Verizon Media, a division of Verizon Communications, Inc., this week announced their Digital Out of Home Advertiser Attitudes and Behavior Research Report.
In order to understand advertisers’ perspectives around DOOH, Verizon Media commissioned an online survey of nearly 250 US advertisers and marketers who are decision makers in outdoor media spend. The research revealed that:
- 9-in-10 agree that DOOH is the right place to invest currently due to consumers’ device fatigue and a shift to spending more time outdoors due to the pandemic. After advertisers flocked to digital and away from OOH in the early stages of the pandemic, the trend is now reversing.
- With DOOH budgets bouncing back, spending is surging as well. 2-in-5 (39%) advertisers expect to increase DOOH spending immediately, in the next 6 months, while 3-in-5 (59%) are expected to increase spending within 18 months.
- 53% of advertisers find it “difficult” to buy DOOH today. In addition, almost 1-in-3 (29%) are having more difficulty buying now compared to 6 months ago.
- The top-three obstacles when buying DOOH among advertisers/marketers are “high costs” (50%), “finding the right partner to work with” (44%), and “managing and optimization” (36%).
- The top things that could make buying DOOH easier are “competitive pricing” (50%), “real-time audience indexing,” i.e. showing ads only at times where there’s a high concentration of your target audience (50%), and “the ability to quickly change creative or frequency of my campaign” (49%).
- Buyers have a positive outlook on DOOH. Nearly all (94%) say they are interested in DOOH because they need more reach than what they currently get from social and display, 92% say DOOH has improved their brand metrics, and 91% say DOOH can deliver on both upper and lower funnel metrics.
- Virtually all buyers want a single platform to plan their advertising and want exclusive DOOH inventory. 93% of total users are looking for an “easy to use” platform to plan and execute all advertising spend including DOOH and 88% of total users are seeking platforms with exclusive inventory in DOOH.
- Nearly 1-in-5 (19%) marketers ranked billboard DOOH advertising as the #1 format they are interested in buying, followed by grocery stores (10%), outdoor large screens (10%), transit centers (8%) and restaurant (7%) advertising.
In addition to the findings about DOOH as viewed by marketers, the data also examined Verizon Media’s role in the DOOH space:
- Awareness of Verizon Media’s DSP offering is high, with 88% who said they have heard of it.
- Verizon Media DSP non-users are 40% more likely to report difficulty in buying DOOH in the past 6 months compared to VM users (35% vs. 25%, respectively). They are also nearly 2x more likely to say proving ROI is a top challenge. 6 in 10 non-users feel competitive pricing would make it easier to buy DOOH.
- Current and lapsed Verizon Media DSP users are very satisfied with the capabilities, quality, and quantity of the available inventory from Verizon Media’s DSP.
Verizon Media is a division of Verizon Communications, Inc., houses a trusted media ecosystem of premium brands like Yahoo, TechCrunch and HuffPost to help people stay informed and entertained, communicate and transact, while creating new ways for advertisers and media partners to connect. From XR experiences to advertising and content technology, Verizon Media is an incubator of innovation and is revolutionizing the next generation of content creation in a 5G world.