Global digital out-of-home (DOOH) supply-side platform, VIOOH, has released its annual research into the programmatic DOOH market with findings showing that the future of programmatic DOOH (prDOOH) remains strong with its popularity surging, especially in Australia.

According to the report, across campaigns, Australian advertisers have worked on in the past 12-18 months, over a third (37%) have included prDOOH, with the average expected to increase to 43% in the next 18 months.

Survey respondents in Australia said that they plan to increase spend by over a third (34%) over the next 18 months, while nearly a third of advertisers in Australia are taking budgets from other digital/traditional channels (28% and 29% respectively), and 15% are allocating new budgets for prDOOH.

Whilst only 7% of main OOH teams are likely to be accessing new budget for prDOOH, when buying is diversified, this increases to 17% for digital/programmatic teams, the report said.

“Programmatic DOOH is becoming mainstream and is now a must-have on every media plan,” said Jean-Christophe Conti, Chief Executive Officer at VIOOH.

“This year’s State of the Nation report shows not only that advertising budgets continue to be reallocated for increased prDOOH spend year-on-year, but the opportunities from highly targeted activations to trigger-based buying are giving advertisers a raft of flexible high-value tools which complement both brand and performance ad campaigns. With programmatic DOOH becoming more mature, media professionals are also increasingly integrating prDOOH into multi-channel strategies, often using it alongside social media and display advertising.”

Report highlights

• prDOOH ad spend is expected to increase by over a third (34%) over the next 18 months.
• Over a third (37%) of Australian advertisers have included prDOOH in media plans – with almost half (43%) expected to increase this in the next 18 months.
• Nearly a third of respondents are moving budget from other digital/traditional channels (28% and 29% respectively) to prDOOH, and 15% are allocating new budgets for prDOOH.
• The majority (81%) of those surveyed feel that prDOOH offers the most innovative opportunities compared to any other media channel.

The report said that a majority (81%) of those surveyed in Australia feel that prDOOH offers the most innovative opportunities compared to any other media channel, delivering highly targeted activations, the ability to buy placements in real-time, optimise campaigns in-flight and deliver dynamic and contextually relevant creative.

It added that as the number of advertisers in Australia adopting prDOOH continues to rise, so does awareness of the distinctive advantages it offers – brand safety (67%), delivering accurate location targeting (66%), and establishing trust and credibility with the target audience (67%).

“Over a third (35%) of Australian advertisers purchase their DOOH campaigns through a programmatic buy only, followed by 32% of Australian advertisers who say they usually or always use a mixture of programmatic and direct buys.”

OOH teams oversee prDOOH buys in most cases (67%), with over half (56%) of buying responsibility sitting within digital teams, suggesting some level of overlap. Australian advertisers take advantage of prDOOH’s flexibility (63%, +8% pts vs. DOOH) and ability to establish credibility with an advertisers’ customer (64%, +8% pts vs. DOOH).

Over a third (35%) of Australian advertisers purchase their DOOH campaigns through a programmatic buy only, followed by 32% of Australian advertisers who say they usually or always use a mixture of programmatic and direct buys.

Both performance-led and brand campaigns are popular options in the market, with a large overlap of participants (more than 50%) stating that prDOOH is important for both (81% for performance-led, and 78% for brand-led campaigns).

Australian advertisers consider social media to be a natural fit to complement prDOOH in both brand and performance campaigns (80%/80%). Many may also use display ads (77%) alongside prDOOH in both performance and brand-led campaigns.

You can view the full report here: viooh.com/sotn