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The Takeaways and Impact for programmatic OOH

The takeaways and impact for programmatic OOH following the ISBA/PwC Programmatic Supply Chain Transparency Study 

Most will recall Mark Prichard, P&G, landmark speech back in Jan ’17 to prioritise transparency and control on digital media. Following the publication of IBSA/PwC ISBA/PwC Programmatic Supply Chain Transparency Study, many are questioning how much has changed.

To summarise, ISBA commissioned PwC to understand the flow of money from the advertiser down to the publisher. They engaged with15 of the UK’s largest advertisers with a combined annual media investment of £800 million, 10% of which is spent programmatically.

The headline of this research, which took 2 years to complete, reports that only 51% of money ends up with the publishers, with 49% taken in the delivery process. Much of this will be legitimate & add value to the media buy, however, it also reports 15% cannot be accounted for, termed “Unknown delta”

Programmatic is without question complex, but it comes with the promise to simplify the buying process, to allow flexibility, agility & accelerate display, all key elements in the proliferation of Digital Out of Home (DOOH)

The success, development and growth of programmatic OOH has the advantages of learning from the pitfalls of programmatic display. It is critical that none of these issues are replicated nor imported. The sector has such an opportunity to help client/agencies navigate the ecosystem, and remove any transferred doubt from programmatic display

Not dissimilar to programmatic display, OOH needs to accelerate the standardisation of practices, compliance and terminology. The prerequisite for clarification on language is so needed to bring a joined-up approach, both across developed markets and less mature markets. The opportunity to nip confusion in the bud is in the here and now.

Revenue transparency should be much less of an issue in the OOH market. Whilst there are fewer players in the supply chain, many don’t charge commissions on the buy side, so the start is good and strengthens trust. However, a commonality must be agreed upon.

Transparency on data is also worth mentioning. With Route in the UK, Geopath in the US & many more recognised audiences measurement bodies forming the campaign audience foundation, many data sets are overlaid to further drill down on the targeted audience. It remains essential that the introduction of other data sources are clean, clear knowledge of the origin, with an understanding of the collection methodology to guarantee data has not been corrupted.

Accountability on programmatic OOH is simplified with most operators reporting campaign detail through accessible dashboards. From actual frames, environments, time of day through to attribution. As Jean-Christophe Conte of VIOOH says “Due to the nature of the OOH environment, there is little chance of audience fraud, so issues that plague display such as bots are not applicable. We work hard to use a base currency of impressions - either viewed or viewable - applying a methodology authorised by industry bodies wherever possible to ensure we are delivering impressions against the audiences agreed”

There are multiple platforms in existence in Programmatic OOH, independent platforms, Vistar Media, Hivestack; media owner platforms Dax, VIOOH; & specialist platforms, all with differing systems. so collaboration is key in driving programmatic OOH forward in firstly setting standardisation & language. I don’t believe OOH has the issues of programmatic display but we cannot allow any disruptions as we are so forewarned.

We have the opportunity to create phenomenal programmatic success & growth, either by the market or globally with the right industry body/s in place, and to accelerate programmatic OOH usage and platform integration, the future is extremely exciting

Fantastic summary of the ISBA/PwC report on #Mediasnack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOF8UzZYahQ

Stay at Home campaign, from national to global.

As the UK introduces steps to ease the coronavirus lockdown restrictions, with some easing across the world, the Stay at Home Out of Home (OOH) campaign has less relevance, and frankly, that can’t come soon enough. Whilst it has created some noise in the market, I thought it would be good to add my own story

We went into lockdown on 23rd March and started to prepare and adjust accordingly. However, as we planned our new days, we became aware that many non-essential workers weren’t complying. We saw reports and social feeds showing not all had taken the instruction and understood the importance to stay at home.

That same morning, three junior doctors featured on BBC News.  They had come off a late shift, exhausted, with one message “thank you for thanking us, but the greatest help would be to just stay at home”

With that churning in my mind, and wondering what contribution I could make, the idea for a one voice OOH campaign was born.  To create an unbranded, simple, and straightforward DOOH campaign, in order to effectively support frontline workers and reinforce much needed public safety notice messaging, which encouraged people to stay home and stay safe. The creative assets needed to be free to all media owners/vendors, adaptable to different screen environments and different screen specifications

My first call was to creative director John Dean at Mullen Lowe, we used to work together some time ago. I explained the ambition and the tone needed, as well as the urgency for statements that could be easily cross borders and cultures.

John, and his colleague Gary Marjoram, were immediately onboard and over the next few days, created a series of eight direct, but witty executions, designed as text only, white-on-black to reflect the important and sombre messaging.

Initially, I put a call out to media owners/vendors on social media, asking them to get involved in broadcasting the campaign through donated space, and four days after the initial concept, the campaign went live. 

Soon, word had spread and requests were coming in from across the globe, including Europe, Lebanon to Australia.  It continued to gather pace  as more operators and vendors got involved, donated space and encouraging others to do so too.

Moved by the initiative, the Digital Signage Federation in the US contacted me, volunteering to help spread the word out across their region, contacting all members and hosting the creative files for speedy distribution. AdTech platforms Hivestack and Blip then also volunteered to work with their partners and broaden distribution further across the globe.

Although now coming to an end, the campaign has run across the UK, Europe, the US, Canada, Columbia, Australia and Lebanon.

Naturally, the greatest challenge was that everyone involved volunteered their time and energy. The campaign relied on donated space from OOH operators and vendors at a time when some screens were being turned off, as OOH bore the brunt of cancelled or deferred advertising campaigns. However, the generosity of the sector, along with their collaboration was absolutely mind blowing.

Whilst this was a non-commercial campaign, born purely to support frontline workers and reinforce their message as a public safety notice. It certainly demonstrates the power of OOH,  underlining the creative flexibility of DOOH, using the core technologically capabilities - its immediacy, adaptability and delivery of contextually relevant executions. 

But equally as important, it amplified the agility of smaller operations/agencies, such as Diversiffi Media, to make things happen, pull great teams together, bring ideas to life, adding value and strength to a sector dominated by the larger corporates. We should be seen as a complement rather than competition or in a race. Collaboration, as seen here, usually benefits everyone.