This article was written before Cuebiq deprecated our SDK, which you can learn more about in this blog. We've left the following information up as it may offer offer additional insights and context.

With the explosion in growth of new media, it’s more important than ever that advertisers be able to measure and optimize their out-of-home campaigns. With proper OOH measurement, advertisers can measure performance and leverage actionable campaign and audience insights for strategic planning.

2020: High Growth for New and Traditional Media 

Let’s start with some background — new media is growing at a rapid rate. In its 2020 Advertising Outlook, Morgan Stanley reported that there is an expected growth of over 5% in US advertising this year, with digital spend accounting for more than 50%. However, there is also a steady growth happening within a traditional media channel: out-of-home. Morgan Stanley reported that 2019 was the fastest growing year for OOH advertising since 2007, and according to OAAA, OOH grew 7.7% from 2018 to 2019, bringing the total revenue to $2.7 billion.

The four major OOH channels — billboards, street furniture, transit, and place-based — all experienced growth. While new media is focused on and proud of the ability to target niche audiences, OOH finds strength in the ability to achieve mass reach. These billboards are not going unseen. In fact, Adweek reported that “Nielsen found 66% of U.S. travelers report taking an action on their smartphone after exposure to an OOH ad.” Brand awareness, search, and site traffic are all extremely valuable to a brand, but there is much value in measuring how the OOH medium succeeds in driving store visitation. 

Location data has been crucial during the rise of digital media in order to measure online-to-offline conversions, but there is also a significant need in the space to measure offline-to-offline conversions. Thanks to Cuebiq’s first-party, SDK daily data collection, we are able to understand the real world success of campaigns.

Measuring the OOH Impact

What sets Cuebiq’s Measurement solution apart from others in the industry is our methodology and high-quality data. Our methodology ensures that we can accurately measure consumer ad exposure to OOH placements, which means that we work with our partners to better understand the placements of OOH ads to increase the accuracy of our exposed group (consumers exposed to OOH ads).

While there are different factors when it comes to OOH measurement versus other types of media (e.g. digital), the power of our data allows us to better understand consumer exposure so we can accurately calculate ROI. It also helps that our data is 100% first-party, only from app-direct relationships — giving us the quality and scale to effectively measure ROI for OOH advertising. 

Interested in learning more about our methodology or OOH solution? Connect with an expert on our team today!

The post OOH Advertising Is on the Rise: Increase Your ROI With Offline Measurement appeared first on Cuebiq.

If out-of-home is not currently part of your marketing strategy, it should be. This typically “traditional” medium has made a major resurgence as of late, due in much part to DOOH.

It’s time to hop on board and take advantage of this channel. Read on to learn five specific reasons you need to add out-of-home to your marketing strategy next year.

1. The Medium Is Unblockable and Unskippable

You may not be aware that OOH includes more than just billboards. In fact, OOH is the umbrella term for any advertising that takes place in the real world, inclusive of street furniture, transit, and place-based OOH, in addition to billboards. So — that quirky Casper subway ad you saw? Yep, that’s out-of-home. That Pepsi branded koozie at a stadium? Also out-of-home.

What makes OOH so special is that it’s everywhere in the real world — and unlike digital ads, it’s unblockable and unskippable. It’s hard to ignore out-of-home ads, such as when you’re sitting on the subway staring at the same ad for 15 minutes before you arrive at your stop. You practically have to engage with it in some capacity.

2. OOH Can Be Highly Interactive 

Since it’s a blank canvas and exists in a physical space, the medium offers a bevy of creative messaging possibilities. Many of these can be highly experiential and interactive, taking advantage of the surrounding space and involving passersby. For example, the Dallas Cowboys introduced an interactive photo kiosk inside the AT&T Stadium that enables fans to “take photos” with the players — resulting in pictures that look remarkably real. 

[caption id="attachment_32367" align="alignnone" width="620"] Source: BarDown[/caption]

What’s more, thanks to DOOH, the out-of-home medium is highly relevant and can complement the environment it lives in. For example, Stella Cidre ran a DOOH campaign after discovering that a two-degree temperature rise above the monthly norm triggered an increase in sales. The billboard ads were only shown during optimum weather conditions, so there were no wasted impressions.

3. It’s Great for Targeting Specific Audiences

Out-of-home is also a fantastic medium for targeting particular audiences. It allows brands to connect with audiences based on their lifestyle and specific brands they visit. 

