Does a digital billboard have the same impact as a video ad? Ben Willee says no. And that’s likely why the latest SMI figures have seen an about-face in OOH investment.
The July SMI figures reminded me of my first week in advertising.
I asked my boss Peter Hickox why our clients spent most of their money on TV. He put down his beer and looked at me, so it must have been important. He said: “Son, sight, sound and motion create emotion. All good brands are built on emotion.”
Looking at the SMI Figures, digital video was up 11 per cent with a decent chunk of that thanks to the Olympics. Half the Australian population tuned in on their smart TVs, iPhones and other devices to stream the games where advertisers were lining up in droves to promote their brands.
It was a potent reminder of the power of moving pictures. They’ve been writing marketing textbooks about this since Adam was a boy.
Back in February, the CEO of outdoor media company oOh! Media said investment in out-of-home was set to grow at TV’s expense. The theory went that brands would be taking budget away from TV and shoving it into outdoor. And while the year started off strong for OOH, July SMI figures saw ad spend on outdoor back 6.5 per cent.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not an anti-outdoor rant or an anti-any-media rant. I love outdoor. And radio. Even printed newspapers which I know is terribly old-fashioned.
If you’re a smart marketer, I don’t have to tell you about impact equivalence. You know that every medium can be powerful when it plays the right role in the communications mix. But different mediums simply aren’t interchangeable.
While a lot has changed since the advertising Wild West of the ‘90s, one thing hasn’t.
Hicko’s words remain true to this day. We shouldn’t over-simplify advertising down to a couple of metrics like reach and cost per thousand.
We still need to build brands and video content is often the most potent. Especially when it’s delivered on the connected TV (big canvas) in the living room.
You know it’s true because three of the biggest content companies in the world (Amazon, Netflix and Disney) are now putting ads next to their content. And once the teething issues are sorted out, advertisers will be jumping over themselves to get on board.
Let’s not forget about context and data. We used to apply ‘reach’ as a proxy for engagement but if we have an email address, we can use a range of tactics (data clean rooms, Roy Morgan) to better understand the value and interests of that customer. Adding context and data to sight, sound and motion is a force multiplier.
Digital billboards, it turns out, simply don’t have the impact equivalence of some video ads. To suggest advertisers will get the same result taking money directly from high-engagement video and putting it into other media is nonsense.
Sure, the digitisation of outdoor has added an element of movement to the previously static medium. But it has also added up to nine more advertisers to every placement creating an increase in supply that hasn’t been matched by demand. And in the eyes of advertisers, it has devalued placements.
And while digitising comes with the ability to buy OOH programmatically, unfortunately, some sleazy media agencies are pushing programmatic in an entirely self-serving way. They know it’s easier to get the computers to do the trading, but they aren’t disclosing the extra costs in the supply chain. That means it’s highly likely some clients are getting ripped off.
Programmatic digital OOH needs careful consideration otherwise there’s a risk of advertisers wasting serious coin like they already do on programmatic display. In the US, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) found the open web programmatic ecosystem – worth USD $88 billion last year – was riddled with as much as $20 billion in waste. That’s 23 per cent.
I’m sick of hearing other mediums wax lyrical about how they are going to take $1 billion out of the TV market (or vice versa) and how anyone who says any different is a luddite.
It’s incumbent on agencies to be critical of some of the self-serving claims media owners spout. We have to dig deeper and remind ourselves that each medium has a role to play. We owe it to our clients. They’re the ones paying the bill.
Ben Willee is the GM and Media Director at Spinach.