For years, the out-of-home industry has struggled with attribution. We could estimate impressions, sure. But we couldn’t scientifically prove our attribution theories. Until now.

Digital integration provides an attribution model to OOH. Digital OOH attribution now rivals digital online attribution models. This gives out-of-home advertising a competitive edge in the overall advertising industry.

By delivering contextually relevant content based on proximity, you are able to start new and interactive conversations with consumers. Engage them with multi-media rich content, such as rewarding offers, videos or downloads. Reach them while they’re out-of-home and most alert. Influence them during moments of purchase intent, purchase decision and purchase action.

We currently offer three unique ways to integrate technology into our campaigns. All provide metrics and analytics to our outdoor advertisers. Be prepared to have your mind blown. Ready? Let’s discuss all three.

Digital Message Transmitters

One of the newest ways we can engage a precise audience on a smartphone is through our digital message transmitters. These units transmit a digital message up to a half-mile range! Consumers within that radius of the mobile billboard will have a different user experience, based on the device they have. For Android devices, the message is delivered via Bluetooth technology and the user will be prompted to accept a file. This advertisement appears in the ‘Downloads’ folder and if an image, is saved to the gallery. For iOS devices, a user must connect to the hotspot. A full-screen takeover will appear upon the next time a Web browser is opened on that device. An iOS user will be given the choice to save that offer into the Wallet app (previously known as Passbook). Both experiences allow an opt-out after the ad is viewed.

“We’re excited to offer this engaging and extremely rewarding digital experience,” says Regis Maher, president and co-founder of do it outdoors. “We have the ability to transmit ads to up to 700 devices per minute. That’s going to skyrocket an out-of-home advertiser’s reach.”

For best use cases, we recommend the digital message transmitter when you’re targeting:

• Densely populated areas in major markets
• Large events, such as SXSW or Comic-Con, as well as industry trade shows and other high attendance events
• General population, as it will touch devices within range, regardless of user demographic

During and after the campaign, an advertiser will be able to measure the number of digital views, as well as how many people clicked to engage with the content. In addition, by using a campaign-specific link or a campaign-specific promo code, actions can be attributed back to the out-of-home advertisement.

The national average for success rate is currently a 12.9% click-through rate. Do you achieve that high of a CTR on your PPC campaigns?

Beacons

Our beacon-enabled media formats are another great way to integrate technology to your outdoor advertising campaign. Because they run off of battery power, they can be used with our mobile billboards or our field marketing teams.

“Complementing mobile billboards with a beacon-triggered digital engagement is an attractive solution for advertisers looking to deliver personalized experiences to their key audiences,” says Kevin Hunter, COO of Gimbal.

Here’s an illustration of a beacon experience:

“We have multiple beacon technology providers,” explains Maher. “With a variety of ways to apply beacon technology to a campaign, we’ll strategize with the advertiser to find the most effective way to engage consumers and measure our success.”

In most cases, advertisers will partner with a mobile app, which serves as the conduit to send a push notification to a smartphone.

• Advertiser’s own mobile app – allows an advertiser to connect with loyal users on a deeper level by providing content based on that user’s proximity
• Third party app – allows an advertiser to reach a new audience for customer acquisition purposes by partnering with a mobile app whose users align with the target audience

With the growing adoption of The Physical Web project, we also can deploy beacons that broadcast both iBeacon and Eddystone protocols. These beacons can communicate to operating systems of the newest devices, as well as to devices that use the Google Chrome app.

In addition to the dynamic out-of-home user experience an OOH beacon campaign can create, the dashboards available are jaw-dropping. With a beacon, you can measure: impressions, dwell time, engagements, exact location, peak times and best performing locations. But our favorite is the attribution model we can create by using a beacon at our activation and another beacon in store. This allows us to measure the foot traffic our campaign sends into your store or restaurant.

We know that proximity-based messaging drives engagements, excitement and results. In recent studies, programs connecting out-of-home ads with a mobile campaign saw a 21% open rate with a 12% conversion rate (such as a store visit). And yes, now that traffic can be attributed to the outdoor ad.

Ad Analytics Platform

For our more stationary, experiential activations, we can use another type of beacon. This beacon has a high-tech camera with a 40-degree vertical cone of vision and a 53-degree horizontal cone of vision. The sensors inside can detect facial features and track eyes. Which means, this device can count impressions as well as direct views of the creative.

In ‘Back to the Future’ fashion, this device can even guess the age and demographics of those impressions!

With a full dashboard available, this solution delivers metrics on dwell time, location and peak times for your OOH advertisement, too.

“With these emerging technologies, we can report on actual impressions, not market averages, for your specific campaign,” adds VP Sales Julie Fontanella. “We offer a track-able advertising solution. When we say we reach the right people at the right time in the right place, now we can prove it.”

The out-of-home industry is fast-changing. And we’re ready to take your OOH advertising to the next level.

Sources: Blue Bite, Gimbal, Zing