With an abundance of programmatic channels and access points available, today’s marketers need to consider more factors than ever before when deciding on the optimal media mix for campaigns. Add to that the need to understand the nuances of each channel and different measurement methodologies and it’s easy to see why adding new channels can be challenging.
In this episode of Life in Programmatic DOOH, Ed Mullins, Director, Inventory and Partnerships at StackAdapt, an omnichannel demand-side platform (DSP) joins JCDecaux UK’s Head of Programmatic, Dom Kozak to discuss how marketers can best approach adding programmatic DOOH (pDOOH) to their multi-channel media mix.
What role does StackAdapt play in deciding on the right media mix?
“It’s a bespoke process, and it’s important for us as a DSP to partner with the client to ensure that we fully understand what they're trying to achieve and what the performance goals to make sure that we're supporting the client as best as possible. Our role is to help brands and agencies to understand the benefits and the challenges that come with each channel and to make sure that from the beginning we define what success looks like and which metrics we’re going to use to measure performance.”
Which channels work particularly well with pDOOH?
“Mobile is the most talked about channel when it comes to what works best with pDOOH because it gives you the ability to capture online touch points in conjunction with out-of-home screens and the ability to measure the influence of each channel. But it’s important to remember that in a lot of verticals the majority of purchases still happen offline, in conjunction with online research, so search is very important too. It’s all about combining the power of online and offline, driving efficiency, and reinforcing messaging to the target audience throughout the purchase funnel.”
What are the key learnings you’ve taken from your first pDOOH campaigns?
“Firstly, we’ve learned that pDOOH is a great way to drive precision at scale, and deliver better results down the funnel with other channels e.g. mobile, video, and search. One of the biggest challenges has been education especially driving the understanding that pDOOH isn’t a one-to-one medium and that the metrics that we're used to in other programmatic channels, such as CTR, viewability, and view-through rate are not applicable but that at the same time the channel is incredibly targetable and the reporting is granular.”
What is it about pDOOH that really stands out for you?
“One of the biggest benefits of pDOOH is the ability to get your message out there on iconic screens and unique locations while still being really strategic in how you reach targeting audiences and being able to lean in to the performance side of things while still having a holistic view of all channels. There’s also the data integration in the planning process - whether that's looking at key triggers or time of day or week and then looking beyond just activation to dynamic creative opportunities. For example, how can we include different creatives in different locations based around user journeys and be more thoughtful in terms of the touch points that we can achieve.”
Can you share an example of what success can look like in pDOOH?
We ran a campaign for the Isle of Man and it was really interesting to look at how we could track performance using non-traditional programmatic metrics. One of the metrics we used was search term volumes, which had 263% uplift when we included pDOOH compared to without. We also saw at 140% increase in CTR which helped us understand how pDOOH was helping to boost performance in search. In channels where we don't have as many opportunities to measure it’s important to think outside the box and look at and look at whether these branded moments are delivering performance which you might find in different channels compared to what you originally thought. We also saw an increase in CTR on mobile campaigns of just over 11% where pDOOH was running which proves that you can look at all the different elements that you're running and really see where performance changes happen.”
What advice would you give to marketers who are embarking on their first pDOOH campaign?
“Remember that pDOOH will play a specific role in the media mix for each campaign and that role is different for each campaign so you must really understand what you’re looking to achieve. From the DSP perspective, I’d also advise people to lean on their partners, it might be our first campaign, but there’s a lot of people with a lot of experience you can rely on learn from. Also, make use of the data that’s available to inform campaign strategy, whether it's before the flight goes live and/or during, work with what's available.”
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