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How Mobile Is Reinvigorating Out-Of-Home Advertising

Placed brings "OOH viewability" to billboards and in-cinema advertising.

Greg Sterling on February 3, 2016 at 2:38 pm

times square new york billboard advertising - Shutterstock used under license

In many ways, billboards are in the same boat as other traditional media. They’re “static,” and ROI is challenging to measure. Yet, ironically, mobile is helping give out-of-home (OOH) new life.

For example, location analytics company Placed has introduced what it calls “Out-Of-Home Attribution.” The idea is to connect OOH exposure to store visits. Place does that with a large panel of opt-in smartphone users who agree to share location in exchange for incentives.

The principle is the same as connecting mobile or PC ad exposures to store visits. Mobile marketing platform xAd also works with OOH and provides audience and attribution data.

Rather than showing simple surrounding foot or auto traffic near a billboard or OOH site, Placed is also promoting what might be called “OOH viewability”:

Placed is introducing a patent pending approach to viewability that goes beyond proximity and takes into account angle, distance, and direction. The ability to not only measure proximity, but viewability, combined with the digital standard for ad to in-store, makes OOH on par with digital in terms of measurement and attribution.

Source: Placed

Placed announced launch partners that include Rapport, Horizon, Posterscope, Kinetic, Clear Channel Outdoor and National CineMedia (NCM).

This announcement is part of a larger story: connecting media exposures (PC, traditional, mobile) to real-world consumer actions: store visits and sales. This is a major 2016 trend.

Clicks and impressions will have far less value going forward, and business outcomes and actual consumer behavior will become the new currency to judge and optimize digital (or traditional) media performance.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.