Start Spreading The News
May 18, 2021 By Simon Gendelman, Sales Director, Place Exchange
Major announcements were made earlier this month regarding NYC. The city that historically never slept until COVID-19 came along is officially back in business! On May 19th, restaurants, bars, retail stores, amusement parks, gyms, salons, and office buildings are able to operate without most capacity restrictions, outdoor large stadiums and arenas will increase to 33% capacity—all as vaccinations accelerate and positivity rates are at their lowest since the pandemic began.
There is a buzz in the air with friends and family starting to make plans to see each other again, vendors reaching out to clients to set up outings, and companies starting to open offices back up with employees eager to return to the office. There is so much excitement built up after the last 14+ months that some say this summer in NYC will resemble the roaring 20s. Restaurants will be filled, bars will be lively, the Knicks will be in the playoffs (hopefully well into June) and people will look to spend as much time as possible outdoors.
No industry is primed to embrace this reopening quite like Digital Out of Home. Regarded as the last traditional medium, one that experienced 39 consecutive quarters of growth pre-COVID, DOOH is now a channel accessible programmatically on most omnichannel DSPs. The same benefits that have helped fuel the growth of digital including buying flexibility, targeting, measurement, creative optimization, dynamic content, and unified reporting are all applicable to DOOH now. Marketers have the ability to plan, activate, and report on DOOH in their preferred DSPs, alongside all other digital channels, measuring holistic outcomes side by side. While digital gave us banners, mobile ads, and pop-ups, DOOH gives us life-size creatives that can span 200+ ft in size and various screens that reach consumers in physically contextual environments (i.e. grocery stores, office buildings, gyms, doctors offices, restaurants, bars, and more) where ads cannot be skipped or blocked, and are always viewable. In DOOH, there is no such thing as negative content adjacency, since DOOH screens only display ads and occasionally brand-safe programming for retailers. With the fragmentation of TV, there is no other medium that allows marketers to reach consumers at the scale of DOOH. And while some may assume the medium is expensive, you would be surprised that CPMs are extremely efficient.
New Yorkers are resilient, tenacious, and always band together to overcome adversity. This time, more than ever, there is a collective excitement across the big apple to get back on top. So get outside and start spreading the news!