DOOH provides the perfect canvas for advertisers to reach their audiences with high-impact creative at multiple touchpoints throughout the buyer’s journey.
Campaign planning for DOOH success
Robust targeting capabilities and a wide variety of DOOH screen inventory open up an entirely new realm of possibilities for creative teams. However, without proper planning, well-crafted creative alone will struggle to move the needle on campaign goals. To truly succeed, marketers must take a thoughtful approach to how they plan and execute their DOOH campaigns.
Breaking down the silos
In the modern world of DOOH, the traditional workflow where creatives independently develop campaign assets, then pass them on to the media team for placement, simply does not work.
To prevent gaps from forming, creative and media buying teams need to re-evaluate their workflows to create a more collaborative and synergistic approach to planning and executing DOOH campaigns.
Connecting at the beginning, middle, and end of the campaign development process is key to ensuring there is a constant feedback loop for creatives to inquire about the target media, and for media planners to inquire about the creative executions. If creative and media teams are structured as linear assembly lines, the likelihood of missed opportunities increases.
Operational best practices
Rethinking the strategy behind agency, creative, and media workflows is not easy. Here are a few best practices to follow:
- Educate all teams involved in a buy: Make sure the creative team/agency is up to speed on the latest technology innovations in the channel. Consider periodic updates to keep creatives (and the entire team) abreast of new capabilities as they become available.
- Avoid defaulting to the same old media mix: The tools available within the channel are not the same as they were a few years ago, and a brand may be able to use DOOH in different ways than previously thought possible. Developing a culture of intellectual curiosity will help creatives and media planners not only work together, but also stay on top of what is current and what is new at the intersection of creative execution and media placement.
- Keep the feedback loop tight: The success of implementing DOOH best practices relies on open communication across teams. Remember to stay connected at every stage of the process.
- Pre-campaign: Ensure all stakeholders understand what is feasible for the creative and media buying teams based on bandwidth and budget, and set goals and expectations accordingly.
- Post-campaign: Bring both teams together to understand what worked for a specific campaign and what could be improved for next time. Did the audience targeting strategy work? How did different creative versions perform?
Closing the DOOH gap
As brands look to capture consumer attention in an ever-more competitive landscape, DOOH provides the perfect canvas for advertisers to reach their audiences with high-impact creative at multiple touchpoints throughout the buyer’s journey. However, the gap between media planning and creative teams remains a sticking point which keeps many DOOH campaigns from becoming truly great.
For brands standing on the metaphorical train platform, ready to take the leap into the next phase of their marketing journeys, achieving total alignment from both the creative and media planning teams will go a long way in closing the DOOH gap.
Once creative teams have full knowledge of the capabilities, requirements, and considerations of DOOH, they will be empowered to produce stunning designs that deeply resonate with consumers. Similarly, when media buyers recognize the importance of bringing creative teams into the conversation early and keeping open communication throughout the planning process, their collaboration will unlock new heights of creative freedom and build more engaging, inspiring, and effective DOOH campaigns.
This article is based on a white paper from programmatic and software solutions provider Vistar Media. For more information, visit www.vistarmedia.com.
