The Fundamentals of Digital Out of Home Advertising

The earliest billboards in the United States were invented in the 1830s by a man named Jared Bell. In Bell’s day and age, he was definitely onto something, and billboard advertising took off once a man named P.T. Barnum also saw the effectiveness of billboard advertising and started using them to promote his world-famous circus, paving the way for truly innovative billboards. However, it is now 2022, and static billboards are slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past. In the place of static out-of-home (OOH) advertising, DOOH advertising, or digital out-of-home advertising, is gaining popularity. As society is becoming more and more accustomed to technology and flashy LED displays, traditional billboards simply don’t compare to the “wow” factor of DOOH advertisements anymore.

DOOH advertising is becoming the new standard operating procedure in marketing for many businesses today. If you’re interested in using DOOH advertising to promote your business, you’re in luck, because today, we’re here to tell you everything you need to know about this unique and wildly effective form of advertising. To see if DOOH advertising is for you and your business, keep on reading.

What is DOOH Advertising?

Let us first define what DOOH media and advertising are exactly. DOOH media is like static OOH media but displayed on a high-tech LED screen, so it is possible to include personalized and even interactive content in your DOOH media. For example, instead of advertising your coffee brand using a static picture of a mug filled with coffee, DOOH advertising allows you to show close-up video content of the mug being poured with dark, steaming coffee, with a few drops of the black liquid splashing off the sides of the mug as your brand name fades into the picture. As you can see by this example, DOOH is engaging and gripping compared to static OOH media.

DOOH advertising displays can be found anywhere big screens are found. While many are placed on the outside of buildings in popular metropolitan areas, such as New York City, you can also find them in places like sports arenas or shopping malls. Anywhere a lot of people gather, there you can likely also find DOOH advertising displays.

Types of DOOH Media

There are a few different types of DOOH media. The most popular ones for advertising are digital billboards, digital spectaculars, and digital advertising trucks. Digital billboards are similar to traditional billboards in both dimension and concept except they use a LED screen to display media instead of a static board. Digital billboards also typically rotate the content they show. They might display an ad for one company for ten seconds, another company for another ten seconds, and so on in a rotating cycle.

Digital spectaculars are an upgrade from digital billboards. They are larger-than-life digital displays found in some of the most visited places in the world, like downtown Las Vegas or Times Square. Digital spectaculars come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can also include personalized sound or music to really make the advertisement stand out. Digital spectaculars are true to their name; they are without a doubt spectacular.

Digital advertising trucks are exactly what they sound like: trucks that are covered with screens to display digital promotional content. Like digital billboards and digital spectaculars, they can also display creative and interactive content. They’re seen by a wide variety of people, essentially anyone that passes by the truck, whether that’s in a car on the road, walking down the sidewalk, or anything in between. These trucks can go essentially anywhere you want them to, so if you’re looking to invest in one advertisement but want to promote your content in multiple cities, you can invest in a single digital advertising truck and drive it wherever you want to show your promotion in that location.

The Cost of DOOH Advertising

As you might suspect, DOOH advertising costs a lot more than static OOH advertising. Not only do you have to pay for screen time in prime locations, but because of their unique dimensions, you also have to outsource specialized high-tech design teams to design your ad for the specific DOOH spot you acquire. Furthermore, the price for DOOH advertising can vary widely, depending on the location, size, and duration of your advertisement.

There are different ways to purchase DOOH advertising, but the most popular way is real-time bidding, or RTB. RTB is an auction system that allows companies to compete and outbid each other for prime DOOH advertising opportunities. RTB is quite flexible and cost-effective since there is no fixed cost; you simply have to outbid our competitors. This can get quite expensive if you are competing against huge brands, but that is not always the case.

Conclusion

There you have it – the fundamentals of DOOH advertising. If you think your business advertisements would benefit from eye-catching, interactive content, then you should look more into DOOH media. AdQuick is a great resource to help you not only find DOOH opportunities in your ideal locations but also understand how to best use them to your advantage. We can’t want to see how you use DOOH ads to make your business excel like never before.