When looking at location data in particular, you can see visitation patterns of users and place OOH ads accordingly. For example, you can identify a segment of consumers who visit the gym and health food stores, who are most likely fitness enthusiasts, and target them based on those traits. Specifically, you could target them by placing an ad for protein powder on the bench right outside a gym.

4. It Resonates With Gen Z More Than Any Other Medium

As it turns out, out-of-home advertising has a major appeal for Gen Zers over other newer media. Per a study by Kantar Millward Brown, 55% of Gen Zers prefer OOH because it is “relaxing.” While digitally native Generation Zers may not be anticipated fans of this medium, their affinity for it makes sense — they grew up facing a deluge of digital ads everywhere they turned, so they might find this real-world medium refreshing. 

What’s more, OOH grabs the attention of this generation — with 84% of Gen Zers “pay[ing] attention to out-of-home advertising,” per research by UNiDAYS and Ad Age. For this generation that’s so often inundated with ads, promotions need to stand out.

5. Industry-Leading Companies Are Investing in OOH 

Finally, huge companies are investing in out-of-home and including it as a major part of their media mix. For example, Netflix bought $150 million worth of billboards on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip, making a direct play to vy against their competitors for consumers’ attention in the height of the streaming wars. Other major tech companies including Apple, Google, and Amazon are among the biggest outdoor advertising spenders. 

It’s no coincidence that these all-digital companies that are investing in OOH also appeal strongly to Gen Z — these companies understand which kinds of ad formats their audience prefers and are catering to them. It’s a strategy more brands should strive to emulate, if they’re looking to connect with a younger audience. 

Are you ready to add out-of-home to your marketing strategy? We can help. Learn about Cuebiq’s OOH measurement offering, which enables you to discover campaign ROI metrics such as in-store conversions, audience loyalty, affinities, and much more.

The post 5 Reasons You Need to Add Out-Of-Home to Your Marketing Strategy appeared first on Cuebiq.

We got the opportunity to sit down with Jeremy Flynn, Vice President of Data Products & Strategy at Clear Channel Outdoor — a partner of Cuebiq that specializes in out-of-home media advertising, providing billboards and much more. Keep reading for Jeremy’s view on why OOH is so effective, how the emergence of “smart cities” has helped spur DOOH growth, and what his favorite billboard creative was this year.

Based on Cuebiq's latest Footfall Attribution Benchmarks Report, OOH saw the highest Brand Uplift by platform with a range from 80 to 120%. Why do you think OOH advertising is so effective for advertisers?

Brands have always turned to OOH because of the size and power of our medium to reach consumers outside the home. That’s as true today as it was a century ago. What’s changed is that we now have highly sophisticated ways to prove the effectiveness of a campaign that are making OOH more relevant to brands. Making OOH more addressable and measurable helps surface its longstanding effectiveness in a way that brands and advertisers can understand ROI relative to other media channels.

The productization of attribution and audience insights through mobile location data is a game-changer for the industry, giving advertisers valuable insights that enable them to understand their customers now more than ever. This has helped them to be even more efficient and effective with how OOH is deployed within their media mix. Giving this enhanced level of measurability and addressability, brands are recognizing that OOH is very capable of better targeting and driving brand outcomes. Said differently, OOH is finally speaking the same language as the rest of adtech, and buyers are catching on!

That’s a good lead-in to our next question: How has the emergence of "smart cities" helped spur the huge growth in DOOH advertising?

Smart cities are a super interesting concept and something that will take a few decades to play out completely, with respect to AI and other technological advancements. For now, consumers are spending more time than ever outside the home, and there will be an opportunity for advertising to be even more present in the critical moments of the customer journey. Urban and suburban sprawl has established a culture where people will continue to be mobile, where autonomous vehicles will enable people to travel greater distances from home to work, as well as other desired points of interest — creating more opportunity to address them with OOH advertising. These new types of travel experiences will shape more active engagement with OOH creative, resulting in stronger media impact and lift on OOH campaigns.

With so many technological advancements in the past few years such as programmatic advertising and offline intelligence, in your opinion — which innovation has helped the most when it comes to OOH & DOOH advertising?

Digital technology is the enabler that’s driving positive change in the OOH sector. As I mentioned earlier, Clear Channel Outdoor’s use of location intelligence is creating a planning, buying, and measurement approach that is familiar to those who primarily buy digital and mobile media. Second, converting traditional printed OOH displays to dynamic digital displays allows brands to post campaigns faster, change creative quickly, impact OOH messaging using a range of dynamic data triggers, and incorporate digital OOH into established programmatic buying platforms.

