Why Flexibility is Key in Modern Screen Advertising
Screen advertising has long relied on a rigid structure: loops, slots, and blocks. This system traces its origins back to outdoor poster advertisers who adapted paper and roller-based advertising concepts to digital screens. While practical at the time, this approach doesn’t leverage the full potential of digital technology and fails to meet modern advertisers' needs.
The Roots of Loops - Posters
When digital screens became common, advertisers saw them as an alternative to paper posters. This legacy led to treating screens as rotating posters rather than dynamic, real-time content delivery platforms. Early adopters created sales and pricing models based on predetermined slots, usually six 10-second intervals. This simple system worked for advertisers familiar with static outdoor posters, but it imposed limitations on what screen advertising could accomplish.
If TV or online advertisers had approached screens, they might have taken a more data-driven approach. TV ads are targeted based on time slots and audience predictions, while online ads are sold individually and automatically, optimized through real-time bidding. The limitations of the loop-based model mean advertisers are restricted to certain time blocks, entire network bookings, and rigid one-week increments. This setup often forces unnecessary discounts and lost ad space, especially if campaigns begin mid-week or if unsold slots remain empty.
The Challenge of Moving Beyond Loops
With the rise of programmatic advertising, advertisers sought real-time transactions and direct access to screen inventories. However, transitioning to a flexible, programmatic system is more complex for DOOH than for online ads, due to several unique factors:
- Cost and Maintenance: Unlike online ads, screens are costly devices with maintenance and power costs and the revenues themselves, often shared with site owners.
- Audience Constraints: While online ads benefit from abundant and scalable inventory, DOOH inventory is physically limited by location and foot traffic, meaning it cannot be scaled infinitely or at minimal costs.
- Audience Fluctuation: Screen audiences vary by location and time, making typical programmatic techniques, like frequency capping, impractical. Overly restrictive frequency caps could mean missing out massively on peak times, while too loose caps exhaust campaigns prematurely. Sometimes in the first two days of multi-week campaigns.
These challenges mean that a successful DOOH model needs to leverage the strengths of screen advertising, not replicate online or TV models.
Flexibility: Meeting the Advertiser’s Needs
In a competitive landscape, screen advertising must do more than simply mirror other media types; it must exceed them. Advertisers need flexibility:
- Flexible Selection: Advertisers want to mix and match screens, locations, times, and days based on campaign goals.
- Budget Optimization: Campaigns need to stretch budgets over specific timeframes without sacrificing reach or impact.
- Even Distribution: Ads shouldn’t play all at once and then disappear. They need to be spread evenly, ensuring consistent visibility throughout the campaign period.
To accomplish this, a robust DOOH booking system should use AI-driven predictions to forecast audience size and location over time. This system must enable transactional bookings that reflect how many viewers are available and how much time remains available once competing bookings are taken into account. Advertisers should be able to specify their goals or budget, with the system providing an automated and optimized campaign plan in response.
The Adtrac Approach
Is it possible to deliver this level of flexibility in screen advertising? Absolutely. Adtrac uses predictive AI and dynamic planning to eliminate the need for outdated loop-based systems. Instead of rigid blocks, Adtrac offers a fluid, audience-centric model that adjusts to client needs.
For instance, if an advertiser has a two-week campaign budgeted at $25,000 but originally aimed for $28,500, Adtrac can adjust the campaign to fit the budget while maintaining even ad distribution. The result? Enhanced yield, optimized distribution, and a reduction in implicit discounts. Bluntly stated by one of our customers sales operators: "pay less, get less".
Adopting this flexibility means moving away from loops, not just technically but conceptually. With Adtrac, screen advertising shifts focus from fixed packages to customer needs, increasing relevance and improving outcomes.
The Future of DOOH is Flexible
Loop-based models, while once useful, are no longer adequate for modern screen advertising. With technology like Adtrac, we have the tools to replace loops with flexibility. Screen advertising can now be shaped around customer needs, making it easier to optimize yields, reduce discount losses, and deliver campaigns tailored to each advertiser's goals.
In DOOH, flexibility is not a luxury but a necessity. By embracing flexible, automated solutions, vendors can achieve unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness—allowing them to sell not only screen time but also solutions that resonate with audiences and meet business objectives.