A New Data-Driven Approach To OOH As The World Returns To The Streets

The last few months have been difficult for marketers who invested in long-term OOH plans. With DOOH beginning to catch up rapidly in the Asia Pacific region in 2019, all eyes even ours were on out of home advertising reinventing itself in 2020 with the powers of programmatic and omni-channel capabilities. And then, the pandemic hit. Consumers left the streets and returned to their TV, OTT, and smartphone screens. And just like that, the present and future of OOH started to look uncertain. Even as lockdowns ease up and the world cautiously returns to the streets, it is difficult to say how soon out of home advertising will once again command the certainty and effectiveness that it has all these years.

What the near-to mid-term future holds for OOH

OOH is here to stay we have no doubts about it. But what agencies and marketers will definitely need is a data-obsessed approach to OOH. Ad budget optimization will be a top-of-mind priority for OOH in the post-pandemic world. It already has been, for some time now. But with the losses that many brands and industry verticals have already incurred during lockdowns and with an imminent economic downturn, highest possible ROI is set to become a legitimate ask from OOH investments.

Marketers and agencies will need a no-excuses strategy for OOH investments. Advertisers will demand optimized spending and right audience reach with their OOH strategy.

Better planning translates to stronger outcomes

Human mobility data holds insights into impressions and unique viewers at OOH sites. Audience insights such as demographics, affluence levels, affinities, and personas hold the answer to what consumers in specific locations hold close, what lifestyle aspirations they have, and how and on what products and services they are likely to spend their money on.

Combining these people and places data sets into real world intelligence will be the game-changer for OOH planning in the post-pandemic world. It will help brands deeply understand their target audience in specific locations along with the purchase triggers and barriers of these audiences. Real world intelligence will also sharpen OOH site selection and power DOOH for hyper-targeted, hyper-contextual reach in real time.

But the strongest outcome of it all? Stronger measurement frameworks that allow store footfalls and even online purchases to be attributed to OOH exposures. Offline attribution was already becoming the new normal for campaigns across channels. With real-world intelligence, this is now possible for every OOH screen that brands invest in.

The OOH planner that marketers need in the post-lockdown era

With this backdrop and with all the experience and pain points we learned about over time during our partnerships with OOH agencies and brands, the Factoriteam recently donned its product development hat that the company is now known for. Just last month, we launched our brand-new offering. It combines the powers of human mobility data and audience insights to help OOH media owners and agencies reinvent themselves to become the data- and ROI-obsessed partners that brands will demand in the post-lockdown world.

Are you ready to take the first step towards new-generation OOH planning? Call for a demo, were ready for you.