Redesigned Company Pages

We’ve redesigned our company, product, and asset pages! Aside from the pages themselves looking much sleeker, this redesign also serves some practical purposes. Better SEO will increase search traffic to your pages. Maps are now embedded in the company pages when a buyer is logged in. Anonymous users won’t see a map, but an embedded RFQ form.

Remove Map Clustering

You may now remove all of the clustering on a map. Previously, when two assets were close together you saw a single pin with a number on it:

You can now turn this off and see all individual pins:

Start Proposal from Map

You may now start a proposal from a map! From any map of your inventory within DOmedia, you can select the units you wish to propose and add them to a proposal, going from looking at a list of units, to being able to visualize your proposal before creating it!

A video walkthrough of both mapping enhancements can be found here.

Digital place-based (DPB) advertising is an intriguing OOH format. DPB is becoming increasingly effective as advertisers attempt to adapt to the fast-paced lifestyles of today. This post will examine the unique value digital place-based advertising brings to the table, and explore some of the opportunities associated with this up-and-coming medium.

What is Digital Place Based Advertising?

Place-based marketing is any marketing placed in a specific location, or type of environment. Digital Place-Based advertising follows essentially the same definition but uses digital screens, as DPB is a subset of the larger category that is Digital-Out-of-Home. DPB delivers its messaging through content-based networks displayed on internet-enabled screens, capitalizing on context and utilizing location to target consumers. These networks distribute location-specific content designed to capture consumers attention. They then proceed to follow that content up with targeted advertisements.

What Unique Value Does DPB Provide?

Now that there is an understanding of what Digital Place-Based advertising is, the next question to address is, “Why it is becoming so popular?” A study conducted by the Digital Place Based Advertising Association (DPAA) revealed that there are five primary benefits that explain DPB’s newfound popularity.

Its Ability to Reach Target Demographics: DPB makes it easy to target certain audiences. For example, if the goal is to reach health and wellness-conscious individuals, using a DPB network that is broadcasted in gyms will make targeting that audience incredibly simple.

It Can Connect With Consumers on their Path to Purchase: Digital place-based networks often distribute content in locations where consumers make buying decisions. For instance, a DPB network that plays in a grocery store might advertise the products that reside near the checkout lanes. These ads located near the point of decision making can influence a consumer’s thoughts, nudge them towards a desired behavior, and kickstart the buying process.

Target Consumers by Contextual Relevance: Using DPB allows advertisers to remain contextually relevant. As consumers move through the buying process their wants and needs change. Someone who is just walking into a store is going to react to ads in a different way than someone who is checking out. DPB uses location to capitalize on the different stages of the buying process, making it an invaluable tool that many marketers are only beginning to realize the full potential of.

Geotarget by DMA:  DPB also allows marketers to advertise by DMAs, or Designated Market Areas. DMA regions are defined by Nielsen as “a group of counties that form an exclusive geographic area in which the home market television stations hold a dominance of total hours viewed. Marketing through DPB to capitalize on specific DMAs affords advertisers greater insight into the desires of consumers and, ultimately, allows them to create more powerful campaigns.

Access Hyper-Local Geotargeting: Geo-targeting hyper-locally allows advertisers to tap into the wants, needs, and concerns most prevalent in certain areas. This makes DPB ads more meaningful, and ultimately more impactful.

These various points illustrate the five factors that make DPB the powerful OOH format it is. DPB allows advertisers to be agile when conducting business. It enables marketers to craft powerful campaigns and deliver hyper-targeted messages to specific people, at specific times, in specific locations.

Now that you’ve spent some time learning about Digital Place-Based advertising head on over to DOmedia, host of the largest database of OOH vendors in the US, and get down with some DPB of your own!

Our CEO, Ken Sahlin, was recently published in MediaPost. In The Data Revolution Is Changing OOH he discusses his views on advanced data and tracking in OOH. While many see the out-of-home medium as old-fashioned, he believes with recent improvements in consumer and impression data, it is already quickly catching up with the rest of the advertising industry. And, the data will only continue to get better. According to Ken:

“Old questions around OOH impressions are being answered with increasing sophistication. Previously, the only measure possible for roadside billboards was how many cars are passing a given point on the road. Now the Visibility Adjustment Index (VAI) measures much more, including the number of passengers in a vehicle along with their demographic data, billboard density, positioning, distance from road, and even eye-tracking.

