Programmatic Profits: How Programmatic is Changing the Advertising Game for Media Owners

This year is turning into an explosive one for out-of-home (OOH). Research from Q4 2021 found that trends such as digital burnout, screen fatigue, and data privacy concerns merged with a move towards people spending more time out of their homes. All of this has triggered far more attention being given to out-of-home: people are noticing it more than ever, and are taking tangible actions in response.

In line with these trends, OOH is expected to grow 11% in 2022, faster than any other traditional media format. Still, there is something else that’s crushing OOH’s growth rate: programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH).

Programmatic advertising is the use of AI to purchase digital ad space rather than traditional, manual methods of media buying. It works to fully automate the ad buying process, reducing human errors and hidden costs while improving transparency. Applied to digital out-of-home, it brings the best targeting and measurement capabilities of digital into the high-impact, high-reach world of outdoor advertising.

And it’s catching on like wildfire.

With a projected growth rate of 56% between 2021 and 2022, more than three times that of core digital tactics like search and social, advertisers are flocking to pDOOH. Programmatic is set to make up 5% of all out-of-home and 17% of digital out-of-home, according to the trends report cited above.

Why all the excitement? Programmatic is revolutionizing the outdoor advertising space, introducing innovations to OOH like audience targeting, geofencing, facial recognition, AI, dynamic content, and more. Key drivers include shorter lead times, greater flexibility, aggregated scale, and consistent targeting and data.

These advantages mean that media planners are more likely to recommend digital out-of-home to their clients if they can purchase programmatically.

And this points to the key advantage to media owners: programmatic’s ease of use and data accessibility are driving DOOH demand. If you offer your outdoor inventory programmatically, your signage stands out to advertisers and drives more business your way.

Not only that, but you also sell more ad space:

“DOOH real-time bidding (RTB) allows advertisers to buy DOOH screens based on visibility and real-time auctions and helps them locate the right audience at the right time with real-time granular targeting. At the same time, media owners achieve optimal monetization of their ad spaces without the added costs.” (“2022 is the year of pDOOH, Billboard Insider”)

This all sounds great, but how do you actually get in on the game?

There are two distinct markets for programmatic out-of-home: small to medium-sized businesses; and large, national brands and agencies. The first faces a budget challenge that can put digital out-of-home, especially in hot markets, out of reach. The second has a preference for buying outdoor media as guaranteed space, something that algorithms currently can’t promise.

Blip and Adkom are working to fill both of these gaps through proprietary technology offerings that streamline the ad buying process. On the Blip side, SMBs can run programmatic digital out-of-home campaigns as easily as a Facebook ad campaign: upload creative, push a button, and watch the measurements roll in. Adkom is working to deliver a product that allows programmatic outdoor to be bought as guaranteed ad space, offering media buyers representing national brands and agencies the perfect blend of predictability and efficiency. These solutions expand the possibilities for brands of all sizes, thus helping to drive the shift to programmatic out-of-home.

Whether on the buy- or the sell-side, the takeaway is the same: reach out to Blip/Adkom to plug into programmatic advertising!