Technology plays a more significant role than ever in our daily lives, so it’s not surprising that it increasingly influences traditional advertising options, especially out of home. The rise of digital out of home over the past two decades has been particularly notable. These days, you can’t walk down a city street without seeing a digital billboard, bus kiosk or taxi top.
Yet technology has claimed an even greater role in out of home advertising beyond digital screens. Here are four of the biggest tech trends in OOH right now and a breakdown of how each one can benefit advertisers.
Programmatic
Programmatic advertising includes ads purchased through an automated system. It lets advertisers get the most up-to-date inventory and bid on it based on demand. Programmatic OOH has grown exponentially over the past decade.
You can find more than half a dozen programmatic exchanges to purchase advertising from, and the technology constantly improves. A few years ago, platforms often timed out or had incorrect information. Today, data is updated quickly, and you can feel secure about your transactions. You can also set and stick to a budget when you use an exchange, which can be harder to do when you go back and forth with a person about inventory. Instead, you set a bottom line and walk away if you don’t get it.
How Does Programmatic Benefit OOH Advertisers?
With budget cuts and inflation, vendors have become increasingly dependent on programmatic. But it has a lot of advantages for advertisers too.
- Programmatic speeds up transactions. You can check on inventory instantaneously and lock in a deal within minutes.
- Programmatic works great for national campaigns. You can buy across markets in a fraction of the time it would take to transact with each one individually.
- Programmatic simplifies the buying process. You can see everything laid out in front of you before you move forward, and it eliminates the back-and-forth of dealing with a person for buys.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence refers to digital systems that can “think” similarly to humans, prompting reactions based on visual cues and speech recognition. Forecasts say AI marketing will have a market value of more than $107 billion worldwide by 2028.
We’ve seen the biggest spike in interest in AI over any other technology in the past year. Advertisers can use it in so many different ways. It certainly can help write and produce ads, but we find it even more useful to utilize AI in digital OOH for a more personalized experience.
For instance, we recently highlighted a campaign for a beer brand in Vietnam that relied on speech recognition to dispense beer to people who pronounced the advertiser’s name correctly. We’ve used AI for campaigns that change with real-world conditions—like ads that change based on the time of day or the weather.
How Does AI Benefit OOH Advertisers?
AI can take the guesswork out of campaigns and offer opportunities for personalization.
- AI generates ideas. Even bad ideas can spark creativity. Asking AI to generate 15 ideas for a campaign won’t necessarily produce anything usable, but it could create a starting point that leads to a creative home run.
- AI triggers dynamic billboards. Think of the impact you can have with a billboard that mentions the current weather (i.e., different messages during rainy and sunny commutes).
- AI contributes to more effective campaigns. It can analyze travel patterns to help shed light on potential customers’ travel routes and offer insights into the best buys to reach them.
Drones
Drones are pilotless aircraft. The military has employed drones for more than a century, but consumer drones didn’t hit the market until about two decades ago. Recently, we’ve seen a big uptick in interest in drone use for advertising.
Drones have many applications for advertisers. They can use them to take aerial photos for advertising campaigns. For instance, it takes a drone just a few minutes to snap overhead shots you can put on a billboard.
Advertisers also use them at major events such as the Super Bowl. Intel memorably deployed a fleet of drones during the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show with Lady Gaga. And the NFL used them before the 2022 Super Bowl to create an image of the Lombardi Trophy in the Los Angeles sky days before kickoff.
How Do Drones Benefit OOH Advertisers?
Drones offer both practical benefits and advantages in the perception of a campaign.
- Drones lend prestige to advertising efforts. Perception isn’t everything, but it is something, and if your company can afford to use drones, that makes a good impression on everyone who sees them.
- Drones are versatile. You can use them in different ways for different campaigns.
- Drones position you as a market leader. They are new enough to be considered fairly cutting-edge, and that builds up your reputation.
Sustainability
Sustainability is a practice focused on preserving limited resources and approaching things in an environmentally friendly manner. You may wonder how sustainability ties into new technology — the answer is in how it’s deployed.
We see more and more advertisers concerned about making campaigns as green as possible. Whereas a few years ago, a mobile campaign meant sending gas-guzzling trucks around town, today it means deploying a fleet of electric vehicles.
How Does Sustainability Benefit OOH Advertisers?
Sustainability signals corporate responsibility and a care for others that all companies should want to convey. It’s good politics, but it’s also good ethics.
- Sustainability allows for different interpretations. Advertisers can use technology in myriad ways to support a greener Earth, including sustainable billboards.
- Sustainability supports billboard cleanup when the campaign finishes. Technology powers new ways to recycle billboards after their time is up.
- Sustainability favors digital advertising. With digital campaigns, there’s nothing to dispose—you post the electronic file and take it down when the campaign ends.
Use New Technology in Your Next Outdoor Campaign
You want an agency that has experience with and knowledge of the latest tech trends to enhance your OOH campaign. That’s us. Contact DASH TWO today to learn more about these possibilities.