Outdoor media specialist Posterscope is launching a new trading platform which it is claimed enables the planning, purchase and activation of digital campaigns in near real-time, but only when it is going to have most impact.
Dubbed “Ecos Now”, the launch follows a torrid time for the outdoor advertising, with spend being slashed by nearly 85% from March 23 to June 30, according to Nielsen, following years of rapid growth fuelled by data-driven techniques. Only cinema fared worse, with lockdown wiping out spend completely.
Through Ecos Now, a drinks brand, for example, will be able to boost spend when optimal weather conditions are met, or a food retailer will be able to promote an abundance of perishable goods or simply react to an increase of the target audience in a specific location.
Posterscope insists this approach “truly leverages the inherent agility and flexibility that digital OOH has the potential to offer”.
From a technical perspective the key difference between the Posterscope platform and others, such as a DSP, is the way that it connects to media owner systems, with Ecos Now using the IAB Open Direct protocol rather than Open RTB, used by all other systems. In practice, this means the transaction is wholly centred on what the advertiser wants to buy, rather than what the media owner wishes to sell, Posterscope claims.
This way, media plans can be fully described by all of the key planning parameters that a traditional manually bought plan would be; specific location, weight, time and audience etc, which is contrary to the DSP approach that generally excludes all but impressions and time.
Driving the scheme is Posterscope’s proprietary Ecos DMP, which comprises over 30 location data-sets, but can also take on any external data-set with a location component, including first party client data. For example, OOH activation could be triggered by a client’s real-time sales data, CRM or stock availability.
Posterscope managing director Glen Wilson said: “In considering our ‘programmatic’ OOH offer we were adamant that it had to deliver truly distinct client benefit with that being to fully unlock the potential of digital out of home; namely to enable advertisers to deliver the right message, at the right time, to the right audience but uniquely when recognised optimal conditions were met.
“In Ecos Now we believe we have a solution which will become increasingly important, particularly as people’s movement and behaviour is less consistent post lockdown.”
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