If you create advertising campaigns regularly, you may be part of the 24% who find it challenging to create content that's engaging, interactive and generates new leads (Hubspot). The way we consume content has changed over the past few years, and part of that has made it harder to capture and hold attention.

But there’s good news; DOOH content is highly effective at providing a unique and interactive experience for the audience. That means it encourages people to respond to and interact longer with your campaigns.

In this post, we’ll discuss what exactly DOOH content is and why it is a highly effective form of advertising. If you’re already familiar with digital display advertising, we’ll also explore the ways you can make your campaigns more interactive.

DOOH stands for Digital Out-of-Home, and it refers to advertising content that is displayed on outdoor or indoor digital display screens in high-traffic areas like shopping malls, airports, train stations, and other public spaces.

It’s typically seen as billboard advertising, or screen based ads in public spaces. 

DOOH is designed to essentially get people to pay attention, so it tends to be bold and striking. It’s also mostly animated or uses video but, there’s also a ton of format flexibility in this form of advertising; from static images and videos to real-time data, dynamic messages, and other interactive experiences.

While DOOH is usually seen as billboard advertising, there is some crossover between DOOH and Guerilla marketing.

For those not in the know, Guerrilla marketing tends to be an approach to advertising that uses surprising or unusual elements in the real world to capture attention. This can include setting up unusual elements such as street art, or using actual people (remember Flash mobs?).

DOOH can also be great for interactive advertising, due to its high visibility. In fact guerrilla or interactive advertising is well suited to DOOH because the content usually contains dynamic and engaging elements that encourage interaction. 

If you were in London in 2014, you might have seen Pepsi Max's "Unreal bus shelter" that featured an interactive, transparent screen on one of the shelter walls. The shelter wall had a camera that displayed what's happening on the other side in real-time, along with some creative edits.

Commuters who sat under the shelter were treated to mind bending visuals that looked so real, many people tried to run! From aliens creeping out of the sewers to meteor crashes, the display gave people something to talk about.

Pepsi Max Unbelievable Bus Shelter Augmented Reality Digital OOH | Talon OOH

And that's one of the biggest benefits of interactive digital advertising content; it allows for a dynamic experience. By using digital screens, you can either stick to video ads like Pepsi, or create various content types in real-time, push the most relevant ads, and optimize your messaging for different locations, audiences and times. 

Here are some other fun examples of interactive advertising in recent times

Nike Air Max's unboxing experience on an interactive video ad in Tokyo

Emily Crisps' tongue-in-cheek interactive ad about their first attempt with ad posters during lockdown.

Volvo's campaign on the ease of Charging Electric Vehicles

Read more about Digital Guerilla Marketing.

You may have noticed that our interactive ad examples cast a very wide net as they incorporate everything from static images to augmented reality videos. 

So, let’s narrow things down by talking about the different types of interactive advertising content and some of the ways you can use them.

Static images are a classic in traditional advertising, but they also shine in DOOH content. Whether on a digital signage billboard or sleek elevator screen, a well-designed static image will pop out of the screen and draw the viewer into the messaging.

Motion graphics are already becoming a common experience in advertising. These animated messages allow you to tell a story in an engaging way; you can even sync them up with specific events around the screen's placement.

Video content allows you to take things one step further. You can create cinematic experiences that demand attention from the audience or simply showcase some of the best features of your product. 

Interactive ad campaigns incorporate interactive games to engage and entertain audiences. For example, a digital billboard with a touch-screen can allow people to play a fun game related to your product or offer. It will definitely get your audience to stop and see while also creating a memorable and positive brand experience.

Advertisers also connect their social media feeds to advertising campaigns to create a truly interactive experience that links two worlds. From digital billboards broadcasting real-time tweets to elevator screens displaying interactive Facebook ads, you can easily use DOOH to reflect the activity in your online community.

Bus stops have always been a great place for advertising content – you have people looking around, waiting to be engaged. Using interactive display ads here will help commuters kill time and also create a memorable interaction with your brand.

Speaking of people waiting to be engaged, elevator screens are another great opportunity to create moments of connection with your brand. Whether you use interactive ads or a dynamic advertising message, elevator screens provide brief moments where people looking to kill time will happily interact with your brand.

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology allows phones to exchange info without a prior connection – think Apple Pay at store checkouts. Combined with QR Codes, allows us to use interactive ads on another level since audiences can interact as easily as tapping their phones.

A great example is allowing users to access your product landing page through elevator screens by simply touching their phone or scanning a QR code. This seamless integration of offline and online channels can improve the customer journey and increase conversion rates.

Augmented reality allows advertisers to tap into a new level of interactive display ads by offering immersive experiences that look and almost feel real. A great example is using augmented reality to engage customers allowing users to interact with their smartphones and see virtual elements overlaid on the real world.

How does interactive advertising content maximize engagement

What is it about the interactive ad experience that makes it such an important aspect of advertising campaigns today? We’ve already touched on some of these elements, like how it allows for real-time updates.

Let’s look at some other reasons that DOOH captures engagement in a way that traditional ad campaigns can’t.

DOOH content is simply fun to look at. Interactive video ads, motion graphics and colorful elements that make up most DOOH campaigns are designed to draw the eyes and inspire curiosity. With static image billboards, you can mostly take in the whole message with a glance; but interactive digital signage encourages you to keep looking.

