VIOOH has released its annual programmatic DOOH research paper, entitled ‘Programmatic DOOH 2022 – State of the Nation’.
The VIOOH findings show that the future of programmatic DOOH looks bright, with investment increasingly coming from new budgets or being moved from other traditional and digital channels.
This increase in demand is due to Australian buyers continuing to value the precision, efficiency, and effectiveness of transactions that programmatic trading provides to DOOH, along with its ability to enable DOOH to act as both a broadcast and direct response channel.
The report provides a unique insight into the DOOH industry by combining in-depth interviews with key industry spokespeople, alongside survey data from 1,000 senior agency and advertising executives across Australia, the UK, US, France, and Germany.
The findings by VIOOH identified that whilst the COVID-19 pandemic proved the value of the agility that programmatic DOOH offers, many advertisers have continued to take advantage of this flexibility post-pandemic.
In the last 18 months, the Australian executives surveyed reported that nearly half (49%) of campaigns have included programmatic DOOH and this is set to increase to 56% in the next 18 months, with nearly a quarter (23%) planning to double their investment.
The planning and buying of programmatic DOOH is increasingly taking place alongside other programmatic activities, demonstrating increasing market desire to align programmatic DOOH within a multi-channel campaign strategy.
Within this context, the majority (87%) of Australian media executives stated they will continue to invest in areas such as building in-house programmatic DOOH expertise and focusing on educating programmatic, OOH and cross-media planning teams on the advantages of programmatic DOOH to help communicate the benefits to brands and teams.
When looking at the key barriers to adoption, the VIOOH report found that media executives in Australia want unified measurement solutions to articulate the value of programmatic DOOH and identify its effect within multi-channel campaigns.
In fact, nearly half (47%) of Australian media professionals surveyed said they would like more information on cross-channel measurement and attribution in order to demonstrate programmatic DOOH’s impact within an omni-channel campaign.
Additionally, almost half (49%) of executives in Australia believe that real-time audience data would also give programmatic DOOH campaigns more value and prompt an increase in investment.
Jean-Christophe Conti, chief executive officer at VIOOH, said: “As highlighted in this year’s State of the Nation report findings, we are seeing an increase in media spend coming from new budgets or being moved from other traditional and digital channels. Coupled with a widening responsibility for its planning and buying, it’s clear that as markets mature, buyers are keen to fit programmatic DOOH within multi-channel campaign strategies.”
“For the channel’s full potential to be unlocked, the report also shows a desire for increasing sophistication in data and targeting, and a robust ROI and measurement solution – as the ability to measure DOOH’s impact within multi-channel campaigns is likely to become a key factor in the growth of programmatic DOOH,” Conti added.
Key findings from the report include:
1. Appetite and demand for buying DOOH programmatically has increased over the last few years
• In the last 18 months, nearly half (49%) of campaigns in Australia (+2% pts vs 2021) have included programmatic DOOH.
• 49% of media professionals said they have planned, bought, or placed DOOH programmatically in the last 12 months, and this is set to increase to 56% in the next year.
2. There is also significant growth coming from new budgets and other digital and traditional channels
• 39% of Australian media professionals say they have added new budgets to programmatic DOOH, 14% have utilised existing digital budgets, and 10% have moved budget from other traditional media.
3. Programmatic DOOH delivers a range of benefits for advertisers
• 26% of media executives in Australia believe that the efficiency and effectiveness of programmatic transactions is a significant strength of programmatic DOOH, ranking it as the top reason for growth.
• A quarter of Australian executives (25%) selected precision targeting as an important factor likely to influence spend increases over the next 18 months.
• Advertisers also greatly value the duality of programmatic DOOH to be both a broadcast and a direct response channel, as required. 25% of executives in Australia believe that this hybridity will be one of the primary reasons that spend increases in the channel in the near term.
4. Demand for programmatic DOOH is expected to continue to grow
• Over half (56%) of campaigns in Australia are expected to include programmatic DOOH over the next 18 months, according to executives.
• 23% of executives in Australia believe that advertising investment in programmatic DOOH will more than double, over the next 18 months.
• 87% of media executives in Australia say that they will invest in building programmatic DOOH expertise in-house over the next 18 months, a year-on-year increase of 2% points.
5. What is needed to drive further investment
• 47% of Australian executives feel that information on cross-channel measurement and attribution would help them to better understand the channel.
• 43% of Australian executives said that they would like to know more about how to accurately measure the ROI of their programmatic DOOH campaigns.
• 39% of Australian executives stated that sector-specific insights for programmatic DOOH would help them to better understand the channel.