Incrementality, programmatic and cider: My day at the Future of Media event
Earlier this week, I had the great pleasure of attending Adwanted’s Future of Media event. What I particularly enjoyed were the quick 15-minute presentations from experts across various different advertising mediums, which kept the audience engaged while packing a punch. Among the many discussions, the concept of incrementality and the use of Route data in out-of-home (OOH), as highlighted by Dentsu, Clear Channel and Posterscope really stood out to me.
Incrementality was one of the common themes across presentations. Incrementality goes beyond just measuring audiences – it also focuses on outcomes like sales, profit, and brand awareness. By adjusting factors like ad spend in a specific region and observing the resulting changes, businesses can identify the incremental gains of their campaigns.
In one of the first presentations of the day, Croud CSO Avinash Kaushik emphasised the importance of incrementality and challenged us to think beyond traditional metrics. He stressed that success isn’t just about ad spend, it’s about maximizing the effectiveness of each pound invested. Marketers need to be able to demonstrate incremental ROI to have their CFOs on their side. However, none of this matters if the ad itself is ineffective. In his words, “60-70% of success is determined by the creative.” This challenges advertisers to rethink their strategy and shift the focus from spending more to winning before spending through targeted and compelling creative, reminding us that advertisers are in the business of persuasion.
I was especially excited to see Route data featured in the presentation by Elizabeth Adcock from Dentsu OOH, Edie Fisher from Clear Channel, and Richard Gladders from Posterscope. They showcased how brands can push their campaigns harder with programmatic OOH. Using Route data, they showed how DOOH and OOH is the perfect platform for reach, with both reaching 83% and 96% of GB adults aged 15+, respectively. Their Aspall (a premium cider brand) campaign highlighted the power of programmatic DOOH in delivering both context relevant and content relevant messaging. By focusing on regions with high sales potential during key periods, (e.g., May through August this year when the weather was above a certain temperature), they managed to increase Aspall’s brand awareness. This approach highlighted the flexibility and real-time impact of programmatic.
As the commercial media landscape and amount of data available continues to evolve, the importance of blending strong creative with data-driven insights becomes incredibly important. There are countless tools now for data integrations and to optimise ad placements and events like the Future of Media remind us that innovation and good creative must go hand in hand. At Route, we are excited to continue pushing the boundaries of innovation and providing gold-standard audience measurement for OOH in Great Britain.
Full programme details are available at the event website, here.
