What is Digital Out Of Home (DOOH) Advertising?

Breaking Down DOOH: Digital Out Of Home Advertising

Marketing happens anywhere and anytime. Whether you’re driving to work, getting on a bus, buying groceries, or walking down the street, people are getting marketed to at every possible angle. When your target audience is the on-the-go type, one of the most important things you are going to want to look into for your marketing strategy is Digital Out Of Home Advertising, also known as DOOH. It’s not just something Homer Simpson says, it’s the acronym for one of the most effective marketing strategies available. Keep reading to learn more about Digital Out Of Home Advertising and how to use it effectively to grow your business.

What is Digital Out Of Home Advertising?

Out Of Home Advertising has been around for, well, centuries. In fact, it can be dated back to the 1400’s! In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type printing, and advertising in the modern era was launched in the form of the handbill. The lithographic process was perfected in 1796, which gave rise to the illustrated poster.

Gradually, measures were taken to ensure exposure to posters was sustained for fixed periods of time. This led to bill posters erecting their own structures in order to offer more desirable locations where vehicular and pedestrian traffic was heaviest.

A lot of things have changed since the days of Johannes Gutenberg, and billboards have now gone digital. Digital Out Of Home Advertising takes billboard ads to the next level by making them digital, interactive, and even more effective than ever.

Types of Venues for DOOH

A billboard plastered on the side of a building or on the side of the freeway is just the beginning when it comes to DOOH and all of its capabilities. Some of the many places you can place a DOOH ad are:

• Airports
• Apartment buildings
• ATM’s
• Bars
• Bus stops
• Casinos
• Colleges
• Doctor’s offices
• Entertainment venues
• Gyms
• Hotels
• Liquor stores
• Malls
• Office buildings
• Restaurants
• Retail stores
• Salons
• Spas
• Train stops

Anywhere that people congregate is a wonderful spot for a DOOH ad. As you go about your day today, take a look around and notice how many screens there are around you. Whether you’re purchasing your coffee, riding the train, or walking into your office building, there are screens lurking around every corner—and so are the marketing options!

Types of Digital Out Of Home Advertising

Digital Out Of Home Advertising is an extremely effective way to get your message across to a large amount of people, but just like with any other marketing channel, you want to make sure you’re doing it just right. Understanding your audience will help determine what type of Digital Out Of Home Advertising channel you should use, and there are three major types: Large format, place-based, and point of purchase.

Large Format

Large format DOOH ads are just as they sound—very large ads! Think billboards, but digital and always rotating. Multiple companies are able to share billboard space now, and you’re able to upload your most current ad without having to go through the process of having it printed and plastered up. The results are instant and even more beautiful.

Large format DOOH ads are the perfect option for a company looking to grab someone’s attention on the go, such as a brand that is already recognizable but has a new offering for its target audience. The thing with large format DOOH is you’re catching people as they’re going through their daily life, namely, while they’re going to or from work. They won’t have time, necessarily, to write down the information or snap a photo of your ad.

That is why you need to make your offering short, sweet, and captivating when using large format DOOH. Short phrases, beautiful imagery, and a clear call-to-action will be very beneficial when using large format DOOH.

Place-Based Marketing

Place-based marketing allows DOOH opportunities for places like office buildings, malls, apartment buildings, gyms, and more. People are going a little slower in places like these, and usually have more time to stop and read your ad as they approach it. The capabilities with place-based marketing are even greater than large format since your message doesn’t have to have as quick of a takeaway. You can spend a little more time with your customers here.

Another benefit of place-based marketing with DOOH is that you can get contextually relevant to everyone there. For example, you can market beautiful pictures of the food at your restaurant at a local, large office building around lunchtime. You can market your dental office to the apartment buildings within a few miles of your office or advertise your health-conscious offerings at the gym.

Point-of-Purchase

Have you ever been inside a grocery, liquor, or convenience store and been influenced by some great signage or display options? Everyone is a sucker for something that has a cool label or packaging, and point-of-purchase advertising takes it to the next level.

When advertising your product or service to people who are already planning on taking things to the register and spending money on it, the ROI is huge. Many items, such as cold medicine, are bought with little pre-planning. Think about it: You don’t go rushing to the store the second you are getting low or run out, as you would with more essential items.

Unfortunately, you might wait until you are actually sick to start stocking up on soup and meds. With point-of-purchase ads, you can get to the front of your customer’s brains, even if they are not sick, by creating a great-looking point-of-purchase DOOH ad.

