Delta's DOOH Campaign Targets New York Frequent, Int'l Flyers

  • A digital out-of-home campaign aimed at increasing awareness of Delta Airline's flight schedule in the New York City area accomplished its task - by a measure of more than 28 percent. From February to mid June, the airline and its ad agency, Digitas, ran a campaign using both DOOH and traditional media. Edison Research, which surveyed consumers prior to the launch and during it, also found that business travelers' perception of Delta's international schedule increased by 26% and overall awareness by 15 percent.
  • Digitas accomplished this by pushing its ads in front of travelers it knew it wanted on its flights - namely frequent business travelers. It found them at cafes, where RMG Networks screens are, at health clubs serviced by the WHEN network, working out on cardio machines on the NetPulse network in health clubs, in ferry terminals through the Affinity Network and pumping gas front of PumpTop TVs at gas stations.
  • Of those who saw the signs, 32 percent fit Delta’s income demographic and many were frequent travelers that made an average of 5.2 trips a year, according to DST. Digitas and Delta tapped SeeSaw Networks’ DOOH aggregation service to run its ads on these screens as well as SeeSaw's Life Pattern Marketing service, which identifies when and where a certain demographic will see the ads. The service then assigns ads to signs that are part of the demographic’s daily journeys.
  • "The Delta campaign on SeeSaw’s national network demonstrates the power of place and how place-based digital advertising delivers business results by intercepting a specific audience across multiple touch points during their daily routines," according to Suzanne La Forgia, president of the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB).
  • The campaign is also indicative of the growing tool set DOOH advertisers have at their disposal to support and manage their campaigns. Last week DOmedia announced [pdf] a partnership with BroadSign International under which any of the 230 digital signage networks powered by BroadSign can submit their ad space and audience data to DOmedia's database where it will be updated in real time.
  • Media buyers will be able to use DOmedia's interface to search for available DOOH ad space and target campaigns based on demographic and geographic criteria.
  • In another JV, BroadSign is also partnering with Arbitron to provide a proof-of-play advertising audit service using the Portable People Meter technology. Arbitron will use its PPM technology to audit when encoded audio and video advertising content is displayed on networked digital screens in 50 random BroadSign-run locations across the US.
  • The data then will be compared with the BroadSign commercial schedule logs. According to the companies, this PPM-based audit by Arbitron is the first such service in digital out-of-home industry, replacing manual monitoring of screens.
  • NEC Display Solutions of America's VUKUNET web platform , another relatively new offering, is a centralized, automated platform to connect and distribute [pdf] ads to DOOH networks.
  • VUKUNET and its companion ADVUKU ad-serving platform can connect all digital signage networks to screens that currently have time/space available on their networks to advertise. The VUKUNET platform is agnostic, meaning ads can be distributed to screens from any manufacturer, not just NEC and networks that are using any CMS (content management system).
  • A November report from BIA/Kelsey predicted that digital out-of-home (DOOH) spending will increase at an annual rate of 13.5 percent, from $2.2 billion in 2009 to $3.7 billion in 2013, far outdistancing traditional out-of-home's expected 1.4 percent growth (which will grow from $4.4 billion to $4.6 billion).
  • But in order for digital out-of-home to truly boost out-of-home’s prospects, the medium must begin to consolidate. Digital out-of-home is more fragmented than traditional out-of-home, making it difficult for buyers to purchase DOOH.
  • "DOOH must get easier to plan, buy and measure in order to reach scale," says Rick Ducey, chief strategy officer of BIA/Kelsey. "With consolidation, partnerships and interoperable platforms, we see the buying process becoming more integrated, which will spur growth."

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