Wednesday, 8th June 2022 at 12:31pmAs the cookie(s) crumble

With third-party cookies on the way out, digital out of home (DOOH) advertising – digital advertising shown in public places – is on the rise. In fact, analysts forecast an increase in ad spend from $6.7bn in 2019 to $15.9 bn in 2027. 

Rather than zeroing in on individual connections, DOOH advertising looks at user behaviours to connect brands with crowds of people (in malls, in underground stations, or in office lobbies, for example) through contextual targeting, or the “one-to-many” strategy. 

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is basically traditional out of home (OOH) advertising powered up with AdTech – tracking, retargeting, personalising and measurement. 

Let's look at the way that channels like DOOH are able to target audiences without the need for third-party cookie tracking. 

Serving up the right ad at the right time 

Programmatic DOOH uses anonymous, historical and thoroughly verified mobile location IDs, to track major audience movements. This enables advertisers to zero in on where the ad work will deliver the most powerful impact, displaying the ads when the targeted audiences are likely nearby. 

It can achieve personalization and relevance through unique targeting methods, activating triggers based on environmental factors such as temperature, traffic or even pollen count. .

British Airways, for example, utilised live data streams at Heathrow for flight arrivals to display a custom welcome message for each baggage carousel in the appropriate language. It also suggested a local London activity based on the weather.

The food delivery service Foodora recently ran a DOOH campaign promoting its pickup option. Depending on the weather forecast, the screens played a relevant ad, encouraging audiences to grab food at a nearby restaurant or order delivery in rainy conditions. 

With the disappearance of the cookie, DOOH offers an alternative way to target audiences with ads in a relevant, meaningful and timely way.

DOOH advertising also requires a high degree of creativity to captivate and engage audiences. So here’s hoping that with DOOH’s rise, ad creativity will get a boost as well.