By Habib Wehbi, CEO, HyperMedia
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The media and advertising industry is evolving, shifting from traditional mass media broadcasts to targeted digital. In particular, the UAE’s out-of-home (OOH) advertising industry is undergoing a dynamic shift from static branding to digital media, as the latter proves more affordable and better targeted for advertisers.
HyperMedia, an OOH media specialist in the region, has adopted this change by converting the majority of its nationwide in-store and mall network to digital screens, along with the adaptation of technologies that would allow a higher ROI for advertisers, as well as larger reach and advanced targeting. The company estimates that now, for the first time, digital advertising in malls is more than 50 per cent of the total mall advertising market and expects it to hit more than 66 per cent by the end of 2017 as Nakheel Retail opens many new malls with large digital networks.
However, despite this growth, clients often make the mistake of taking content they use for traditional OOH and print campaigns and duplicating it on mall digital platforms. Some still don’t take full advantage of the fact that they can now target mall shoppers by demographics and time of day by using the automated software platforms that digital OOH offers at no extra cost. Through these, not only can advertisers select whom to target and at what time, they can also get proof-of-performance reports that can help them better understand their spend, all in real-time.
The challenge is for advertisers to actually pinpoint effective ways to efficiently deliver their brand messages in today’s complex media environment. Due to the diversity of media channels, today’s marketers have to grab consumers’
attention and reach them at a variety of places. The UAE is an advanced market in terms of Internet and Smartphone penetration, and advertisers and media providers alike should understand how important it is to make use of the country’s high penetration rates to reach consumers by incorporating mobile and integrating social media plug-ins into the content management systems of the screens’ digital platforms in real time.
These plug-ins provide a medium through which the audience can interact with screens and share posts, photos and tweets. It also allows them to engage with the signage, while providing timely, desired and constantly refreshed content and facilitating advertising and promotional opportunities – this is clever advertising. This integration between social media and mall media is considered a valuable opportunity in the mall environment and provides a uniquely captive audience that advertisers need to target with smart creatives.
More information could also be provided by Wi-Fi analytics, through which advertisers can accumulate data based on the footfall in the area around the beacon device, letting them know the exact number of visitors, as well as their recurrence and distribution, based on device vendors.
The digital signage networks that are now installed in many malls allow shoppers to interact with social media while they are in the mall premises. Evidence is mounting from around the world that activations and campaigns should be divided between offline and online to achieve maximum success. With the roll-out of advanced Wi-Fi systems, new opportunities are opening up to boost mall media, as shoppers can now make the link from digital signs to their mobile phones.
The UAE’s malls are in a unique position to start leveraging Big Data and integration with digital signs. As the mall industry becomes increasingly competitive and unlike other OOH advertising mediums, mall media can be more targeted and quite scientific in its approach to crafting and monitoring campaigns.
Digital OOH and location-based mobile are almost a necessity today, as they are part of a larger multi-screen ecosystem that amplifies brand messages and reinforces engagement with consumers. Advertisers, clients, malls and OOH companies must continue to drive innovation to take advantage of this.
However, stores and hypermarkets in the region are moving at a slower pace on the digital front. As consumer behaviour and mobile technology evolve faster and faster, retailers need to monitor these changes and remember that a digital-first strategy is becoming a prerequisite for their presence. But linking this digital presence to on-shelf displays and in-store branding is proving rather more challenging than doing so in malls. With the huge diversity of products and the constantly changing needs of in-store branding, the region’s FMCG brands still tend to lean towards traditional branding and brand domination inside the stores, preferring not to share the medium with another brand or product.
Nevertheless, a gradual conversion to digital is more cost-effective in terms of production, as the advertiser gets to change the artwork whenever required and a digital display is more visually appealing and eye-catching to consumers.
HyperMedia has started adopting this shift by installing digital shelf dressings across a network of hypermarkets. This step has showed substantial improvements in delivery times for the campaigns and their costs.
When shifting to digital, media suppliers should consider merchandising tools to help clients get insights to use in their decision-making processes. The tools would be designed to provide analysis and reporting on performance, opportunities and issues within the store, which can be viewed on laptops, pads and mobiles using specific apps, allowing clients to make better-informed decisions and enabling automated execution of consequent actions, such as re-orders and maintenance.
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