Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Today, VIOOH, the leading premium global digital out of (DOOH) home supply-side platform, released its annual programmatic DOOH research paper. The findings show that the future of programmatic DOOH looks bright with investment increasingly coming from new budgets or being moved from other traditional and digital channels. This increase in demand is due to UK buyers continuing to value the flexibility and efficiency that programmatic trading provides to DOOH, along with the audience targeting and brand safety afforded by its broadcast nature.
The report, entitled ‘Programmatic DOOH 2022 – State of the Nation’, provides a unique insight into the DOOH industry by combining in-depth interviews with key industry spokespeople, alongside survey data from 1,000 senior agency and advertising executives across the UK, US, Germany, France and Australia.
The findings identified that whilst the COVID-19 pandemic proved the value of the agility that programmatic DOOH offers, many advertisers have continued to take advantage of this flexibility post-pandemic. In the last 18 months, the executives surveyed reported that half (50%) of campaigns in the UK have included programmatic DOOH and this is set to increase to 56% in the next 18 months, with just over one in ten (11%) planning to double their investment.
The planning and buying of programmatic DOOH is increasingly taking place alongside other programmatic activities, demonstrating increasing market maturity to align programmatic DOOH within a multi-channel campaign strategy. Within this context, the majority (91%) of UK media executives stated they will continue to invest in areas such as building in-house programmatic DOOH expertise and focusing on educating programmatic, OOH and cross-media planning teams on the advantages of programmatic DOOH to help communicate the benefits to brands and teams.
When looking at the key barriers to adoption, the report found that media executives in the UK are wanting unified measurement solutions to articulate the value of programmatic DOOH and isolate its effect within multi-channel campaigns. In fact, just under a third (31%) of UK media professionals surveyed said they would like more information on cross-channel measurement and attribution in order to demonstrate programmatic DOOH’s impact within an omni-channel campaign. Additionally, nearly half (44%) of executives in the UK believe that a wider scope of audience data would also give programmatic DOOH campaigns more value and prompt an increase in investment.
“As highlighted in this year’s State of the Nation report findings, we are seeing an increase in media spend coming from new budgets or being moved from other traditional and digital channels. Coupled with a widening responsibility for its planning and buying, it’s clear that as markets mature, buyers are keen to fit programmatic DOOH within multi-channel campaign strategies,” said Jean-Christophe Conti, Chief Executive Officer at VIOOH. “For the channel’s full potential to be unlocked, the report also shows a desire for increasing sophistication in data and targeting, and a robust ROI and measurement solution – as the ability to measure DOOH’s impact within multi-channel campaigns is likely to become a key factor in the growth of programmatic DOOH”.
Key findings from the report include:
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Appetite and demand for buying DOOH programmatically has increased over the last few years
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In the last 18 months, half (50%) of campaigns in the UK (+3% pts vs. 2021) have included programmatic DOOH.
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37% of media professionals in the UK said they have planned, bought or placed DOOH programmatically in the last 12 months, and this is set to increase to 46% in the next year.
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There is also significant growth coming from new budgets and other digital and traditional channels
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38% of media professionals in the UK say they have added new budgets to programmatic DOOH, 27% have utilised existing digital budgets, and 20% have moved budget from other traditional channels ) to buy programmatic DOOH.
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Programmatic DOOH delivers a range of benefits for advertisers
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Media executives in the UK believe that flexibility (34%) and cost efficiency (32%) are key drivers in the growth of programmatic DOOH.
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They rank audience targeting joint third as a reason to increase spend on the channel in the near term.
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They also continue to select DOOH as one of the top three media types developing the most innovative opportunities for advertisers.
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Demand for programmatic DOOH is expected to continue to grow
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Over half (56%) of campaigns in the UK are expected to include programmatic DOOH over the next 18 months, according to UK media professionals.
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11% of executives in the UK believe that advertising investment in programmatic DOOH will more than double (101-200%) over the next 18 months.
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91% of UK media executives say that they will invest in building programmatic DOOH expertise in-house over the next 18 months, a year-on-year increase of 3% points.
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5. What is needed to drive further investment
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More widespread understanding of programmatic DOOH – 42% of agency executives in the UK feel that best practices in using data for programmatic DOOH would help them to better understand the channel.
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Measurement and case studies – 31% of UK media professionals surveyed would like more information on cross-channel measurement and attribution to demonstrate programmatic DOOH’s impact within an omni-channel campaign.
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Precision targeting and real-time audience data – media professionals in the UK (and globally) identified the provision of real-time data as the top need to improve the value of, and boost investment in, programmatic DOOH.
You can download the full report here.
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