As consumers head out of home, where will OOH media owners head?

The OOH industry was undoubtedly impacted by the pandemic, with full-year ad revenues predicted to have dipped by 22% to US$10 billion in 2020. Last year's circuit breaker and social distancing restrictions in Singapore did no favours for the OOH scene as well, with revenue declining 30% in 2020, according to a Magna study last year. While this segment grew by 27% in Singapore in 2021, Magna said in its recent global ad forecast that the growth in 2021 still failed to cover the loss it suffered last year.

Amidst the difficult time, the Singapore government carried out several initiatives to potentially boost the economy and as a consequence, help media owners as well. Initiatives such as SingapoRediscovers campaign drove footfall out of homes, and as Vaccinated Travel Lanes to Singapore open up ahead of the festive season, the outdoors are expected to be bustline once again. All of these initiatives should give OOH media owners in Singapore an added boost to once again restart conversations with potential brands and media agencies.

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE online fashion website SHEIN told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that despite the lowered footfall the last two years presented, OOH still serves as an alternate medium to mobile and computer screens. "Consumers might not travel as far in proximity, but would still leave their homes with the intention of making essential purchases. We have to adapt and shift to platforms and space that reach consumers closer to their homes," the spokesperson explained.

According to the spokesperson, OOH plays a strategic role in SHEIN’s marketing mix as it complements its online marketing activities and strengthens the overall brand presence in the region.

The spokesperson added that in the new year, the brand remains open to OOH spend being part of its marketing mix for key campaigns, without giving further details on the spend breakdown. 

Will OOH still be a viable channel in the 2022 marketing mix?

Despite OOH experiencing a decline in ad spend in Singapore this year, it still saw a 9.6% increase in Asia Pacific and is predicted by Magna to grow by another 7.9% next year, representing 5% of total budgets. Industry players MARKETING-INTERACTIVE spoke to also said OOH will still be a viable channel in the marketing mix for 2022.

Yahoo's senior director sales, Southeast Asia, Carol Tay, said that digital OOH (DOOH), for example helps to bring all the benefits of the digital landscape to the traditional outdoor space. Recently, Yahoo worked with global asset and wealth management company Schroders to launch its first programmatic DOOH omnichannel campaign titled "Beyond Profit". The campaign marked both companies' first foray into DOOH in Singapore and Southeast Asia, and  Yahoo's programmatic DOOH and mobile retargeting capabilities were also used to help Schroders engage the right audiences and influence consumer behaviours.

Tay explained that areas such as DOOH combines the "Mad Men creative with Math Men data" to help maximise the effectiveness of campaigns.

"While traditionally seen as a standalone channel in the marketing mix, now with DOOH, brands can fully integrate the outdoor medium into their omnichannel campaigns accessing inventory programmatically, alongside other media types including desktop, mobile, audio, XR, and beyond," she explained. 

Citing findings from Yahoo Omnibus Study, Tay said 35% of consumers found shopping inspiration through formats such as outdoor ads, interactive ads, or podcasts. It was also found that one in three consumers sought out more information after seeing a DOOH ad. "The OOH medium is widely known as an effective way to build awareness. Paired with mobile campaigns through mobile retargeting or by closing the loop through QR codes with a direct path to purchase, DOOH can help drive consideration - supporting mid- to lower-funnel consumer activities," she added.

According to Tay, a significant trend expected in the outdoor spaces with larger billboards and screens would be the continued digitisation of OOH inventory, and the move towards programmatic means of transacting on DOOH inventory (such as open exchange buying). This would bring DOOH closer to par with other digital channels for advertisers.

Also holding the same view that OOH will continue to be a viable marketing outlet post-COVID was dentsu Asia Pacific's regional investment director, Anshuman Purohit, who said there will be increasing importance on real-time audience segments to enable OOH planning and targeting, seamless integration with all advertisers and agencies and tech platforms for activation, and measurement of campaign results.

Purohit seconded the notion that growth will be driven by programmatic DOOH moving forward, while traditional location-based OOH investment is "expected to remain flat in the near future". He added:

Marketers will leverage programmatically bought OOH inventory for its efficiency, flexibility, targeting potential, real time analytics and savings in production costs.

And while programmatic DOOH is finally becoming a reality here in Singapore, OOH players in the market have long had their fingers on the pulse to provide solutions to meet the needs of advertisers.

JCDecaux Group, for example, has programmatic offerings for its bus shelter media and premium retail malls network. According to JCDecaux Singapore, more than 18 brands from 10 sectors have traded programmatically, achieving more than 40 million impressions in Singapore across its 77 screens islandwide. Many of these brands are first-timer OOH buyers.

Finding new areas for growth 

Meanwhile, Stellar Ace, previously known as SMRT Media, also strengthened its omnichannel offerings by tying up with FairPrice Group to create a connected ecosystem covering commute-street-dine-shop-mobile digital network. This comprises thousands of digital screens across train stations, bus interchanges, supermarkets, convenience stores, food courts in malls, coffee shops in heartlands, and direct mobile consumer engagement through WINK+. Stellar Ace is also now targeting consumers in the HDB heartlands in Singapore's North-East district covering 19 constituencies, including Ang Mo Kio, Bedok, and Pasir Ris.

Stellar Ace's spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that OOH will be even more necessary with measures relaxing as many consumers desire the “release”. However, the challenge for brands would be to evoke an immersive OOH experience which is key. For example, brands can supplement the OOH experience with seamless O2O engagement capabilities using innovative “touchless” tech for continued interactions.

At the same time, Clear Channel Singapore has its OutSmart Pro solution. In 2020, it launched a purpose-built exchange with Hivestack, touted to be a full-stack programmatic DOOH adtech platform. Since the launch in August, OutSmart Pro has delivered over 240 million impressions across 63 campaigns.  Its spokesperson explained that despite social distancing measures and lockdowns, consumers still need to buy necessities and at certain points, dine out. One example is its Nespresso campaign which is still ongoing and features a live Nespresso Vertuo machine in an acrylic display.

Another campaign Clear Channel ran in Singapore included Wally Sally, a water sustainability campaign that turned a bus shelter into a live photo booth to influence positive behaviour in the younger generation and help them be more aware of how climate change is affecting Singapore’s water sustainability. Water Sally was one of the campaigns that Clear Channel worked with together with Publicis Groupe Singapore.

John Ng, GM of Gov@Publicis Media and Starcom, said to remain agile, brands and OOH players need to push for O2O campaigns. "I have always maintained that innovation is not just about doing new things but also doing things differently," he said.

"With more affordable touchless technologies such as face, motion, and colour detection, coupled with extremely capable smartphone devices, OOH players have harnessed these technological advancements to provide better interaction between the end consumer and the ad message to generate leads," he explained. That said, the use of AR and VR are still two areas which Ng said remain largely untapped in the OOH space. VR, according to him, presents hardware hygiene challenges amidst the pandemic while AR via the mobile platform is undoubtedly the front runner due to its potential in creating that crucial bridge between digital and physical.

Photo courtesy: 123RF

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