With a total ad spend projected at $2.07 billion and growth to hit nearly 17 percent for this year, the digital out of home (DOOH) space represents a mere fraction of the $160 billion U.S. advertising market. But numbers don’t tell the whole story because the platform’s potential to reach a massive amount consumers—once some kinks are ironed out--is anything but small.
Enabling Technology
January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas offered attendees a glimpse at some of DOOH’s most significant technological developments. That’s because most major consumer electronics makers also play in the display side of the DOOH space. In fact, from the moment show-goers touched down in Sin City’s McCarran International Airport, they got to see the largest digital sign deployment in any U.S. airport. At two stories high and 10 yards long, a next-generation digital sign created a canvas on which advertisers could paint their messages for the long elevator ride to the ground level.
That translates to a captive audience of 16 million annually, or “44,000 air traveling passengers per day viewing that enormous message board,” according to Shaunna Forsythe, CEO of Alliance Airport Advertising, which invested in this digital place-based network (DPN). “This is a well-understood demographic, and our numbers are attractive to advertisers.”
Forsyth said the indoor advertising from her video walls will produce an additional $500,000 to $1,000,000 gross advertising revenue for the airport each year. But when asked about metrics beyond the top line, Forsythe told CMO.com that the company had not yet invested in anything more granular, like dwell time, gender, and even eye tracking to report which part of the sign was getting the most views.
The good news is the technology is beginning to become available, particularly for smaller digital signs that comprise three to 10 screens. For example, Anonymous Video Analytics (AVA) involves a sophisticated, nonfacial-recognition technology that delivers metrics that advertisers crave, such as gender, age, or whether a person is overweight. In response, the technology can dynamically change the message to suit the viewer.
“The technology uses a technique known as ‘pattern detection,’ looking at a database of pixel patterns to identify a human face, gender, and even age to both collect viewer metrics and tailor the message appropriately,” said Pierre Richer, president and COO of NEC Display Solutions America, in an interview with CMO.com. “It’s a powerful technology that can add real value to the advertiser looking for specific results from the DOOH media buy.”
Network Fragmentation
In addition to more powerful metrics, the DOOH market would benefit from a national planning and buying system. What’s holding that back is “network fragmentation,” Patrick Quinn, CEO of research firm PQ Media, told CMO.com. “It’s a real issue facing the industry,” he said. “By the numbers, place-based networks have a total of over 1 million video screens and 4,000 digital billboards, but most of these operators are local or at most regional.”
According to PQ Media, there are 220 place-based operators, 468 digital place-based networks in five venue categories, and 117 digital billboard and signage operators. As a result, 90% of the DOOH network operators generate less than $10 million in annual revenue.
For the DOOH space to ompete with other national buys, industry consolidation during the next coupon of years is “expected and necessary,” Quinn said at the recent Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas. In addition to resolving fragmentation issues, consolidation would help to provide brands with more national scale and also allows for mobile, social, and interactive media enhancements
Quinn said he was encouraged by the consolidation already taking place. For example, Irvine, Calif.-based AdTekmedia and its network of 5,000 PumpTop TV-enabled gas stations announced a joint venture with Santa Monica, Calif.-based based Outcast Media Holding and its 500-strong Health Club Media Network that promises advertisers a Nielsen-audited combined audience of more than 68 million active consumers each month at health clubs and gas stations. Considering that the average viewing time for gas-pump advertising is three to five minutes—the time is takes for customers to fill their cars--compared to eight seconds for traditional outdoor advertising, the opportunities become apparent.
