pDOOH attracts new advertisers, offers higher RoI, greater flexibility: Matt Steffenson

Addressing the 2^nd World Out of Home Organization (WOO) APAC Forum in Bali on the theme ‘The tech trends driving growth and how you can tap in’,  Matt Steffenson, Director of Supply, APAC, Vistar Media, highlighted his company’s pivotal role in the advertising ecosystem. The company provides a Demand-Side Platform (DSP) for advertisers, enabling real-time campaign management and optimisation. 

Vistar Media also offers a Supply-Side Platform (SSP) for media owners to sell their ad inventory to programmatic buyers. Additionally, Vistar offers a mediation product facilitating collaboration with multiple SSPs. Their versatile ad server handles a variety of campaign types, including loop-based, playlist-based, and impression-based campaigns.

The core of his presentation focused on the prevailing technological trends driving growth in the industry. He drew parallels between the rapid transformation of out-of-home advertising and his prior experience in connected TV. 

Vistar Media, which began in the U.S. over a decade ago, expanded internationally five years ago, including markets like Australia, Canada, and the UK. Recent years have seen aggressive growth, culminating in the acquisition of Sage+Archer, a European programmatic platform.

Viewed through an Asia-Pacific (APAC) lens, Vistar Media has experienced a substantial 12% year-on-year growth, encompassing markets like China, Japan, Korea, and India. The Southeast Asian market, poised for a 5.5% growth, is predicted to surpass this rate due to the influx of new players and the digitization of existing mediums.

A major focus of the presentation was on programmatic advertising. Matt defined programmatic as the real-time buying and selling of ad space through software. Notably, more than half of online ads are purchased programmatically. The core features include auction-based transactions and real-time decision-making, transforming traditional ad buying into dynamic real-time transactions.

Matt highlighted the numerous benefits of programmatic advertising. It yields higher returns for media owners, attracts new buyers to the space, drives increased investment from existing out-of-home advertisers, offers flexibility for both buyers and media owners, with full control over inventory and pricing.

The presentation stressed upon the importance of creative content in enhancing campaign success. Right creative content can increase campaign effectiveness by over 18%. The real-time nature of programmatic advertising allows for dynamic, data-driven decision-making.

Matt spoke on trends like proximity targeting, weather-triggered targeting, and time-of-day/week targeting. Proximity targeting facilitates hyper-local ad delivery, while weather-triggered targeting ensures relevance to weather conditions. Vistar Media’s tools enable adaptability and optimisation in dynamic content placement.