Many advertisers and media agencies ask the questions:

‘How does the pricing of digital OOH screens compare to static equivalents?’ and ‘Are they worth the premium?’The short answers are:

‘It varies by location, environment, format and media owner’ and ‘Sometimes’Clearly that’s not a particularly helpful response and many people are tempted to over-simplify the answers by trying to work out how audience figures compare.

There are many contributing factors - as listed below - that influence the true value of DOOH. The importance of each will vary depending on the advertiser and campaign in question, however all should be considered when planning OOH to ensure campaigns are fully optimised and maximum value is achieved.

Daypart buying and copy schedulingAllows targeting of different audience profiles and mindsets with even greater precision, if a more narrowcast approach is important.

Multiple creative executionsFeaturing several products or designs appearing either sequentially or separated by other advertisers.

Variable campaign durationsOne day tactical activity, weekends only, etc.

Short lead timesThese vary by network, depending on copy approval processes and technology infrastructure, but it is not uncommon to be able to book a campaign that is live within a couple of days or even a matter of hours. Advances in printing and logistics are making this increasingly possible for conventional posters too.

Fast copy changesIn reaction to factors such as news stories, competitor activity, consumer reactions, the weather, etc.

MovementMost networks, including a select number of roadside locations, can display animations and full motion video. This is not to dismiss the value of beautiful photography or high impact static copy and arguably, in many cases

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an OOH campaign should include both static and animated components.

AudioMost networks are deliberately silent, although there are some screens, such as those in hair salons and some taxi networks, that do operate with full or intermittent audio. Our Creative Optimisation Guide, which is available on request, contains some excellent examples of campaigns that have overcome the ‘I think I need sound’ barrier.

Premium locationsWhen converting sites from posters to screens, media owners have generally chosen their most iconic or highly demanded locations. As such, there may be a price premium which is driven purely by supply and demand.

Unique environmentsScreens are sometimes the only media format available within a specific environment and therefore deliver unique audiences. UK hair salons is one such example.

Real-time copyCreative can contain elements with live links to external sources, principally any data or content that is hosted on the web, either publicly or privately. Examples include streams from social networks (‘official’ posts or consumer comments), brand news, sports results, stock levels or public utility content such as traffic updates. Instant automated moderation can easily be built in or short delays can be added for a second layer of manual filtering. Our paper, ‘Seven Ways to Integrate OOH and Social Media’ contains much more detail on this.

Low production costsPrinting and delivery costs do not exist but it is worth investing a small amount to ensure that creative is suitable for the specific screens or networks on the media plan. The creative opportunity is often not leveraged, and unnecessarily simple, over-complicated or inappropriate ads are one of the biggest causes of lost value in this sector. We can help overcome this using our Creative Optimisation Guide, which contains plenty of tips and good examples.

Technological customisationsSome screens are able to support the integration of additional technologies and content, such as gesture based interactivity, augmented reality, mobile phone controlled content, voice and sound activated displays, personalised copy and much more. Through our technology and innovations website ‘Don’t Believe the Hype’, we have been documenting new developments since 2002. Another website, ‘oohwelike’, showcases recent innovation-based OOH campaigns from Posterscope and elsewhere, as well as relevant, inspiring non-commercial activity.

Modern, high quality displaysThis does vary by network and location, but in general our research demonstrates that advertising on OOH screens can make a brand seem more modern, innovative, stylish, cool and trustworthy.

The above list is certainly not exhaustive and other value enhancing opportunities do exist, such as content sponsorship, etc.

Three further areas that also require consideration when planning a DOOH campaign are as follows:

Consumer behaviour and attitudesAside from the ‘buying audience’ metrics it’s important to have data relating to more specific audience segments. OCS3, our proprietary consumer insight system, details how likely a particular audience segment is to be exposed to screens in individual environments, how likely they are to notice them and their various opinions about the medium.

Relative audience figuresWhether audience numbers are reduced, compared to a conventional poster in the same location, depends on the scheduling strategy of the media owner. In some cases loop length is approximately equal to the average duration of viewing, in which case audience reduction from sharing the display is arguably minimal. In other situations the priority is optimising reach and frequency from a network of screens and the length of an advert loop will be constructed to reflect this. Furthermore, research suggests that in some cases the change of advertisers and/or the use of animation results in higher levels of attention and audience.

Realistic, net audience figuresIn the UK, the new Postar audience measurement system will provide accurate figures for many of the most common screen networks, which allows us to assess impacts based on share-of-voice and other performance indicators. In the future we also expect this to be built into the equivalent USA system, EYES-ON. To allow comprehensive audience delivery analysis, agencies need systems that can calculate net figures for campaigns. Posterscope is the only agency with such a tool - Prism Screen. This tool is critical in being able to confidently and accurately evaluate the pricing of digital OOH.

SummaryThe 13 points above illustrate that the question of value is quite a complex and often subjective one. It is completely dependent on how screens are being used and the importance of each factor in the context of an individual advertiser and campaign.

For example, a movie advertiser taking advantage of full motion video and integrating dynamic consumer reviews from social media would require a very different assessment of value compared to a financial services client booking a last minute campaign to react to competitor activity.

For more information contact adam.cherry@posterscope.com