Additionally, workflow automation is allowing CCO to post traditional printed billboard campaigns in 48 hours, a huge improvement and vastly more valuable approach than the old-school expectation that OOH takes weeks to get a campaign in market.

What was your favorite billboard creative you've seen this year and why?

While we are constantly seeing amazing innovations in creative and out of home like the recent “Love My City” Times Square digital campaign activated by the National League of Cities to showcase the powerful connection people have to their communities, what’s most compelling is that even the most straightforward campaigns using digital and traditional OOH billboards are still wildly effective at raising awareness on a local or national level. Just last month, we activated a CSR campaign around Missing Children’s Day throughout the state of Texas; the missing child case we featured in our campaign in Houston was found and reunited with their mother shortly after the campaign debuted. The mother told us directly that she’s convinced the billboards brought her child home. To me, this is just one example of the unique power of OOH to spur action in the offline world.

As innovation continues to advance OOH advertising, what new trend will dominate the space in 2020 and beyond?

OOH will continue to have a reliable viewability and fraud-free story that more buyers will become attuned to in 2020 and beyond — especially as our inventory becomes more addressable and measurable. As we get more and more sophisticated with our ability to integrate data into our solutions, the best practices that have existed in digital will help brands and advertisers move past measurable outcomes and take their campaign learnings and insights to optimize their OOH campaigns.

So when a brand asks, “Can we bring our data to you for planning and measurement?,” OOH companies will need to be able to answer with a resounding “YES!” so we can continue to deliver innovations that help us become more integral to the brand conversation by enabling brands to bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds. As a result, our industry will become more nimble with data and more responsive to our customers’ needs.

We’ve just begun that with our latest solution: RADARSync™, where we’re developing an even more intimate understanding of ad exposure in the physical world and how it drives online activity through social and other connected platforms.

What has made your partnership with Cuebiq so effective? And how has offline intelligence helped not only OOH marketers but marketers in general?

Integrating Cuebiq’s location intelligence and measurement into our CCO RADAR suite of solutions allows us to measure a range of KPIs and understand OOH’s ability to impact not just brand metrics like awareness, but also consumer behaviors like store visits, TV viewing, app downloads, web activity, product purchases and more. And across all these disparate KPIs, we’re proving that OOH drives a significant, measurable, and positive impact on changing consumer behavior. And this is a substantial advancement for marketers as they must deliver an ROI back to the brand. CCO RADAR, powered by Cuebiq, allows us to do just that.

The post Partner Spotlight: Q&A With Jeremy Flynn, Clear Channel Outdoor appeared first on Cuebiq.

You may be under the impression that traditional media has lost some of its luster over the years. While it’s true that many forms of traditional media are currently struggling, out-of-home media is having a major moment right now. According to eMarketer, OOH is the only form of traditional media projected to grow in ad spending in 2018. It’s important for marketers to understand why OOH is so effective right now so that they can include it in their media plans.

OOH advertising is working so well right now due to several factors. First, the medium is unblockable and unskippable — unlike much of digital advertising. Whether you’re driving by a billboard or staring at an ad in your subway car, you can’t avoid out-of-home advertising. Second, OOH delivers impact at scale. If you’re looking to advertise on a national, local, or DMA level, OOH can scale to fit your marketing objectives. Third, the emergence of digital billboards and dynamic messaging has completely revolutionized OOH. Digital billboards allow for more flexibility in a campaign, with the ability to switch out different messaging as desired and include time-sensitive content.

Yet for marketers, perhaps the most important quality about OOH is that it’s measurable. With marketers increasingly facing pressure to prove ROI on activations and use analytics to back up every decision, being able to measure the effectiveness of an ad campaign is essential. Through location intelligence, marketers can measure the offline ROI of OOH campaigns to understand if and how well billboards are driving in-store visits. They can also gain consumer intelligence by analyzing offline insights from exposed users to learn where users spend time in the physical world. These kinds of insights can prove extremely helpful for retargeting and planning.

Finally, since the ROI of OOH is measurable, marketers can easily validate their spend on the channel. Being able to guarantee results from OOH means that marketers can confidently allocate dollars to this channel when developing media plans and strategizing for the year. To learn more about Cuebiq’s measurement solution, click here.

The post The Billboards Are Back in Town: The Return of Out-Of-Home appeared first on Cuebiq.