Jun
24
Lessons for Digital OOH: Creativity & Content Matter
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, digital ooh, metrics
Continuing on my rant on how creative needs to drive digital OOH and, as Shawn Riegsecker says in this piece on Ad Age AND contrary to what many tech folk in Internet AND Digital OOH say:
Unfortunately, algorithms can’t build great brands.
Shawn wrote a nice piece on how the early pioneers of web advertising created the problems the medium has today in that everyone thinks advertising is an algorithm. It’s nice to see some folks pushing back, intelligently, on the problem:
Early internet companies and digital gurus have attempted to change the fundamentals of advertising by promising a world of measurability, interaction and precise targeting. The first 15 years of online advertising was littered with portals, ad networks and pay-for-performance “spray and pray” advertising. It was a direct marketer’s dream: buy billions of squares and rectangles on the web as cheap as you can, add some basic audience-targeting parameters and presto! You’re considered a successful internet marketer.
This method worked in the beginning when online-media consumption was under 10% and great brands were still built through offline channels (e.g., newspapers, TV, radio, magazines, etc.). However, with the average person now spending close to 35% of his or her media consumption time online, the facade and fallacy of online marketing “success” is quickly crumbling. Brands are being forced to use the internet for positive brand-building experiences
Advertising is much, much more than technology or the algorithms technology creates and we will do ourselves well to remember that as we collectively mature Digital OOH.
Great “truths” that he relates as well that fit into our world. I especially like # 3 and #4:
Today, marketing executives I speak with, who have collectively spent billions in online advertising, recognize certain truths:
- You can’t build a positive brand identity by simply buying billions of squares and rectangles on unknown websites; in fact, littering the web in this manner will, in almost all cases, hurt your brand more than it will help it.
- Creativity is still everything.
- The environment in which your ad is seen is more important than how many of your ads are seen.
- The decline in offline-media consumption has left a void in helping advertisers build strong brands.
These executives are turning to the web but find the digital industry’s focus misguided and the fundamental brand-building tools lacking.
On #4, many advertisers I work with are running into the problem of finding “voids” in their plans in coverage because of faltering traditional media and fragmentation.
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One Response to “Lessons for Digital OOH: Creativity & Content Matter”
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Hey Rob,
Your post is right on the money. Similar to companies that promote placing as many rectangles on as many websites as possible to generate brand awareness, are network operators who think digital signage in high-trafficked venues with nothing but advertising is a good idea. Digital Signage draws strength from the relevancy and stickiness of its content. Networks with little more than advertisement-based powerpoint presentations are the lowest common denominator of our industry. Such companies are doomed to fail.
Brands will step forth from the clutter by forming relationships with consumers through engaging content. You don’t engender brand loyalty or gain customers by hitting everyone you can over the head with stale messages.
Best Regards,
David