Creative, effective ads generate more profit, which is why brands invest significant budgets and resources into the creative development process. One of the biggest strengths of programmatic DOOH is the ability to leverage true dynamic creative optimization (DCO) to maximize relevance and engagement. Read on to learn how agencies and demand-side platforms that invest heavily in creative strategies deliver superior results in programmatic DOOH.
To pinpoint the factors that result in exceptional creative execution in programmatic DOOH campaigns, JCDecaux launched an online discussion forum, in collaboration with research partner, MTM, bringing together 25 participants from various DSPs and agencies for an asynchronous group discussion.
Our Ultimate Guide to Success in Programmatic DOOH outlines seven key factors that, when followed, result in best-in-class campaigns. Two of these factors are creative-led – optimize creative for OOH and use dynamic creative to enhance personalization and ensure messaging remains relevant. Here we draw on our research participants’ experiences using advanced creative strategies to enable them to deliver better-performing campaigns.
Some respondents reported that creative is sometimes an afterthought in programmatic DOOH, a stark contrast to channels such as TV/CTV and video. Respondents agree that this hinders performance and should be avoided at all costs. Additionally, within programmatic DOOH, campaigns activated based on triggers tend to have the creative strategy front and center.
However, there are often missed opportunities where real-time data could be leveraged to build greater relevance and resonance through creative. Integrating first-party data into the creative design process is a great way to ensure that creative is prioritized because it places an added level of personalization for the brand as well as the consumer.
Programmatic offers the ultimate in creative flexibility in OOH. This means that to maximize the effectiveness of campaigns, brands should think about either creating multiple sets of copy to increase relevance with specific audiences or build their creative in HTML with templates that include dynamic elements.
Agencies and DSPs recommending programmatic DOOH to brands need to communicate this during the planning stage to avoid being in a position where they have to run a campaign with a single creative asset or ads that have been poorly repurposed from other channels.
Managing multiple creatives need not be a cumbersome task. Multiple files are uploaded into a DSP and are sent directly to media owners (along with a unique creative ID) when campaigns are confirmed. Most DSPs enable marketers to group creative assets by, eg location, screen dimensions, or points of interest (POI). Creative IDs and/or groupings can then be used for performance reporting and optimization decisions.
During the research, Hannah Scott, VP client services at Scoota, described how their DSP simplifies creative management and optimization. “As a creative-first DSP, I would of course bang the drum for intelligent, relevant creative. Our DSP has a proprietary creative toolkit built in, which allows our clients to easily build HTML and DCO creatives for DOOH. This is tied to our bidder so we can execute real-time DCO decisioning.”
In fact, many DSPs have built-in creative tools and services that help agencies and brands with creative strategy and development of assets that are optimized towards specific channels, including programmatic DOOH. The flexibility of DSPs ensures creative concepts and ideas can adapt seamlessly to real-time factors, making campaigns engaging, efficient, and memorable.
Gordon Bonifacio, head of sales at Displayce, who also took part in the research, described how the Displayce platform helps agencies and brands manage and optimize creative: “Creative files, typically MP4 or JPEG, are uploaded directly into the platform by the user and then sent directly to the relevant media owners when the campaign is confirmed. We offer a media platform to manage campaigns with multiple creatives by allowing grouping based on location (city, country, region), screen dimensions, or POI.”
If you’re looking to bridge the gap between data-driven targeting and creative, why not try combining data-driven targeting and creative optimization as suggested during the research by Shanil Chande, commercial and partnerships director at Hawk, an Azerion company, who said: “Data integrations are a great way to ensure that the creative is targeted to the right consumers and conveys the right messaging. However, it is the ability to twin this with our creative studio to provide an end-to-end solution for data and creative that enables us to help brands stand out.”
The decision to use DCO should be made during the planning phase and be driven by a campaign’s objectives and how creative choices can help maximize performance. There is a widespread misconception that traditional DOOH offers brands the same DCO opportunities as programmatic DOOH. While it’s true that DCO is possible in traditional DOOH, programmatic DOOH gives advertisers more flexibility. As a result of this misconception, some marketers opt for traditional DOOH and miss out on the true potential of programmatic DCO.
The majority of programmatic DOOH campaigns have an element of location-based targeting, but not all marry this with creative strategy. A good location-based creative strategy goes beyond simply inserting the name of the town or city into an ad, for example:
Proximity
Use walking or driving time/distance to stores or POIs with added audience data and/or day parting to ensure that ads are delivered to the most receptive audiences with minimal wastage. Being creative at the screen level adds a real level of differentiation and increases engagement.
KPI-driven
Selecting locations that align with your goals and using a clear call-to-action is a great way to supercharge your campaign. This will differ depending on whether your goal is to drive offline or online actions, but is applicable for both.
Real-time data-driven
Leveraging real-time data for creative optimization is the pinnacle of creative strategy in programmatic DOOH. The opportunities to maximize creative relevance are almost endless, but can include: weather, stock levels, sales trends, price, transport status, footfall levels, sports/entertainment events.
As Nicola Fox, head of programmatic at Talon, put it during the research: "Adapting creative based on location is a really simple way to drive incremental engagement and impact among audiences. Doing so in a way that is authentic for the brand and linked to their own data is the best use case. For example, not only adapting creative by location, but linking products showcased to sales performance in that particular region.”
For many advertisers, programmatic DOOH is still relatively new, and a lack of understanding may be the root cause of not taking full advantage of the creative potential of the channel. We hope that the examples we have shared here will help inspire those planning and buying programmatic DOOH to do more with their creative.
In a world powered by data, the solution to maximum creative performance lies in partnering with media owners and technology platforms that enable you to seamlessly integrate data into your creative development and optimization process.
To find out more about how programmatic DOOH can help you reach your campaign goals, visit our programmatic intelligence hub or discover our ‘Seven Key Factors for Success in Programmatic DOOH’ here.