Does Trust Have to Become Table-Stakes for OOH?

Trust as Table Stakes

We ran across a post earlier this week and still scratching our heads. The link is at the bottom of the page.

It’s an invitation to a webinar to discuss the importance of trust. Trust. Trust?  Trust!

I can’t decide if the preceding 4 mentions of ‘trust’ should be read in the cadence of the late James Brown’s song, (Godfather of Soul) Hot Pants (Part 1)) or Allen Iverson’s (former NBA great) tirade on ‘Practice!’ Trust. Trust. You’re talking about Trust? See the 62 second video of AI.

Trust as a KPI

Suggesting Trust as a KPI.  Really? We have to include Trust as a key performance indicator in our evaluation for success?  How about wearing pants to your next meeting? That would be an important KPI for many of you , certainly for me.  I don’t look very good without pants.  Maybe some of you do and it might be a selling advantage for you.  

Look, we get the importance of Trust when it comes to ad fraud, brand safety and data privacy. Some how implementing Trust as a KPI doesn’t sit well. The perspective that there is, without question, a certain degree of fraud which occurs in every media, yes Virginia, even OOH, is troubling.

Back in the days of 8 and 10% yearly increases in OOH revenue, (read ‘tobacco’) there was a degree of ‘trust’ issues where nearly every OOH campaign was viewed by the advertiser’s agency rep, in the car, riding each and every billboard.  Inspection of visibility, face or ad condition, night rides to validate lighting performance; All were checked and double checked. It started with more proofs of trust by providing maps and photo sheets.

So on the face of it, ‘Trust’ has always been an important link to OOH selling and success. Trust was not something which typically came up in conversation.  Either you were trusted individually and from a  company or industry perspective or you were not and I suspect you were rewarded with a buy or not, or even a meeting.

I guess it is just damn sad we have to include Trust as an important link in a selling strategy. Or consider making it a KPI.

Does trust have to become table-stakes for OOH?

Does trust have to become table-stakes for OOH?

The easy thing to do is to point a finger at digital on-line advertising folks and say, “thanks a lot you fraud pox infected bastards!”  That would probably not be fair. There is much more to ‘Trust.’

OOH can not take Trust for granted. We should be careful not to be swept into similar issues of the current Trust concerns plaguing digital on-line media, which could easily take a turn in the direction of OOH. Not to pick on any one area of software, programmatic, hardware tracking, location-based software and measurement, this is where Trust issues could arise. Let’s keep an ever vigilant eye on them to protect Out of Home.

Let’s stay out of the headlines on Trust issues and in the headlines only as a media which delivers, free of Trust concerns.

Is it too late for the webinar?

An Advertiser’s Trust – Is It The Weak Link In Your Selling Strategy?