Heathrow Airport in London

By Accenture

In Heathrow Airport’s First Class Lounges, executives logging onto the Wi-Fi were greeted with a 25-second commercial about Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, the rival product to the iPad. Timing was impeccable: just weeks before the holidays. Targets were exact: high-income frequent flyers for whom Galaxy Tab is just the right solution. Results were impressive. Samsung moved 600,000 units in about a month across 30 markets thanks in part to the U.K. campaign.

Perfectly-timed messages to exact targets to achieve stellar sales results. It’s the Holy Grail of advertising and the promise of digital out of home. With the increased mobility of consumers and the ubiquity of devices like smart phones and dynamic screens, digital out of home is radically transforming traditional outdoor advertising.

In 2009, a whopping $6.69 billion was spent on digital out of home media, which constitutes about 20 percent of all out of home spending. China and the United States spent 23 percent and 19 percent respectively, and those numbers are expected to grow rapidly in the coming years.

What, exactly, is digital out of home? Often referred to as “place-based media,” digital out of home is any digital screen or closed circuit network displaying media messages ― screens that are increasingly ubiquitous, especially in urban environments. Because it’s dynamic, it’s more relevant and engaging.

In fact, according to Clear Channel, digital displays deliver a 60 percent increased viewing time versus their traditional print and paper counterparts. And place-based digital out of home (like the digital screens inside shopping malls) has more contextual relevance and a higher likelihood of driving sales as messages reach consumers at the point of purchase.

Advertisers can also dominate specific environments ― from airport lounges or office elevators, to checkout lines and gas stations. And because of “day part” buys, advertisers can gain a larger share of voice than budgets might normally allow.

It’s an ideal solution for companies like McDonald's that may want to dominate digital screens in mass transit stations during the morning commute to promote their breakfast menu, switching messages as the day goes on to lunch. Digital commercials make that proposition much more attractive ― more readily executed and cost effective.

Engagement to go ― Loblaws

Delivering "engagement to go" through digital out of home means a new approach to old school outdoor. Consider Canadian food retailer, Loblaws. In 2009, Canada experienced record-breaking rain that had the entire country talking.

The following year, armed with the insight that everyone talks about weather, especially bad weather, the retailer designed a number of digital displays that reflected current weather situations by associating weather conditions with different fruits and vegetables. So, a cloudy day was depicted with cauliflower; a sunny one with star fruit, etc. The campaign was dynamically rendered based on daily conditions, making it highly relevant. Messages were tied to the freshness of Loblaws’ produce, causing a spike in sales.

Another example of using digital out of home to drive brand relevance can be seen in the Corona Light Facebook campaign. Their “Most Liked Light Beer in America” effort encouraged users of the social network to click “like” on the Corona Facebook page.

Those who did qualified for having their faces flashed on a 150-foot billboard in Times Square in New York City. Corona’s payoff? The brand captured thousands of ambassadors, spreading the message about Corona Light throughout Facebook and other social networks, and gained important insight into their target audience. All for the cost of posting a digital picture during a limited campaign period of about a month.