Digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH) is booming and is the fastest growing field of outdoor advertising. That’s why no media marketing mix should be without it. Digital outdoor advertising, referred to in technical terms as digital out-of-home advertising, is done exactly where people find themselves in their everyday lives, for instance, at airports, in supermarkets and shopping centres or at motorway rest stops. Together with its partner CITTADINO, BCN offers bookings for over 5,000 screens and reaches around 580 million advertising media contacts per month as a result.

But what makes this increasingly popular form of advertising so special and how can advertisers best use this medium? Our DOOH expert Tim Berkefeld explains what matters in digital outdoor advertising – and what opportunities BCN offers so that you can reach a high-reach target group with your advertising message.

What are the options for DOOH playout and how do I book DOOH advertising via BCN?

DOOH playouts at BCN can generally be booked in two ways: via the classic IO booking and via the programmatic variant. The IO campaign is booked and run over a predefined campaign period. Programmatic DOOH can be run in real time – which means that clients can digitally customise motifs. On example of this is that motifs can be changed according to the time of day without a lot of effort. This type of booking promises a dynamic and flexible campaign playout.

Why is digital out-of-home advertising such an exciting and successful advertising format right now?

The answer is simple: two worlds are currently colliding and converging – traditional outdoor advertising, as the oldest and most established type of advertising, and the booking logic of online advertising using specific target group data. DOOH therefore combines the magnitude of a billboard with the flexibility and dynamism of online functionality. In the future, I expect that about 90 per cent of outdoor advertising will be digital with a large proportion of it being programmatic. The development of digital and programmatic outdoor advertising in recent years is evidence of this, and it’s also reflected in advertising spending figures. Correspondingly, inventory is growing as well and new players are coming onto the market.

What matters in digital outdoor advertising? What tips can you give to companies?

The initial step should include getting to grips with the characteristics and basics of advertising spaces. For example, the advertisements that are run need to work without sound and should be five to thirty seconds long, with the standard length being ten seconds. It’s especially important to keep the message as simple as possible. In the very best case, care should be taken when creating the advertisement to ensure that there’s an immediate recall value. It’s often the case that text and a brand logo aren’t absolutely necessary for this.

Can a target group be selected?

Yes, it can. We are able to make this selection by running the campaign at specific touchpoints and thereby reach certain target group segments with a higher degree of effectiveness. The data available to us helps to do things such as address a specific age group. At airports, we can use Addressable Gate TV to target specific groups. Passenger data from Lufthansa is used for this very purpose in order to form special target group clusters. One of the things this allows us to do is better address business travellers. By taking the programmatic approach, we’re able to establish contact with the target group wherever they happen to be. The particular challenge in outdoor advertising is being in the right place at the right time.

How can the success of a DOOH campaign be evaluated?

With our screens, we promise clients frequency values – that is, ranges that we achieve per screen when running their advertisements. As soon as an advertisement is run on a screen, clients get access to a detailed report that clearly outlines all the relevant KPIs. We also provide photo documentation of the campaign upon request.