Ooh!Media CEO and board member of international out of home (OOH) organisation FEPE, Brendon Cook, is questioning claims the local industry is behind the ball with the take up of digital out of home (DOOH).
AdNews previously reported that figures from the Outdoor Media Association (OMA) placed DOOH revenue at 21% of the market, while in the UK, Posterscope UK figures place it at around 27% market penetration.
Cook, who attended the 56th international FEPE congress last week, said that the figures don't give an accurate portrayal of the Australian DOOH market. He said that when it comes to digital solutions with reach and “aren't just stunts” and that Australia is well and truly ahead.
“If you look at Australia, in reality, it is a national economy for advertising,” Cook said. “Most advertisers would be national or multi-market advertisers so as a media owner, you have to have that ability.
“When it comes to providing digital solutions that have national reach and aren't just stunts, we're well ahead of the UK and well ahead of Europe.”
Cook said while overseas markets have some examples of fantastic creative executions, without the scale and reach of national or multi-market networks, they aren't able to deliver the same outcome.
“And really, what advertisers want they want it on scale,” Cook said. “At the end of the day, it's not just about a bit of a story, it is about selling product.”
Cook said comparing to overseas markets, Australia is well ahead in what is known as walk-by and standby environments: shopping centres, airports and place-based environment. He said that in terms of digital roadside, Australia is lagging slightly but said changes in regulation – including the recent Sydney draft Development Control Plan – are allowing it to catch up rapidly.
Cook added that the only area that is a long way behind here is street furniture.
“We've reached scalability around digitisation and scalability around using it in a way that connects with the analogue or static products brilliantly in all environment bar street furniture, which is a long way behind at this point,” Cook said.
“Regulatory-wise, street furniture is all on roads in Australia or it's a non-pedestrian-based so there are a lot more hurdles to overcome.”
On a global scale, Cook said all out of home (OOH) markets are grappling with the same issues going forward: automation, emerging tech like beacons and using data.
“The key is data,” Cook said. “It is important that we get more enriched data than we currently have worldwide and that's going to be a key focus over the next few years for the industry – trying to obtain that data and how it can lead to more sophisticated targeting.”
But Cook said one advantage OOH has compared to other media is its ability to work as an industry, both in Australia, with the OMA and abroad.
“One of the strengths of OOH is probably that we are actually working cohesively globally and if you think about it there are not too many media that are doing that,” Cook said.
“Because of the strengths and the share that we do, we can all work together to create stronger platforms for clients.”
Earlier this month, the OMA announced plans for a tender for the world-first industry-wide automated transaction platform, with an eye to extending the platform to include programmatic trading down the line.
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