Programmatic DOOH – Top Takeaways

Posted On October 26, 2018

It’s been 2 years since Splicky has launched its DOOH programmatic DSP offering. What have we learned?

Top 5 takeaways

1: You’ve got to start somewhere

Or one can say “baby steps.” There are clear benefits to automatizing the DOOH buying process (we’ll cover this later), but as an industry we are all learning as we go. If we waited to have every media owner and every potential targeting option available before we went to market we would have never gotten any place. Two years in, we have multiple integrations, international reach, awesome targeting options and PMP capabilities.  But this takes time, resources, and advertisers who are open to innovation — all of which we have been lucky enough to come across at Splicky.

2: Although there is a cost efficiency element, programmatic DOOH buying is not a way to get cheaper inventory

For those of us who have been working in programmatic for quite a few years lets be real with each other. For many years, the growth in programmatic came simply because of lower CPMs. Programmatic was associated with the leftover or “remnant” inventory. The bottom of the barrel! This is not the direction we are going with DOOH. It’s about how we buy and how we sell. It’s about effectively postal code targeting screens in 5 minutes as opposed to 5 hours, it’s about brand engagement with consumers who can see ads based on current events (such as sports, weather, finance, etc.). It’s about centralized reporting, audience targeting, using time targeting to ensure consumers are seeing ads during opening hours (in the case of retail sites). And a unique benefit of using Splicky is the synergy between mobile & DOOH. Sure, long-term there will be cost savings, but we have to get out of this mindset that programmatic means cheaper media.

3: DOOH programmatic is just that: programmatic with a few minor differences

This doesn’t need to be so complicated.  At the end of the day there are 2 ways to buy DOOH offered by Splicky:

1: Programmatic: advertiser sends bid request based on targeting requirements, advertiser competes to win the bid, advertiser wins the bid, ad is shown.

2: Programmatic Guaranteed: a pre-negotiated deal between media owner and buyer, enabling an advertiser to buy screens programmatically with guaranteed inventory and a guaranteed budget.

What are the differences between programmatic buying on Desktop and Mobile compared to DOOH?

As a mobile DSP we were very accustomed to everything happening in real-time (literally milliseconds) we no longer use the term “real-time” when talking about DOOH. We now use the phrase “near-time”. The nature of DOOH does not allow for showing the wrong ad at the wrong time. In mobile if the wrong ad is shown its one device, hence just one user. In DOOH it can be thousands of consumers. This is why there are so many approval processes.

DOOH is very fragmented. Unlike mobile, where in a matter of minutes you can turn on a campaign in multiple countries, every country is unique when it comes to DOOH. There are no “Global SSPs” at the moment. As a DSP we need to be connected to multiple media owners to offer an international solution.

4: Nobody wants to make the same mistakes from the past, but we still need certain pieces of the puzzle

I think we can all agree that programmatic as a whole has become chaotic. There’s way too many companies doing the same thing and offering no value at all. We don’t need to repeat this pattern.

I can admit I am biased, but we do need a DSP who understands data, targeting and, in the case of DOOH, has a level of expertise. Do we really need 57 DSPs? Probably not, but we need a healthy mix of companies who actually offer value. These companies will still be around in a few years, just like the “traditional programmatic” companies who offer value. The ones who don’t will be bankrupt!

5: DOOH programmatic buying and selling is here to stay

Two years in, it’s still early days. But DOOH is projected to grow 12.6% globally by the year 2023. Advertisers want to be as effective as possible with their targeting. Agencies likewise want to be as efficient as possible. DOOH media owners want to grow revenue and DSPs like Splicky continue to build technology to help facilitate this all.

Written by Ian Unger https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianunger/