporting event, it could be whether it could be, you know, any kind of emission in the environment, really, I think, you know, buyers and planners like now that they can design that creative to really engage with an audience, and really kind of talk to them perhaps in the kind of here and now language, which again, if you're, you know, if you put your consumer hat on, you know, a brand that gets me and talks to me almost I'm more likely to connect with versus a brand that's maybe got a bit of a generalised message. So I think we're seeing that's quite important as well. And then I think maybe the last part is just to kind of touch on that a little bit, but about that optimisation of ROI. Again, I think, you know, marketeers rightly so expect, you know, return on investment, and they're looking at the channel as both brand and performance led. And I think when we look at how programmatic outdoor can span alongside mobile campaigns, or even kind of driving footfall to store, I think the ecosystem has come a long way in the last eighteen months in how does the channel not be seen as isolated, And perhaps how does it be seen as complementary? So hopefully, you know, the flexibility, the affordability. And then as I sort of said, that almost measurability now, I think is meaning more and more buyers are saying this is a viable channel for me.
00:07:20 · Philippa Evans
[00:07:20] S1: Agreed. I think what you touched on there is quite important. We've also seen just generally, this has been more of a six year journey for The UK in particular, but there's now a better understanding of the benefits of programmatic digital out of home. Still a ways to go in terms of the education and full understanding of the channel, but it has come on leaps and bounds in the last six years, which is always great to see. You mentioned the DCO. There are improvements to the first party data integrations that people are getting a hold of and using now for their targeting, their triggering and their DCO capabilities, which is amazing. And also the omnichannel element, priming with out of home is so important and it does make those other online mediums work harder overall. So moving on, from your experience, what are the common pitfalls that trouble brands, the agencies, the DSPs and cause those barriers to repeat investment? How do you think those can be overcome?
00:08:20 · Gavin Wilson
[00:08:20] S2: Gavin think there's probably a few things that spring to mind. I think the first is probably around still the education and the understanding. It almost pains me a bit to be saying this, you know, five years into my career at VIOOH, but there is still a little bit of a limited understanding on exactly how programmatic outdoor can be fully utilised and maximised. How does it complement your direct outdoor ambition? It shouldn't ever be binary sort of AVB, it should be the two working together for different strategic plans, different campaign objectives. I still think there is this ongoing education as well as of the cross channel kind of focus, you know, how do you index in channel A versus channel B? What is the right proportion of spend to be allocated? And again, the reality is there's no right or wrong to that. A lot of it boils down to experimentation, being really clear as a marketeer and what the ambition is, who's that target audience, know, is it upper funnel or lower funnel campaign? Are you targeting loyal customers or net new customers? There's so many permutations, I guess, to look at. But it does, I think, boil then down to looking at that kind of ongoing education and training to make sure people see the channel, as I said earlier, is sort of viable for, you know, subject to what their needs are. I think linked to that, there's still a little bit of question mark around ownership, who owns the budgets, who's planning the budgets, maybe who's fully responsible. You know, the agency world is changing, you know, and always evolving. When you have different planner buyers and stakeholders, different holdco structure, different ownership, none of that's bad. But I think it's just again, precise on who is exactly accountable for that planning and optimisation, be it a digital team, a programmatic team, you know, in some cases, an outdoor team. And again, I think that's just evolving constantly as well. But I see great progress by many of the agency groups in how that's now structured. I talked a bit about measurement earlier. It is getting much better. But I do think that area of what we all do could always be improved. You know, what is great measurements? Who provides great measurement? You know, is that down to the media owner? Is it down to VIOOH as an SSP? Is sort of independent companies? And also what constitutes success?
00:10:43 · Gavin Wilson
Again, you know, you've got to kind of be really mindful that marketers have choice. So how do they spend that money? And what does brilliant look like? Again, it sort of goes back to setting out the right ambition, I think, and making sure that you know, the realistic campaign objectives and deliverables are there and then analysing that and making sure that you know, what was set out to be achieved, hopefully is being fulfilled and then test and learn, I guess. I don't think there's any kind of problem with any of those points. I think, again, if we were having this conversation, Philippa five years ago, there'd be far greater sort of challenges. And I think we've come on a long way as an industry in that period. And I think in the main, as our state of the nation shows, the investment is going up, the understanding is going up, and almost these sort of slightly subtle challenges of measurements, etc. There are great solutions out there. So, you know, I'm sure we sat here in five years time, and there'll be a slightly different set of challenges, but none of them are insurmountable, I guess, is my point. And I think the more the markets talking positively about the end outcomes, then, you know, they can start to work back and obviously, address, you know, the challenges as well and turn them into opportunity. But yeah, I think in the main, it's we've moved on a long way in a short space of time. And thankfully, as I said, when we look at other channels in comparison, outdoor has relatively few challenges, I think facing it right now.
00:12:17 · Philippa Evans
[00:12:17] S1: It's interesting, isn't it? Because what are some of the great benefits and do keep advertisers coming back are also some of the biggest barriers to entry for others. The lack of education, but the education has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years. The lack of access to data, but people are using far much more data than they used to be. And you mentioned earlier that programmatic out of home is a very valuable channel and it does work on a price level. But there's also sometimes a bit of reluctance from maybe from a direct buyer who's new to the programmatic space who sees those prices, those CPMs for the first time and gets a bit shocked by how high they are. But it's because they haven't quite understood the level of flexibility and efficiency that the programmatic route to market can bring them in addition to their direct business. So it is really interesting to see that contradiction from the pros and the cons of programmatic digital out of home. Moving on, so respondents reported buying more non guaranteed campaigns compared to previous years. Why do you think that is? And what do you see are the benefits of non guaranteed versus guaranteed?