DPAA – The DPAA (Digital Place Based Advertising Association) organized The Video Everywhere Summit on November 4 in New York City. The conference addresses the advertising industry, agencies, advertisers and digital signage networks (digital out of home networks) and furthers the growth of the entire industry.
The conference looked at changes in the industry and best practices, with several trends being discussed during the panel sessions.
Multiple Screens
The availability of several screens which consumers have access to opens up the possibility to design ad campaigns for multiple screens, reaching displays from the home TV to PC monitors, mobile screens to location based networks. The location based networks are more difficult to integrate in an ad campaign as they vary widely in their consumer reach. For some targets this works very well, for example office workers in specific buildings catering for specific professions such as financial or legal professionals. In such cases location based networks can reach specific groups very successfully.
The panel had two very different views on the multiple screen topic. On one side the panel sees a large potential for contextual campaigns that is fed by data extracted from the viewing device (from the smartphone for example). This approach promises great results in terms of consumer interaction as the content can be tailored to the consumer’s interests. Key to the success of this approach is to identify what content works best on what screen.
On the other side the panel sees content as screen agnostic and does not care what screen receives the content. It is still unclear which direction the industry will take.
The key driver for content placement is that more and more data is available from the targeted screen. Mobile screens provide data to the ad network to trigger the displayed content. This includes all kinds of consumer information, giving rise to some privacy concerns.
Overall the multiple screen aspect centers around the consumer’s decision journey. One aspect of this journey is addressed through sequential messaging. However, as consumers switch between different screens regularly without any perceivable pattern, the multi-screen approach is strongly undermined.
Programmatic
Programmatic ad placement describes a method that places ad content based on certain rules via an automatic process. This process addresses a sizeable part of the digital placement market already, but has not reached the conventional linear TV market, for example. Many see this part of the advertising industry on the rise, while other market segments are stagnating.
It is difficult to place contextual relevant content in digital networks via automatic processes, but it is very easy to place location relevant content. As an example the panel said that Nickelodeon is creating shows that will be shown only on specific devices. This reflects research which has identified certain shows which do much better on certain devices. This trend of screen specific content will also influence the ad placement within such shows.
Technology Changing Media Habits
The availability of more and more screens in the hands of consumers is changing strongly what is viewed when and where. These habits also influence how ads are being displayed. As a direct consequence of this variety of screens, media measurement options are increasing. Research has shown that certain age groups are more likely to watch TV episodes on a smartphone or phablet than others. This will allow advertisers to reach certain age groups targeted on these devices. In the end, data and databases are growing strongly allowing more powerful ad placement.
Three major trends were identified during the sessions as influencing the future of the advertising industry.
– The Internet of Things
– Shopper Marketing
– Increasing Video Focus
These trends are not new to the technology industries, but now they are also influencing how ad campaigns are being targeted.
Overall the conference gave a great overview of where the advertising industry is standing and how the inclusion of mobile devices changes the approach to advertising campaigns. As a general observation, digital advertising is not only about digital signage anymore. It is developing into a very complex and data driven industry that is still looking at many options to drive advertising in the future. – Norbert Hildebrand
