Out of home media owner, Ocean Outdoor has identified 280 UK digital screens it claims have the same properties as primetime peak TV spots.
According to Ocean Outdoor’s research, these ‘Primers’ are the best DOOH sites in the country for scale, impact, audience delivery and the ‘wow factor’.
In the UK capital, Storm Cromination London, Holland Park roundabout and Old Street roundabout all feature, but the grand dame of them all is Landsec’s Piccadilly Lights.
Ocean Outdoor joint managing director Phil Hall said: “For the purposes of planning it’s apparent that DOOH is more akin to primetime TV, however the two are often planned very differently. An effective TV campaign usually relies on primetime peak spots, delivering large audiences in a quality environment. Securing a strong peak allocation with these key spots is second nature to a good TV buyer.
“The same logic doesn’t always apply in OOH. That same quality threshold isn’t automatically applied at the start of the planning process and that hasn’t changed since the age of classic paper and paste static posters.
“The majority of plans still start from the basis of building broadcast coverage with traditional standard six or 48 sheets first, with large format DOOH inventory often at the end, as a ‘nice to have’. This approach is the exact opposite of the TV planning model.
“DOOH Primers have the same star qualities as prime, must-have TV ad spots and do exactly the same job. For every Champions League or Bake Off centre-break, there is a DOOH equivalent.”
Out of a possible 11,509 DOOH frames in the UK, Ocean Outdoor believes it operates 108 Primers.
Hall concluded: “What we can now prove is that an OOH plan without the Ocean Primers is like a TV plan without Peak. Prime DOOH is the quality threshold and should be the starting point for any OOH plan. It’s time to overhaul the process by making the buying of big DOOH Primers the starting point for any OOH campaign.”
