As digital marketers in the live event industry, we're always on the lookout for new ways to reach specific audiences and make our campaigns more efficient.
Over the years, we've sharpened our skills in targeting specific audiences across digital channels such as Google, Facebook,, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Snapchat. But something that's changing the game recently for us is the rise of Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising.
DOOH gives us access to audiences we may not have been able to reach through traditional digital channels. Whether they’re commuting, at a bar, filling up at a gas station, or walking through an airport, DOOH allows us to connect with audiences who might not be reacting online or engaging with social media.
“Some men, you just can’t reach.” - Cool Hand Luke
Expanding into Digital Out-of-Home
DOOH ads merge traditional outdoor advertising with the agility and precision of programmatic ad buying, and it’s a tool I’m excited to explore more with our clients in the events space.
Recently, we kicked off an awesome digital out-of-home campaign across an entire metro market. The platform we use is fantastic at integrating a ton of out of home ad networks, which results in a lot of interesting venue types. It can even swap creatives or increase bids during weather-related events.
The functionality lets us buy ads in physical environments like airports, malls, transit stations, gas stations, bars and even billboards. The beauty of this? The targeting, tracking, and reporting capabilities that are usually only available for online ads are now at our fingertips for outdoor media.
Real Life Example: Milwaukee Mile IndyCar Race
Recently, we ran a DOOH campaign for an auto race event in Milwaukee. Here's how it worked:
We purchased ad slots on gas station pumps across the city.
As people filled up their tanks, a video ad for the race weekend played, paired with a QR code for ticket purchases.
We targeted zip codes based on our best-performing digital campaigns to make sure we enhanced interests in these high-intent neighborhoods.
The Flexibility of DOOH
One of the best aspects of DOOH is its flexibility. We can:
Change creative content on the fly, even throughout the day.
Trigger ad changes based on real-time data like weather conditions. Example: When it rains in a specific zip code, we can switch the creative to promote indoor activities or offer discounts for rain gear at local events.
Brands like Instacart and DoorDash have successfully used this approach to increase bids during rainy conditions - promoting food delivery when people would rather stay indoors.
Measuring Success with DOOH
Tracking the success of outdoor advertising used to be difficult. With DOOH, it's different:
DOOH Platforms offer location-based attribution, allowing us to measure how many people were near the ad and what actions they took.
This merges old-school advertising with new-school digital metrics, giving us real data to optimize future campaigns.
Why DOOH is a Game-Changer for Event Marketing
For fairs, festivals, and events, this can helps us do things like:
Promote early bird ticket sales with digital billboards.
Raise excitement about live action events or concerts through gas video pump ads.
Engage with people in their everyday environments to really maximize conversions, like in gyms, bars, riding in Ubers or even the post office.
The Future of Event Marketing
We're always looking for ways to bring fresh ideas to the table, and DOOH offers a fantastic opportunity to engage with people beyond their screens, in the real world. We know fairs, festivals, and events thrive on local engagement, and this is another way to get our clients' messages in front of the right audience at the right time. Whether it's promoting early bird ticket sales on a digital billboard or offering last-minute discounts through a gas pump ad, the ability to reach people in their everyday environments is a game-changer.
The world of event marketing just got a lot bigger, and we’re excited to help our clients navigate this exciting new space.
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