Digital Signage Today
00:22:21 · Ari Buchalter, Daniel Brown
We often need help from the outside in to help you as a business do that. But I think it's important and necessary for business success, frankly. [00:22:31] S1: Sounds like that trend we've covered, do good to do well, even if an integer [00:22:35] S2: There's another t shirt right there. [00:22:38] S1: Coffee mug. Coffee mug. [00:22:40] S2: Coffee mug. Sorry. Yes. [00:22:41] S1: Well, I love that, you know, increased data seems to show that doing the right thing is also the selfish thing, so why not do the right thing? I love that very much. We'll talk about Ian Bremmer in our next episode in political risk consulting. Now content content is key. We've been preaching this gospel for a year now, a year and a few days. Can you comment a little bit on content strategies, including creative movement or even timing, that work well or don't work well in this space?
00:23:11 · Ari Buchalter
[00:23:11] S2: So I'm not a creative, so I won't have any design wisdom pearls to share. But as a technologist, it's certainly clear that technology is creating new possibilities when it comes to design and content and creative. We already touched on, you know, probably the most talked about piece of right now with generative AI, and that's clearly going to transform our ability to create and refine content at a larger scale and at a faster pace. But at an even simpler and more immediate level, what excites me are possibilities around what we call dynamic creative, right? So normally you think of the ad, obviously for a static out of home posting, the ad doesn't change. But even for a digital out of home ad, typically, you know, the ad is just sort of sitting there on the screen. If you think about it, of course, our medium is essentially location and time, right? It's all about where and when we're reaching people in the real world on their commutes to work and shopping and filling up the tank and exercising at the gym, going out at the town. There's a ton of information about those physical contexts that can be used to change the creative in real time, make it more relevant to whatever's going on at that place at that time. So whether it's, you know, something as simple as just having a different message show up based on the time of day or during the weather, we just talked about the storms we're experiencing here in New York, good time to advertise umbrellas. Or it could be the distance to the nearest retail location or the latest promotional offer, the latest betting line on the sports game this weekend. Any real time information can be used to dynamically tailor message in real time. And we have the ability to do that dynamic tailoring now, pull in that information and present relevant messaging to the consumer. So it's sort of the proverbial, you know, last coffee mug perhaps, but the proverbial right message at the right place at the right time. And dynamic creative really makes that possible. And doing that at the scale of digital out of home in the physical world, I think is really, really exciting.
00:25:12 · Daniel Brown, Ari Buchalter
[00:25:12] S1: And as a consumer, I can testify, this is another example that doing good to do well, it actually helps me if I I need a freaking umbrella and they're charging $40 at the newsstand. Oh, wait, there's one for $10. This is perfect. This gets me home dry, you know? So you can serve the consumer and make a little money at the same time. [00:25:31] S2: No doubt. No doubt. And it's really and it also gains attention, right? Like people notice that these ads are tailored to them, right? To their locality, to their, you know, it's the movie show times at the theater around the corner. It's not just, you know, the advertising component, it's actually providing utility to the consumer that kind of helps them with, you know, whatever they're trying to do. So it's definitely a win win. [00:25:55] S1: That's brilliant. Listen, Ari, we've got, like, 10 episodes I wanna do after this. I'm a huge fan. You're you're the expert in this field, though, so I really wanna just hand you the mic. Did we miss any major themes folks should know about as we gear up for the new year?
00:26:10 · Ari Buchalter
[00:26:10] S2: Yeah. I mean, look, I think we covered a lot of good grounds, touched on a lot of key topics. In terms of themes, you know, probably one that I would offer is just to be ready for a lot more change, right? There are actually a lot of fundamental changes happening in the broader digital advertising ecosystem, not just out of home, but, you know, you think about online media, CTV, social media. A lot of those changes have to do with changes in the kinds of data that are available or not available for the targeting and measurement of advertising. And those changes are going to ripple through into our industry, I think for the better, because they're going to put out of home on a more equal footing with those larger channels. So let me explain that for a sec. So instead of traditional deterministic models of measuring campaign performance and what I mean by that, if you're running like an online campaign, you're tracking individuals who saw the ad, what actions did they take, and trying to connect those dots on a one to one basis. But as that data becomes more scarce, we're probably going to see more statistically driven approaches, things like market mix modeling sort of coming back to the fore. And those types of approaches really use the same inputs from all channels, whether it's TV or online or out of home. And so as a result, I think out of home is increasingly going to be less of a silo sort of off to the side and more a part of the broader media mix conversation, which is going to change who buys it. Right. It won't just be traditional out of home buyers, but new omnichannel buyers that are that are coming in. It's going to change what buyers are looking for. So it won't just be I want locations in these spots, but it's going to be more about audiences and impressions. And it's going to change what success looks like, right? Not just did my campaign deliver, but how did it drive the outcomes I'm looking for? And that'll touch on the sort of measurement things I talked about a second ago. So I think all of that, it's really exciting. But at the end of the day, the theme, I think, is is that, you know, tomorrow isn't gonna look like yesterday. Maybe that's the the fourth and final, coffee mug.
00:28:15 · Daniel Brown, Ari Buchalter
[00:28:15] S1: We can both retire and just sell coffee mugs. I'm very excited. [00:28:17] S2: We're gonna live off royalties for the rest of our lives just off this one podcast. I love it. [00:28:21] S1: Well, listen. I hear so much. I have to... I only ask folks when I hear the passion in their voice, and I hear the passion in your voice. You seem like you enjoy the life you're building. You seem like you enjoy coming into work every day. I just... I love hearing that good energy. And I've got to know, what do you love so much about this job? Like, you seem to like what you do.
00:28:21 · Daniel Brown, Ari Buchalter
[00:28:21] S1: Well, listen. I hear so much. I have to... I only ask folks when I hear the passion in their voice, and I hear the passion in your voice. You seem like you enjoy the life you're building. You seem like you enjoy coming into work every day. I just... I love hearing that good energy. And I've got to know, what do you love so much about this job? Like, you seem to like what you do. [00:28:39] S2: Well, number one is the team I work with, for sure. It's a great group of people that share excitement for building new things and driving innovation. And when you love the people you work with, that definitely makes the job a lot more fun and frankly easier. But, you know, the space itself is, I just think, inherently exciting. You know, having been in other parts of the media landscape, you know, one of the reasons I was drawn to out of home is that I felt in some of those other channels, the industry had shifted to playing a lot of defense against issues like fraud and viewability and brand safety, all very important concerns. But out of home, which actually is shielded from, you know, intrinsically shielded from a lot of those issues because it's a one to many medium, is much more on offense from my perspective. And that's just a lot more fun place to be, I think, a business standpoint, because there is so much opportunity, there is so much demand for new capabilities, products and services. So combining that with the amazing team I work with, that's that's where that energy and enthusiasm is coming from.