News

Amid calls for DOOH to be viewed as part of the wider outdoor industry - digital screen revenue in 2008 accounted for 7.1% of all outdoor revenue - Steve Cox, marketing director at Titan Outdoor, said: "Digital works better when used with traditional panels. It is still only 7.1% of the money, but it will continue to grow. The percentage will depend on the investment."

Nicky Cheshire, sales director at CBS Outdoor's digital division, Alive, said the "cost of digital technology is a critical factor", but added that people are spending "more time out of home than ever before".

Chris Marjoram, managing director, international, of Interpublic's outdoor agency IPM, said "digital will help develop the value of outdoor", but also cited innovation in static outdoor such as the recent Christmas campaign devised by Initiative for Tesco.

Mark Middlemas, managing partner, business development at UM, said: "The main challenge the out-of-home industry faces is one of balance - get the balance right and a healthy future is secured; get it wrong and the damage could be catastrophic."

Middlemas said the outdoor industry fully understood the "motivations and habits" of the consumer, which allowed it to adopt "more effective solutions".

Opinions were divided on whether DOOH needs bespoke creative copy. Mark Fallows, director of digital content at McCann Erickson, said: "TV copy will often translate, but often a bit of adapting goes a long way."

Nicole Yershon, director of innovative solutions at Ogilvy Adver­tising, said Ogilvy's digital department preferred to make DOOH ads in-house. She added that extra film should not be wasted, but rather used elsewhere in the plan.

The outlook for digital out-of-home

• DOOH provides meaningful connections and exchanges with consumers
• It also offers day-part campaigns and is very flexible

But...

• It costs more and is harder to justify in a recession
• It needs to move beyond a 7.1% share of out-of-home ad spend to make it more viable cost-wise
• It must take share from other media, not simply cannibalise outdoor spend
• It must prove its return on investment and engagement for the same reason
• It must be integrated with other media
• Creative must be bespoke and planned in from the start of the campaign
• It is still relatively London-centric, so truly national campaigns are difficult to run