2 factors to consider when designing DOOH content

Selecting the right content for a DOOH campaign is a difficult task. Whether you are running a dynamic or traditional campaign, you have to think carefully about what type of content to use, how often to loop the content and when to play it.

Adam Cadwallader, customer strategy director at oOh! Media Australia, discussed factors to consider when designing DOOH content at the recent Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas. He said two important factors to consider are your audience's dwell time and transience.

Dwell time

In order to make any display effective, end users need to have a clear idea of how long their customers are going to be dwelling in the environment and how long they will be paying attention to the display.

"Time and place and intent is what we are going after in content," Cadwallader said in a panel talk. He also said end users need to consider if customers are driving by, walking by or standing by a display.

That's because each area has a different dwell time. For example, a roadside digital billboard will have a "bugger all [little]" dwell time, according to Cadwallader, whereas a hospital would have a high dwell time.

Transience

The second factor is how transient your audience is. In other words, are they going to be visiting the same area often, or is their impression a one-time event? This can determine how often you should refresh your content.

Cadwallader said that because digital billboards have a high audience transience, refreshing content constantly would be a "shit idea." The same principle applies to airports, as the same customer typically doesn't go to the airport all the time.

In a university setting, however, the audience is much more fixed, since students come regularly to study and attend classes. Students will quickly become bored with digital signage that presents the same content, so managers need to update content more often.

Putting it all together

Once you determine whether the dwell time and transience are low or high, you can begin designing content for your displays. And you can also determine whether you should have your audience help you design content.

Cadwallader said one university in Australia decided to allow students to post their own hashtags on displays during an election as part of an event called "Hijacked," and 812 students entered hashtags.

He said the most important element with all content is make sure you understand your audience's position and mindset. Once you have that down, the content will come easier.