Audience targeting is one of the basic pillars of a successful campaign, and an interactive ad campaign allows you to do that for every touch point. Whether it’s digital billboards or smaller kiosk walls, you can adjust your messaging almost instantaneously to resonate with viewers. The result is a personalized experience for everyone that encounters your advertising.

DOOH content, like an interactive video ad, offers an opportunity to tell stories that are limited only by the message you want to share. Video content; motion graphics; NFC technology; all allow you to pull in the viewers with a narrative that’s relevant to their situation and creates a memorable experience.

Because interactive advertising campaign content is so fun to look at, it increases the amount of time viewers spend swiping, watching, or waiting for the next part of the message. This increased dwell time means they are more likely to remember your brand and message.

How can you make interactive ads with DOOH content?

Interactive advertisements open up a whole new level of potential results for your campaigns. But without interactive elements, it will be difficult to make your campaigns stick out with the target audience and generate results that match your investment.

Here are some tips to make your DOOH content more interactive.

Before creating interactive advertising content, you may want to think about who will interact with the content. Marketers usually begin by mapping out preferences, interests, and behaviors to create content that resonates. 

For example, your interactive ad in a shopping mall can urge customers to participate in a scavenger hunt for rewards or provide personalized product recommendations based on their location and purchase history. Marketing the same brand on a billboard will need to focus on different messaging.

Interactive advertising allows us to use multiple technologies, including sensors, cameras, QR codes, and other digital tools. You can use these to create immersive experiences that go beyond traditional advertising. For example, use motion-sensing technology to detect when someone walks past the screen and trigger relevant content, and QR codes to help them answer the CTA.

One of the major advantages of interactive marketing is that it’s new and exciting in a way that audiences haven’t seen before. It's not every day you see an alien tentacle creep out of the sewer and grab a person like Pepsi Max's ad. It’s important to maintain this novelty by using creative approaches that surprise audiences every time they interact with your brand.

Many interactive video advertising campaigns encourage users to engage with the content and share it on social media, and that's a smart precedent to follow. Chances are, you’re already using live social media feeds in your content to increase variety and engagement. Making your content shareable takes it one step further. 

You can encourage user-generated content by including photo booths, interactive polls, and social media integrations.

Gamification in DOOH can be incredibly effective at boosting engagement and interactivity. And thanks to various technologies, it can be quite straightforward to do. Examples include games, puzzles, and challenges that encourage viewers to spend more time with the content and increase their awareness of your brand.

DOOH content often involves a lot of moving parts – literally and figuratively. There’s content that’s being updated in real-time, interactive elements that need to be synced with the message display, social feeds that need to be displayed in real-time, and so many other aspects.

A DOOH platform is responsible for managing all these integrations. It's a solution that facilitates the creation, management, and display of digital content on various out-of-home advertising mediums. If this sounds familiar, it’s because they are quite similar to Digital Signage Software. In fact, ScreenCloud digital signage software can double a DOOH platform, helping advertisers manage their campaigns on multiple screens in different locations. 

If you’re in the market for a DOOH or interactive digital signage platform, here are some of the features you should look for.

Most DOOH platforms will have a central interface where you can create, upload, schedule, and manage your digital content. CMSs allow for easy control over the interactive elements displayed on digital screens, including images, interactive video ads, and dynamic content. The best platforms allow you to create engaging content easily.

You also want a DOOH platform that can manage your network of displays across their strategic locations. Whether you’re using digital display billboards, interactive kiosks, elevator screens or bus-stop advertising screens, you want to be able to narrowcast content with ease.

Many DOOH platforms incorporate interactive features like touchscreens, sensors, or augmented reality, to enhance user engagement. These allow you to use the full range of DOOH content, from interactive video advertising to live feeds, without feature limitations.

Some interactive digital signage platforms provide analytics tools to track the performance of campaigns. Data analytics is often critical to the success of a campaign that's being updated in real-time; even more so for the creation of an advertising strategy for future campaigns.

As a result, you’ll want access to data on audience demographics, engagement metrics, dwell time, and other key performance indicators. 

Being able to tailor content based on the geographical location of the digital displays is another critical advantage of DOOH advertising. It only makes sense to use a platform that helps you maximize this advantage. 

Many DOOH platforms allow you to integrate with social media feeds, live data streams, and other external databases. This integration means you can set up a social media wall and display dynamic information or personalized messages based on external data triggers. It also opens a whole new world of possibilities for "playable in-app" ads.

The ability to schedule and automate content publishing on digital screens is another perk you’ll want to have. Why? Well, this feature enables fine control over when and where specific content will be displayed, allowing you to optimize the campaign.

What do you do when an interactive feature stops working or a display at a high-traffic position stops working? Well, the best DOOH platforms allow you to remotely monitor all your screens so you can catch these errors as quickly as they occur and set about fixing them. 

But not all. They also let you troubleshoot issues and perform maintenance tasks without physically accessing each screen. 

Growing businesses need interactive digital signage platforms that are designed to be scalable and accommodate networks with varying numbers of displays and diverse locations. This scalability ensures flexibility for your different campaign sizes and geographic targets.

How to make DOOH content with ScreenCloud.

Need to tap into the next level of digital advertising? ScreenCloud has you covered. Use our Canvas app to create great-looking screen content, or pull in live feeds from sources like Vengo, YouTube and Live News to create your real-time immersive ads.

Digital out of home or DOOH advertising offers great opportunities to reach new customers. But how can you use interactive elements in your DOOH ads?

How to create more interactive DOOH content

How to create more interactive DOOH content

How to create more interactive DOOH content

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