In India, digital advertising has witnessed a growth from 20% share in 2019 to 29.4% in 2021

Data-driven campaigns enable advertisers to optimise their budget by analysing campaign performance to calculate future conversion levels

By Parag Bhatnagar

OOH industry in India has always focused more on the traditional approach of advertising. However, this strategy has always suffered from limitations in scalability, adaptability and performance measurement. As data and technology become critical drivers in today’s advertising industry, the OOH industry needs to undergo a digital transformation to stay competitive. Moreover, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic had a huge influence on conventional OOH advertising. On the other hand, digital OOH witnessed a rise as marketers searched for new ways to reach their target audience.

With digitisation, the OOH industry will be able to leverage data as a powerful tool. Digital marketing, consumer digital products and solutions have enabled brands to have access to consumer data, captured in each advertising campaign at multiple stages from planning to execution. With a data-driven approach, all of this data is analysed to generate insights for the campaign. However, as the digital OOH industry evolves, it needs to focus on digital OOH solutions that offer automation for optimised campaign planning as well as data management for superior audience targeting and measurement.

An example of OOH solutions that enable this is Plato and Ada platforms by Talon, a specialist OOH agency in the UK. Talon partnered with Sahaj, a disruptive technology services company, to develop these data-led holistic OOH platforms, which enable seamless campaign planning, execution and measurement. These platforms were used by global brands McDonald’s and Starbucks to drive customer engagement and improve sales while being cost-effective.

As per a report by On-device research for the UK, digital OOH campaigns were twice as effective at driving improvements in top-of-mind awareness, five times more effective at driving brand consideration and seven times more effective at driving purchase intent uplift. The key reason behind this is the data-driven approach to digital OOH campaigns.

Data-driven campaigns enable advertisers to optimise their budget by analysing campaign performance to calculate future conversion levels. By making data-driven decisions, advertisers can make necessary changes to the campaign to get the maximum ROI. Using consumer behaviour data, insights can be developed to execute responsive and geographically tailored campaigns. Campaigns developed via data insights result in better engagement from the target audience as consumers experience personalised advertising campaigns that elevate their customer experience. In addition, the digital OOH platform also has the advantages of superior impact measurement of the campaign for brands. This helps in understanding the ROI better, especially when combined with targeted audience profiles.

Data-driven OOH advertising is the future due to the changing market dynamics and needs of advertising brands. In India, digital advertising has witnessed a growth from 20% share in 2019 to 29.4% in 2021, but there’s still a long way to go. Advertisers and brands need to understand how the digital OOH industry is crucial to retain and grow their market share in today’s changing landscape. Going ahead, as the infrastructure for digital OOH is developed, game-changing platforms like Plato and Ada will play a vital role in the growth and transformation of the industry in India.