The advertising industry continues to shift away from traditional formats, becoming increasingly digital in nature as advertisers demand greater flexibility for their campaigns, advanced audience targeting and better measurement capabilities. More and more, print ads are being replaced by online display ads, radio ads are being supplanted by audio streaming and podcast ads, and television commercials are losing ground to connected TV ads.

It’s only natural that out-of-home advertising, which includes billboards and posters, is following suit, with the aptly-named digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising. A relative newcomer to the programmatic space, DOOH is a great way for companies to reach their target customers while they’re on-the-go.

Primarily used for branding and awareness, DOOH involves the automated bidding of impressions in a real-time auction, similar to other programmatic tactics. The ad serving platform leverages data and technology to buy, target, deliver and measure ads across digital screens. Location services enabled on nearby mobile devices communicate with the ad serving platform Targeted users are then shown ads when they – through their mobile phones – are tracked approaching selected outdoor digital screens as they go about their lives. 

Relative to its non-digital counterpart, DOOH has a much wider reach, with a single campaign able to appear on many different types of screens, across numerous media owners, within the advertiser’s specific geotargeted area. This broad coverage ensures that potential consumers will see relevant ads regardless of what types of locations they frequent.

DOOH inventory is available across Canada and the United States, and the number of screens where an ad can appear is growing every day, now with over 2000 throughout British Columbia alone. These screens are in an extensive range of venue types, including roadside billboards, bus stops, airports, restaurants, movie theatres, apartment buildings, malls and more. Most ads appear for 10-15 seconds per play, depending on the screen type.

There are over 1500 digital out-of-home screens, across numerous venue types, in BC’s Lower Mainland.

Out-of-home media owners are moving many of their conventional paper-and-paste outdoor signs to a digital format, allowing for greater flexibility for their advertisers’ campaigns and eliminating the need to physically replace the messaging being displayed.

Users can be targeted by DOOH screens in many different ways, according to their demographics – including age, gender and household income – or by being included in custom audience segments based on their interests and online browsing behaviour. Another targeting tactic is geofencing, meaning if they’re found to be located in a specific area during designated times, relevant ads will be shown to them on various screens once they leave that location. Advertisers can restrict the display of their ads to fixed times of day and can even choose to show them only while there are specific weather conditions or the temperature is at a certain level.

To learn more about digital out-of-home advertising and how it can be used to help your business, contact us today!