Proactive Selling Matters in Programmatic DOOH

Proactive Selling Matters in Programmatic DOOH

Another installment in a series about what matters in programmatic DOOH

By: Jeff Gunderman, Founder DOOH Academy

Many Publishers are still under the impression that if you connect to programmatic, the revenue will come, but then they connect and are not impressed by the revenue.  This is an increasing issue as programmatic DOOH continues to evolve.  Programmatic DOOH should produce real revenue for your company if you connect properly, manage those connections, and learn how to sell.  To achieve significant revenue, it is important for out of home publishers to embrace a pro-active sales approach just like they do for their direct sales.

Revenue from programmatic just a few years ago was favoring the Open Exchange.  Buyers (agencies and trading desks) would go into a DSP or Demand Side Platform and enter the criteria for their campaign.  This included selecting any or all of the following: markets, dma’s, zip codes, proximity to points of interest or competitors, venue types, creative sizes, specific publishers,  creative formats (creative sizes), ad formats (static vs. video vs. html), floor pricing, and even adding in audience targeting, and more. Publishers who were simply connected would enjoy some revenue and if they optimized their connections the revenue could be significant.

Many buyers would buy impressions in a market without as much care as to where those impressions came from. DOOH Publishers would connect their inventory and some revenue would just appear out of seemingly nowhere with little to no effort.  In fact, other than letting agencies and buyers know your inventory was on the open exchange, there was very little a publisher needed to do to enjoy some of this revenue.

The traditional out of home networks that were tried and true did not embrace programmatic initially in many cases to try to protect their direct sales.  Many of the place-based networks and especially the new digital first networks that were popping up were savvy to the lack of participation by the old-guard and looked at this as an opportunity.  They focused on how to optimize the system to over-index on settings that enabled their networks to shine above the rest and appear in searches more often than less programmatic-savvy networks. These operational efforts gave them an edge early on and even today many of these networks enjoy a higher-than-average share of the open exchange revenue as opposed to others.  This focus has enabled less premium networks to take a larger share of programmatic revenue.

The challenge is that as programmatic matures, more spend is transacting programmatically. Today 20-23% of all digital out of home spend in the United States is transacting programmatically, and it is estimated to reach 23-26% in 2026.  From a revenue standpoint, this translates to over $600MM growing to as much as $750MM this year.  At the same time, Open Exchange, which was over 60% of these transactions just a couple years ago, is decreasing in favor of PMP’s or Private Marketplace Deals, and PG or Programmatic Guaranteed is starting to come into the market as well. Estimates would suggest that PMP’s now dominate the revenue at approximately 60% with OE dropping to 40% and PG while still small, will begin to grow. Other markets around the world may be at different points with respect to programmatic share, but everyone is following similar trends and some markets who are just jumping into programmatic for OOH may in fact move even more quickly to PMP and PG, requiring pro-active sales efforts.

Unlike OE, PMP and PG are negotiated with the buyers directly.  DOOH Publishers or someone representing their network like a 3^rd party sales agent or one of the SSP’s needs to write a PMP or PG deal and provide the deal ID to the buyer for them to transact.  This “Deal” defines the terms of the buy, including what inventory is available, over what time, and at what rate or CPM.  Today, the networks that were enjoying good revenue without doing much due to the Open Exchange, are seeing declining revenue if they do not have a pro-active sales strategy to write PMP’s and PG deals with the buyers.

These days there are also more screens than ever available programmatically.  As I look in a DSP today at the US & Canada, I see almost 1.2MM screens available to buy.  Greater New York City has over 60,000 screens available, Brazil has over 80,000, France over 65,000, Australia over 26,000 screens, the UAE has almost 6500, you get the idea.  Without sales efforts, you can’t hope to get your fair share of media spend.

Taking this a step further, the market is experiencing a shift or maybe it’s an evolution with who is buying Programmatic DOOH.  A few years ago, most buyers and revenue came from the traditional out of home media agencies.  Today there are over 150 to 200 or more DSP’s and buyers who are transacting DOOH media but who never bought out of home media in the past and will only buy programmatically.  Many of these buyers will not transact on the open exchange, making it a growing revenue opportunity for programmatic savvy networks with a sales strategy.

The message is clear, if you have digital out of home media assets that are an important part of your out of home revenue strategy, you need to be connected to programmatic and you need a sales strategy to monetize those assets.  The most successful networks today have a 3-prong sales approach, national direct, local/regional direct, and programmatic.  And if you are connected but are not seeing good results, after you check to make sure your screens are connected and making ad calls properly, you need to evaluate your sales approach!

For many traditional media agencies buying OOH media, programmatic is not a different channel, it is just a different way to transact, and budgets are increasingly moving there. There are now also 100’s of new companies buying DOOH programmatically today who had never purchased OOH media in the past.  This is a growing opportunity that publishers need to embrace.

It may be time  to add programmatic to your pro-active sales approach!

Jeff Gunderman, owned and operated out of home media businesses, and is the founder of the DOOH Academy, an Education and Advisory initiative focused on out of home and retail media. The DOOH Academy works with experts in OOH and Retail Media to produce certification courses, thought leadership content, and webinars on a range of topics, including programmatic DOOH and sales.  Jeff also works with OOH publishers, agencies, ad-tech firms, and retail media operators, helping them connect and monetize their programmatic and sales operations.  Courses and thought leadership are available at www.doohacademy.com . Jeff is also the host of the new podcast series, ScreenSider by AiOO, which focuses on the evolution of OOH and retail media and the impact ad-tech is having on the industry.

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