Benefits of DOOH Advertising

Aside from being one of the oldest and truest forms of marketing, out of home advertising offers a ton of benefits, and even more so when it all becomes digital. Some of the many benefits of DOOH advertising include the fact that you can make it super creative and fun, there are a ton of targeting capabilities, and cool functionalities that you just can’t get anywhere else.

Make it Creative and Fun

One of the great benefits of DOOH advertising is that you can have a ton of fun with it. People love great, creative ads, and DOOH is a great place to do it. You can make them:

• Interactive. Many DOOH ad channels allow you to have interactive ads that may even have touch screens. This is a great option when using place-based marketing options since you can spend a little more time with your customers at places like bus stops or coffee shops.
• Weather-based. You can make your DOOH ad weather-based, even if your brand has absolutely nothing to do with the weather. Reminding the city to bundle up, that cold and cough season is coming, or to start their Christmas shopping early, are all great ways to grab attention in a meaningful way.
• Location-based. DOOH ads allow for location-based ads, no matter where you are located. If you have multiple locations across many cities, you can shout out that particular area. Whether you want to talk about the weather, as mentioned, or about the local sports team, everyone loves to talk about their city.
• Relevant. DOOH ads allow you to create relevancy with your audience. For example, if your dental office is located three blocks down on the right, put that on your DOOH ad. Make it as easy as possible for people to relate to by keeping it relevant to exactly where the ad is.

Targeting Capabilities

Another one of the great benefits of Digital Out Of Home Advertising is the targeting capabilities. There are so many ways marketers can target the right people at the right time by using DOOH ads. Some of them include:

• Geofencing. Don’t target more people than you need to – you can keep your message within a certain area with geofencing so that the people who frequent this area the most will see what you have to say.
• Proximity targeting. Marketers can target people and places within a certain distance from your brick-and-mortar in order to lure them in.
• Day-parting. By scheduling certain ads at certain times of the day, week, month, or year, you can become even more relevant to your target audience. Get them hungry for lunch, get them ready to go out for the weekend, and start gearing them up for Christmas shopping, all with day-parting.
• Mobile extensions. Retargeting with mobile extensions allows marketers the opportunity to capture hot leads who have either lingered near an ad for a long period of time, interacted with it, or have visited your social media or website at that location.

Cool Functionalities

DOOH advertising allows for a ton a really cool functionalities that are tough to get anywhere else through any other form of advertising. Some great tools you can take advantage of include:

• QR Codes. Adding a QR code to any DOOH ad is a no-brainer, especially if you have a specific call to action that you want them to take. This allows them to reach you as quickly and easily as possible without having to type or research a thing. In addition, it gives the brand and it’s marketers invaluable data to make their ads even better.
• Instant updates. Want to tweak your ad? Have a new offering that you want to replace it with? Is your current ad not performing as well as you were hoping? DOOH allows you the opportunity to replace it ASAP with little-to-no downtime.
• Pre-scheduling. DOOH ads allow marketers the amazing opportunity of pre-scheduling ads, which makes everyone’s life easier. This is especially helpful if you take part in day-parting and want certain ads for certain times of the day, week, or year.

Get DOOH-wn with Digital Out Of Home Ads with Navazon Digital

If you’re ready to reach a ton of people in a certain area, you need DOOH in your marketing strategy.

Navazon helps businesses increase profits through data-driven marketing that expands opportunities and reduces risk. As marketers and entrepreneurs, we understand the value of developing a memorable brand through creativity and consistency. This is accomplished through targeted graphics, videos, and websites that reflect our proven, time-tested methodologies and detailed analytics. It is an approach that’s proven effective for companies of all sizes, from start-ups and medium-sized businesses to large firms with an international presence.

We are content creators who listen to our clients so that we can formulate ideas and strategies based on your unique goals and philosophies. Thinking through those goals with our analytics-based approach, we study not only your tendencies but those of your competition and the market as a whole.

Equipped with this knowledge, we develop a powerful plan, test it, and then roll it out on a modest scale. Once we arrive at the winning formula, we can scale up rapidly to meet even the most optimistic growth projections.

At Navazon, we do not believe in “one size fits all.” Every part of the marketing plan is customized to address your unique niche and positioning strategy. It’s how we excel. It’s why we succeed.

Schedule a free consultation with us now! Visit us at navazondigital.com for more information.