Marked by A Dynamically Developing Digital World

In the article, the Economist talks about how even in today’s high paced digitized world, traditional advertising methods like billboard advertising still hold high popularity and are one of the most effective means to market a product. Billboard owners are using users’ location data to come up with ads. Companies create highly relevant data by using insights received from user’s smartphone data and add that to traffic, weather and other external data sources.

Billboard ads are getting more targeted and data driven, just like online ads.

Even though billboard owners cannot keep a track of click rates, they are still able to measure the effectiveness of their ad. Organizations like data firms can give ad firms information about the number of people who have passed by the billboard ad, at what time of the day and whether it creates an inclination for customers to go buy the product. Tech giants like Google, Apple, Netflix are making bog time investments in this form of advertising.

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On the other hand, using user data to create more targeted ads raises the issue of data privacy. As this form of advertising grows bigger, it will face higher scrutiny. The good part is they can learn from the mistakes online ad agencies make.

My View- Most traditional forms of advertising like ads published in newspapers, magazines are losing popularity among users. On the other hand, billboard advertising, another form of traditional advertising still stands strong amidst the era of digitization. This is because billboard advertising not just uses traditional methods but also embraces technology in a way.

Just like online advertising that massively utilizes user data to create highly targeted advertising, billboard owners are following the same route. Billboard owners use location data and user’s browser data and combine it with traffic, weather and other external data sources to predict the type of ad to be featured on billboards. Billboard companies use “programmatic” adverting that uses data to automate and improve ads. Billboard companies work with data firms to receive data about the number of people that pass by the billboard daily at different times of the day. This enables the to determine an estimate number of people who would be inclined to make a purchase once they have watched the billboard ad.

The demand for billboard advertising is constantly on a rise (16% growth rate) and many the companies like Google and Apple are investing in this venture. Online streaming giant Netflix has made investments in billboard advertising to advertise films and tv shows. The world is getting increasingly digitized day by day and it is imperative to embrace technology as a means to increase business. But this outdoor-ad revolution comes with its own disadvantages. Since it has been using user data to create targeted advertising, it faces issues like data privacy. A lot has been happening lately in terms of regulations for data privacy and firms which rely on user data for their business will face high scrutiny by government organizations. For instance, the Facebook data privacy issue. Billboard companies can learn a lot from the blunders committed by these tech giants and take informed steps towards building a digitized business, yet still being a conventional form of advertising.