What Digital Out-of-Home Advertising Trends Will Emerge in the Future?

Digital Out-of-Home is a measurable media channel that has advanced considerably in recent years by leveraging the latest technologies. 

DOOH advertising enables brands to generate creative and immersive campaign experiences for audiences. In a 2021 OOH consumer survey, 81% of respondents said they made a purchase after seeing an OOH ad, and 71% said tech-based OOH ads, such as Digital Out-of-Home, were compelling. 

But what DOOH trends will we see emerging in the future, given all the technology that is now at our fingertips? 

Here we explore several future Digital Out-of-Home advertising trends, some of which have already started to emerge.

Focus on Hyper Targeting in DOOH Campaigns

Connecting with outdoor audiences and delivering relevant ad messaging often comes down to timing. Hyper targeting in Digital Out-of-Home advertising enables advertisers today to ensure their campaign messages are delivered to audiences just at the right time and in the right place targeting them with contextually relevant advertising.

The hyper targeting capabilities of DOOH advertising enable advertisers to target their audiences based on specific geolocations, points of interest, times of day, and weather conditions.

More Digital Inventory Being Available Programmatically

Buying ads programmatically streamlines the process and allows advertisers to run highly targeted data-driven DOOH campaigns. In the future, this trend towards media planners buying more DOOH assets programmatically will increase exponentially. As a result, more media owners will make their digital inventory available programmatically.

The main benefits of buying DOOH ads programmatically that will continue being attractive attract advertisers include:

• Improved targeting capabilities. For example, precise geolocation targeting (down to a street), behavioural targeting based on consumer in-app usage, and different creatives at different times of the day – e.g. showing a creative on a screen for protective sunglasses whenever the sun’s UV rays or the outside temperature go above a certain level.
• Shorter lead times and much faster activations by buying ads on DSPs
• Real-time optimisations

Another benefit of programmatically bought DOOH media space is their ability to adapt and interact with the real world that consumers are experiencing and living through.

Our network of on-vehicle screens displays contextually relevant creatives to audiences, for instance, showing advertisements for sun cream protection when the weather exceeds a certain temperature outside. 

Increased Offline to Online Integration with Creative Technologies

The industry will experience further offline to online integration in DOOH campaigns, where visual offline Out-of-Home campaigns will be linked to the digital world, connecting immersive real world experiences to virtual ones for audiences.

Augmented Reality OOH is a prime example of a creative technology that we will see increasingly being used for offline to online integration in DOOH campaigns. AR technology enables customers to get familiar and up and close with a product and experience it in the real world. 

Other creative new outdoor advertising technologies that will be used more frequently in the future to integrate offline and online advertising include Virtual Reality, AI, and digital 3D hologram displays. 

Elevated Transparency for Advertisers

Advertisers, you will want to be able to assess the results of your investment in DOOH advertising campaigns. DOOH in the future will see advertisers being provided with greater levels of transparency over campaigns.

The ability to monitor and measure campaigns more and more accurately will provide peace of mind, and reassurance, and make things much more transparent and accountable for advertisers.

Persistent Industry Commitments to Sustainability

LEDs use up to 90% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs. Energy-efficient LED screens have increasingly been adopted in DOOH campaign efforts by advertisers in recent years, as the industry has sought to embrace more sustainable advertising practices. 

Going forward, further widespread commitments to sustainability will be a prominent Digital Out-of-Home advertising trend. 

Here at Drovo, we already have implemented a range of sustainable practices into our transit media campaigns, including:

• Carbon-offsetting every single mile driven by each vehicle in all campaigns
• Using 100% recyclable non-PVC materials for our taxi vehicle wraps.
• Having production facilities which partially operate using renewable energy.
• Powering our on-vehicle screens from the vehicle battery through regenerative braking.