OOH/DOOH

As a suburban child of the ‘70s, there was one critical and inescapable influence that had a tremendous impact on shaping my young brain: Saturday morning cartoons. I was personally a fan of anything Looney Tunes and, in particular, the Road Runner and Coyote shorts. As part of every short there was an obligatory shot of the Coyote chasing the Road Runner. He would get fairly close only to have the Road Runner casually kick it into high gear and shoot off into the distance, leaving the dumbfounded Coyote in his dust.
A couple of years ago, I left the OAAA Conference with the inescapable feeling that Out of Home was about to enter a sprint. That the converging forces of infrastructure, technology and data had delivered OOH to a point where a paradigm shifting surge was just on the horizon. Since then, the capabilities of the industry in terms of targeting data, streamlined buying platforms, integrated mobile and location-based cross-channel, attribution and measurement have taken off at an almost unprecedented, Road Runner-esque pace. This have left many of us standing in the dust with our heads spinning. Unless we want to end up like Wile E. Coyote, it is imperative that we catch up.

When discussing out of home, we often hear about the difficulties of targeting. “I can serve my ad only to people who have dogs on Facebook, how can we possible target this accurately in digital out-of-home?” But is online data really that accurate?

According to Facebook, I am a huge Kardashians fan – including the whole Jenner crew. Well, I can tell you with certainty, I am absolutely not. Do I occasionally look them up to have a giggle? Sure. Would I ever show real interest in their lives or buy one of their products? No.

This isn’t the only issue I’ve encountered with online data, and I’m sure you each have your own stories to share. So, this begs the question: why do brands seem to trust this data so much, but have so little trust in OOH data?

When Netflix bought about three dozen billboards on the Sunset Strip last summer, people took notice. Netflix is known as an innovator, a ground-shaker. When it makes a move, especially one people didn’t anticipate, everyone watches.

Turns out Netflix was, as usual, a harbinger of things to come. Over the past year, at a time when so many businesses have beaten a retreat from traditional advertising such as TV and newspapers, tech companies are running in the other direction, toward one particular traditional medium — billboards.

Why? Well, the short answer is because it’s effective, but duh…anytime an influx of spending comes in, it’s pretty clear that medium is effective.

The longer answer is that tech companies approach advertising differently than other businesses. They aren’t blinded by bells and whistles. They’re thrilled by data and results. They’re thrilled by innovation. They’re thrilled by creativity. And out of home (OOH) advertising has all three.

OUT OF HOME (OOH) Out-of-home (OOH) advertising or outdoor advertising, also known as out-of-home media or outdoor media, is advertising that reaches the consumers while