Outdoor Ads Are Seeing Digital Revolution: OAAA’s Anna Bager

MIAMI – Billboards are gradually becoming like outdoor televisions, making digital out-of-home advertising a way to reach on-the-go consumers in a less intrusive way than mobile ads. Combining digital distribution with dynamic creative and localized data adds to its effect.

“Digital out-of-home is superhot, and it’s really the big growth area in out-of-home right now and probably for the foreseeable future,” Anna Bager, president and chief executive of the Out-of-home Advertising Association of America, said in this interview at the Possible event. “It’s really about the ability to use data….and combine out-of-home with other channels as well, such as retail media or CTV.”

As out-of-home advertising becomes more digitized, the process of buying media is becoming more automated with programmatic technologies that were developed for internet advertising. Marketers can tie their online campaigns with outdoor advertising for maximum effect.

“In a world where context and location is increasingly important, and being near consumers wherever they are….that type of buying is going to be a big one for us,” Bager said. “Programmatic is a big part of that. Automation is a big part of that, too, and that’s something you can do in out-of-home now.”

With the U.S. presidential election in November, more than $10 billion is expected to be spent on political campaigns. Many consumers feel favorable to outdoor advertising as a way to learn more about who’s running, according to a study by OAAA and researcher Morning Consult.

“It’s a good way to get in front of consumers you normally wouldn’t do,” Bager said. “Today’s American population is quite polarized and don’t like to go to news sources that they don’t feel comfortable in or where they don’t resonate with the political messaging. Out-of-home, however, reaches everyone.”

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