Reaching "that moment, that place, that person"

True to its name, Out-of-Home (OOH) covers all media encountered outside the home, such as outdoors and inside trains. It serves diverse functions, from brand experiences to recency effects (ad visibility just before purchase), and boasts extremely high reach efficiency. However, while digital signage adoption has advanced on an individual media unit basis, consolidating the scattered media across cities has proven difficult. Managing vacant slots, standardizing ad creative specifications, and unifying effectiveness metrics have also been challenging.

Now, a wave of digital transformation is sweeping through OOH media. In an era where consumers are constantly connected via mobile devices, it has become possible to deliver communication targeted to "that moment, that place, that person" across media company boundaries. We introduce the cutting edge of this emerging "Dynamic Digital OOH."

 

 

Targeting precision has reached this level

 

"Machilog" Launches: Pinpointing Target Locations Using Mobile Base Station Data

 

 

Japan, with its highly developed "cell phone" culture and well-established communication infrastructure, is one of the world's leading mobile nations. Its location-based technology and OOH (Out-of-Home advertising) share an exceptionally high affinity.

Mobile base stations spread nationwide periodically track the location of mobile phones to deliver calls and emails. This fall, "Machilog"—a collaboration between Docomo Insight Marketing, location/statistical analysis firm Microbase, and Dentsu Inc. (Out-of-Home Media Division & Human Flow Lab)—successfully combined NTT Docomo's base station data with proprietary analysis technology. This enabled the estimation of population density in specific areas using "Mobile Spatial Statistics" and revealed human flow patterns at a granular 25-meter mesh level, creating "Micro Geo Data*". This enables the aggregation of outdoor advertising exposure—previously difficult to quantify and visualize—by gender, age, and time of day. With approximately 70 million NTT Docomo subscribers, the data's representativeness is sufficiently assured. Starting in Tokyo's Shibuya, the service is scheduled to expand to other Tokyo areas, Osaka, Nagoya, and seven other metropolitan regions.

*A general term for location data with high spatial resolution and real-time capability

 

AI instantly identifies vehicle types while in high-speed motion

 

Applications of AI (artificial intelligence), which continues to evolve daily, are also advancing. In September this year, Dentsu Inc. and Cloudian, Quanta Cloud Technology Japan, and Smart Insight, with the cooperation of JESCO CNS, successfully conducted an OOH proof-of-concept experiment utilizing deep learning.

An AI trained on vast vehicle data analyzes and identifies the manufacturer, model, and even year of moving cars captured by video cameras. It instantly reflects this data, displaying ads targeted at owners of that specific vehicle model on digital signage near the road. Identification accuracy exceeds 95%. It can also automatically quantify traffic volume by time of day and vehicle type, promising more precise measurement of media effectiveness.

Analyzing Online Ad Effectiveness and Reflecting Results in OOH

Globally, new initiatives are emerging to rapidly reflect online ad effectiveness data into OOH campaigns. This spring, Eurostar UK prepared distinct creative expressions for five target demographics in promoting its new e320 train. It first distributed video ads on YouTube, then deployed OOH based on the demographics, locations, and times showing the strongest mobile engagement. This initiative was a joint effort by Kara, Poster Scope, and iProspect, all subsidiaries of Dentsu Inc. Aegis Network.

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Anticipating Synergy Between OOH and Mobile

Traditionally, collecting OOH audience data required significant expense or was limited in scope. However, as demonstrated here, leveraging mobile technology has ushered in an era where such data can be efficiently and universally captured.

Furthermore, research in the UK shows that campaigns combining OOH advertising with mobile ads achieved approximately double the ad awareness rate and about 1.6 times the click-through rate of mobile ads alone. OOH advertising inherently offers broad reach and high visibility. Combining it with mobile advertising is expected to yield such significant synergistic effects. Now that audience insights are available by location, a marketing approach where OOH expands awareness among targets difficult to capture via traditional media, followed by mobile retargeting to convert them, will likely become mainstream.

 

Delivering optimal creative in real time through external data integration

The next evolution of digital OOH (DOOH) is "Dynamic DOOH," rapidly expanding globally. It refers to dynamically and instantly linking with external data to deliver creatively optimized expressions tailored to location and target audience.

Leading the global charge in this dynamic DOOH space is PosterScope, the OOH specialist agency under Dentsu Inc. Aegis Network. Utilizing its proprietary platform "LIVEPOSTER," it synchronizes with diverse data sources—including weather, traffic information, social media, and inventory data—to deliver ads in real time across media companies, formats, and even national borders. It is a powerful OOH content management system capable of pinpoint targeting "that moment, that place, that person." Network construction is rapidly advancing in Japan as well, with implementation preparations underway at major large-scale street-level displays and within station premises.

Case 1.
Subtly hint at the gift you want

The annual Christmas shopping frenzy intensifies. However, according to UK electronics retailer Carries PC World, 66% of people receive unwanted gifts, with a staggering £900 million budget spent on gifts that bring no joy. To combat this "waste," the company launched "Spare the Act" for Christmas 2015—a campaign enabling consumers to subtly convey their desired products to loved ones.

Targeting 25- to 44-year-olds, the campaign invited people to submit their desired Currys PC World products and suggested locations/times when their loved ones were likely to see them via the official website. 315 personalized messages reflecting these submissions were then displayed live on 700 screens across the UK using live posters. The campaign spread through other media and social networks. 54% of those who saw the messages said they were "likely to purchase the requested product," and Currys PC World recorded a 105% increase in sales compared to the previous year.

 

Case 2.
"The First Drink of the Day" at Your Nearest Pub

Diageo UK's Pimm's cocktail liqueur campaign, "Pimm's Live," drove foot traffic by leveraging weather, temperature, and nearby pub vacancy data to encourage "that first drink of the day." Terminals installed at each pub location tracked real-time availability. Live posters automatically generated messages based on availability, weather, and temperature, displaying them every five minutes on digital signage near the pubs.

This campaign boosted Pimm's sales at pubs by 13% year-on-year. Some pubs reportedly saw sales increase by as much as 94%.

 

Case 3.
Effortless Bike Rental with "Real-Time Maps"

For Santander Bank's sponsored bike-sharing service in London, UK, live posters displayed a "real-time map" showing the locations of over 750 rental stations and bike availability. This eliminated the need for users like tourists to search for available bikes, significantly improving convenience. As a result, brand awareness increased by 19% and service usage rose by 16% compared to before the campaign.

 

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"Live Poster" at
Accelerating Dynamic Digital OOH

Benjamin Milne, PosterScope UK (on secondment from Dentsu Inc.)