“Even with the improved impression data for roadside billboards, there are more advancements being made in data collection and aggregation. Experts are looking at creating more granular data sets that would still be on an anonymized level. For example, data is being aggregated for smaller areas, such as a square block or per meter, which would help advertisers fine-tune the timing of their ad’s appearance based on the amount and demographic of people in a specific area.”

This article was originally published by MediaPost. You can continue reading the full article here.

Massive change is often preceded by shifts in the way we interact with information. The spread of knowledge that occurred during the Medieval Renaissance was sparked by Charlemagne’s initiative to build schools and promote education. Gutenberg’s printing press enabled books to be mass produced and widely distributed. This ultimately served as the catalyst for the European Renaissance. Similarly, our lives are changing as they become increasingly intertwined with technology. The modern technological renaissance is impacting nearly every major industry, and OOH is no exception. This post will explore this trend and dive deeper into the current situation.

Productivity & the Professional

Specialized technology begins its life in the adept hands of experts and professionals before transitioning into the public sphere. For example, in 1987 NeXT Computers and Adobe Systems released a program called Display PostScript (DPS). DPS made the process of producing 2D graphics on the computer considerably easier. Unfortunately, this program was complicated. It could only be used effectively by trained programmers, so its appeal was relatively narrow.

In 1990, Adobe followed up Display PostScript with the release of Adobe Photoshop, a graphics editing software that required no programming background. Photoshop made creating graphics and editing photos even less labor-intensive. It enabled designers to output more high-value work in shorter periods of time. While both of these programs had a major impact on the productivity of industry professionals their effect on the public was still seriously limited.

Technology has impacted OOH in a similar way to how Adobe’s programs affected typesetting and design. Advancements such as instant campaign analytics, automated RFP’s, and interactive maps have streamlined the media buying process for agencies. Additionally, instant proposals, programmatic sales, and automated contracts have made the job of a media vendor considerably more simple. These innovations cut out the labor-intensive tasks that slowed down workflow and allowed OOH professionals to allocate more time to the tasks that really matter.

OOH for Everyone!

All the improvements mentioned above focus on increasing the productivity of professionals. At some point though, an inevitable shift occurs.  New products are now facilitating the industry expert as well as the everyday individual. This trend is clear to see when examining the various social media platforms that are dominating today’s world.

In the past, only professionals could create high-end graphics and properly edit photos. Today there are hundreds, if not thousands, of apps that allow any smartphone user to do just that. Technology that was previously reserved for serious professionals and devoted hobbyists is literally sitting in the palms of our hands. Popular apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat all allow their users to edit photos and draw graphics directly on their screens. Technology has democratized graphic design and people everywhere are enjoying their newfound capabilities.

The democratization of the OOH industry is following this pattern too. Over half of OOH spend comes from small-business owners, neighborhood leaders, and charitable causes. These users buy out-of-home because it works, but they are often confronted with massive industry complexity and opaque business practices. Luckily, platforms like BillboardsIn are starting to reach this untapped market. Technology is enabling these individuals to work like media buying/selling professionals — empowering complete novices to solicit competitive bids and make educated purchasing decisions. As technology is changing the way OOH is bought and sold, we are experiencing an industry revolution.

Check out DOmedia, the host to the largest database of OOH vendors in the US, and begin planning your next Out-of-Home campaign today!

Ken Sahlin, our CEO, recently sat down to speak with Amber Ambrose from The BusinessMakers. In their conversation, they discussed how out-of-home is currently going through a renaissance. According to Ken:

“Billboards have been around for a long time; they’re really huge, done well the creative impact is outstanding. So lots of people think that it’s ubiquitous, it surrounds you; it’s not something that’s assaulting you on your TV or on your mobile phone through a lot of the popup ads so it’s extremely successful. It’s really going through a renaissance.  The out-of-home industry has been growing, besides digital it’s really the only growing media out there, growing second most to digital, quite honestly.”

Be sure to check out the full video below!