One In Two Consumers Compelled By DOOH Ads To Make Purchases On Spot: Research

May 5, 2022 by Dave Haynes

A survey bankrolled by GroupM, the investment wing of global ad agency giant WPP, bolsters the cause and effect argument for Digital OOH advertising – with roughly half of respondents saying they’ve been compelled to make purchases “there and then” after seeing an ad on a screen.

The findings of the Sightline Global Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) survey on perceptions of digital out-of-home advertising, which was commissioned on behalf of AI firm Xaxis and media planner Kinetic, also found that two-thirds of respondents said DOOH ads had encouraged them to search for more information online. Sightline is a joint venture programmatic platform developed by Xaxis and Kinetic.

Says the PR:

The results of the survey also revealed that DOOH campaigns are regarded by consumers worldwide as innovative, impactful, and strong drivers of action, suggesting they can play an important and unique role in advertisers’ media strategies.

Conducted by research specialist Kantar on behalf of Sightline, the advanced DOOH solution owned by media investment company GroupM, the new study surveyed the views of 11,000 people in 11 major global markets on a variety of different advertising channels, including DOOH, to assess how this fast-growing form of advertising is perceived compared with other on and offline formats. Among its findings were that DOOH campaigns look to be powerful drivers of direct action by consumers; half of respondents who had seen DOOH ads said they encourage them to make a purchase ‘there and then’ and two-thirds said they had encouraged them to search for more information online.

DOOH ads also performed strongly against attributes more associated with brand-focused campaigns. Respondents who saw or heard each ad format in the last month were asked which attributes applied to the format. Those who saw DOOH ads in the last month were most likely to say DOOH was the most innovative format (28%) and they were second only to cinema-goers in terms of associating the format with having the most ‘creative’ ads. Perhaps surprisingly, the same number of respondents seeing TV, radio and DOOH ads (37%) cited the channel as featuring ads that were ‘entertaining’.

The findings also suggest that DOOH advertising has become an established, welcome element of the consumer experience as two-thirds of those seeing DOOH ads agreed said they ‘become part of the location’ and 63% that it made their journeys more interesting. Other findings of the survey included that more than three-quarters (77%) of those seeing DOOH ads believed DOOH ads were quite or very informative and 50% that they connect them with their favorite social media channels.

Akama Davies, global practice lead for digital OOH at Xaxis: “Receptiveness to DOOH ads is clearly strong among consumers everywhere, as seen through their positive attitude towards its quality and innovation. As a non-interruptive channel, the survey findings seem to endorse our view that DOOH offers advertisers a unique opportunity to engage their audiences with high-impact but highly relevant messages in spaces where those messages are welcomed by consumers. It offers a large creative canvas but also gives ad buyers the precision planning and agility of digital, programmatic media, as well as a powerful location-based element that drives a multitude of actions. The survey findings also validate our view that DOOH does not replace existing forms of ad media but adds its own unique value for marketers.”