Jamie Snow: Engaging DOOH audiences with data-led creative

By Jamie Snow, head of digital design, LUMO Digital Outdoor.

Using data to inform media planning, tracking and reporting is par for the course in digital out of home, but now we’re seeing a new trend emerge – brands tapping into data to make creative messaging more engaging.

Developments in programmatic technology have created some excellent tools in terms of location and time targeting, but the creative itself is still largely traditional brand messaging.

Yet, DOOH tech is primed for smart creatives, and 2023 is set to be the year that agencies (and ultimately clients) will start to curate messaging and use third-party or internal data to add more engaging elements such as weather, sport, and the ability to refresh imagery or headlines in real time.

Contextual messaging has been proven to make your media dollar work harder, and the use of data is set to evolve creative beyond standard static messaging, with dynamic results enhancing the experience for consumers.

Those leading the charge include a recent DOOH campaign from Southern Cross, ‘Pet Paw-casts’, aimed at driving awareness of the dangers of summer temperatures for our furry friends. The creative execution tapped into weather data to display both a live pavement temperature widget, as well as creative messaging based on conditions such as cloud cover, rain and time of day.

Another example saw Lotto NZ building dynamic creative to support over 3,500 variations of DOOH creatives to accurately reflect the Powerball amount and next draw date, across their digital banners, website and now DOOH advertisements. Cabots even used weather forecast data to let customers know when there was enough good weather to stain the deck.

The tech can even tap into an independent API’s like Google Maps, giving the ability to display alternative routes when traffic is bad.

LUMO has also seen LENS car data used to target creative based on the tech capturing the car’s age – a more affordable product/service displayed to a car older than 2014, or a premium offering displayed to a newer car.

We’re seeing more agencies start to realise the capabilities of DOOH, and the opportunities that dynamic creative and programmatic open up.

The latest Pixel Award entries were amazing examples of how to properly use the network, with the winning campaign using a UV index to display a ‘live skin burn reading’ on billboards across the country, to remind New Zealanders about the danger of sun exposure.

Even the effect of the advertising on keyword searching could be the key to pushing creative further. Clients can look to use large format displays for mass awareness with multiple image and headline variations, then track the performance of those headlines against search engine keywords for a road-map on the most effective wording/imagery to use across other channels such as online.

For those wondering just how far Dynamic Creative can take your campaign, here’s some tips and examples from LUMO Labs:

● Target your location with contextual messaging – great for local businesses
● Refresh imagery and text in real-time from a managed upload destination
● Use third party data to deliver pre-defined messaging e.g. insurance in a flood
● Use existing online data sources to target messaging at it’s peak e.g. social trends
● Keep the creatives bold and exciting but have variations of key elements to track performance.