Technology giants like Facebook Inc and Google spend billions of dollars on digital marketing, however, now they are investing their own marketing dollars into billboards and various other forms of outdoor adverts. This transition is primarily driving growth in one of the oldest forms of advertising i.e. OOH billboards. This change is hinting at the growth of the traditional channel in the coming year. As people are spending more & more time outside their homes billboard is something which is hard to ignore.
Apple Inc., Google and Amazon.com Inc. ranked among the top six spenders on out-of-home advertising last year, and Netflix Inc. made it to the top 15, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. The different OOH platform includes conventional roadside billboards, plus digital signs at bus stops and train stations, along with signs installed at the stadium and arenas.
Lately, Facebook launched an outdoor campaign to promote its new approach to user safety and privacy. Spotify Technology, the popular music streaming pioneer teamed up with the Brooklyn Museum to honor music icon David Bowie and promote the free version of the company’s app in subway advertising.
“Tech companies have become massive spenders of outdoor advertising but in specific ways,” Vincent Letang, executive vice president of global market intelligence at research firm Magna, said in a phone interview. “Bus stops, train stations and airports are good places for these companies to reach an active workforce and to generate social buzz.”
The ads have come a long way since the hand-painted billboards of the 1900s. Today, digital displays can rotate images every 10 seconds or so, providing wider exposure to a broader range of products. What’s more, they’re still one of the most cost-effective ways to reach consumers, said James Goss, an analyst at Barrington Research Associates Inc.
Alex Bodman, Spotify’s global executive creative director, said he was stunned by the number of social-media shares that the Bowie campaign racked up. The campaign in June won a gold award in the Cannes Outdoor Lions category, which celebrates creative outdoor campaigns featuring partnerships, people and storytelling.
“If you do any outdoor campaign in a unique and creative way, all the people connected on their mobile phones will want to share it on social media,” he said. “Outdoor advertising can become social media.”
Until recently, it’s been much easier to collect and analyse data for online advertisements, giving the medium a clear advantage over outdoor campaigns. However, that’s beginning to change. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc, which has more than 1,200 digital roadside billboards across 28 US markets, said it’s now using mobile data from a third-party provider to detect which phones pass in front of its billboards. That is supporting the theory that physical ads in public spaces still work.
