WHAT EFFECT IS TECHNOLOGY HAVING ON THE OOH SECTOR?

Integrating new technologies with Out of Home (OOH) advertising has significantly boosted the industry, from the use of data and AI to the advancements in LED technology.

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Interestingly, data quality and utilisation were not prominent considerations for the UAE market until 2019, but have become widely discussed topics.

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As we accumulate more data from our landlords and third-party suppliers and deepen our comprehension of its potential, we are better equipped to leverage this for the continued growth of the OOH advertising sector.

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We can’t talk about technology without talking about AI, but is it really being used in the OOH sector? I can confirm that it’s here and assisting us; to predict traffic flows with AdMobilize, analyse content to enhance creativity with Neurons, and gauge attention through eye tracking to optimise content in real-time through AdMobilize and Broadsign.

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WHAT ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF DOOH?

We have observed a digital trend worldwide, and it is now unfolding right here as well. Through a market assessment and a deep understanding of the environmental factors, we have successfully installed industry-leading DOOH screens capable of withstanding even the harshest conditions.

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BackLite’s transition from traditional static billboards to dynamic digital screens has marked a transformative era in content delivery, empowering advertisers with real-time updates plus flexibility and standout campaigns.

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This transformation has fostered a culture of creative innovation, manifesting in captivating FP3D campaigns and interactive features that engage audiences.

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Our integration with cutting-edge technologies such as live-data feeds and location-based services has allowed us to target audiences and deliver contextually relevant content.

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We recognise that digitisation alone isn’t sufficient. To truly excel, we’ve incorporated data into our strategy, providing clients with comprehensive reports highlighting metrics like playouts, impressions, reach, and frequency, enabling them to make informed decisions and maximise their impact.

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WHAT CAMPAIGN CAUGHT YOUR EYE?

Globally: Surreal Billboards in the UK – Social Buzz. Locally: Lego on SZR – May the 4th be with you. Special Build, Timing and Relevance

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WHAT ARE CLIENTS ASKING YOU FOR?

They are increasingly seeking more data-driven and results-oriented solutions. They are asking for better audience targeting capabilities to ensure their messages reach the right people at the right time.

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The demand for Programmatic Digital Out of Home (PrDOOH) is also on the rise, as it provides the efficiency and flexibility to optimise campaigns in real time.

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Also, they are looking for creative and interactive OOH formats that can captivate audiences and make their brands stand out, like branded billboards, special builds and FP3D content for a social media buzz.

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Overall, clients seek innovative, data-backed, and engaging OOH advertising solutions to drive tangible results for their marketing efforts.

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HOW CAN OOH BE BETTER INTEGRATED INTO THE MARKETING MIX?

With the journey towards PrDOOH, we have established an ecosystem that provides comprehensive data sources and solutions, catering to our clients at every stage of the marketing funnel; we call this BackLite 360.

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Our commitment extends to embracing automation through programmatic campaigns, where we list our inventory on Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) and Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs), allowing brands to incorporate our screens into their omnichannel campaigns seamlessly.
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Campaign Middle East recently covered industry movers and shakers from the advertising, marketing and creative space for our MENA Power List 2023 issue and there was a strong sense of optimism about the region’s landscape for marketers to flourish.

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James Bicknell, CEO, BackLite Media

“Bicknell has been the CEO for BackLite Media for 14 years and spends his time planning the next stage of the firm’s rapid growth. He enjoys traveling with family and playing golf”

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In the dynamic world of business, where the only constant is change, the landscape of marketing in the UAE has undergone a remarkable transformation, with innovation emerging as the cornerstone of success.

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As the CEO of the UAE’s leading Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising company, I am filled with pride to have worked with a dynamic and multicultural team and led a revolution in the way we perceive and engage with outdoor media.

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Through innovation in product, process and ecosystem, we have not only embraced the challenges of the modern marketing era but have also emerged as pioneers in shaping the industry’s future.

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Innovating solutions: Unveiling new possibilities

We realised that revolutionising our industry, first and foremost, comes with reimagining our products to suit the modern world and anticipating external factors disrupting the urban landscape in the UAE.

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Our commitment to innovation and inspiration provided by the UAE leadership to position the country at the forefront of the digital revolution has driven the business beyond the traditional static billboards, turning them into dynamic, interactive media that resonate with the digital-savvy audiences of today and match the grandeur of the cities we live in. Harnessing cutting-edge technologies, we have collaborated with brands and agencies to create immersive brand experiences that bridge the gap between physical and digital platforms.

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This achievement has not only brought creativity to the forefront but also harnessed the power of data. We work actively with our clients and data partners to create a credible data ecosystem, enabling us to adapt and optimise campaigns swiftly, ensuring our clients achieve maximum impact. By combining creativity with data-driven insights, we have elevated our media to deliver memorable experiences for audiences.

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Innovating processes: efficiency and agility

Innovation should not be limited to the media solutions we offer—it should fill every facet of the business operations. To achieve this, streamlining processes and embracing automation to enhance efficiency and agility is of utmost importance. From campaign planning to execution, advanced algorithms can help us identify prime locations, analyse demographics, and forecast foot traffic patterns, ensuring that every advertisement is strategically placed for optimal reach.

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Innovating ecosystems: cultivating partnerships

A true revolution requires a collective effort, and innovation in outdoor media is no exception. We have taken the initiative to build a robust ecosystem of partnerships that go beyond traditional boundaries. By collaborating with technology providers, creative agencies, and local communities, we have created an environment where innovation thrives.

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Together, we have co-created solutions that challenge the status quo, bringing fresh perspectives to age-old challenges. Moreover, we have championed sustainability as an integral part of our system. By incorporating eco-friendly materials and responsible waste management practices, we have not only reduced our environmental footprint but have also positioned ourselves as pioneers in promoting conscious and accountable marketing campaigns.

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Our partners and brands are looking for more transparency than ever, and it is essential that we deliver that information accurately and effectively. As the CEO of the UAE’s leading OOH advertising company, I take immense pride in our transformational journey, which has set new benchmarks for the industry.

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I envisage an OOH industry that seamlessly integrates with digital platforms, offering advertisers the best of both worlds. With the use of technology, OOH advertisements will become more interactive, personalised, and measurable, enhancing their impact and value. Our commitment to embracing change and pushing boundaries is not just a reflection of our company’s ethos— it’s a testament to our dedication to shaping the future of marketing.

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With innovation as our compass, we will continue to lead, inspire, and evolve, driving the industry towards new horizons of success.

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“If you couldn’t fail, what would you be doing right now.”

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BackLiteMedia and Gulf for Good, a charityorganisation based in the UAE, have joined forces to launch an exciting, dynamic digital advertisingcampaign named "Champions of Change." This campaign is a celebrationof the remarkable spirit of Gulf for Good's challengers right on the vibrantSheikh Zayed Road, that showcases their inspiring stories of overcoming incrediblechallenges to support charities around the world. BackLite Media’s team of designers assisted Gulf for Good invisualising the campaign, which is displayed on two unmissable digitalbillboards along this iconic stretch. 

Thecampaign was strategically timed tocoincide with the return of Dubai residents from their summer holidays, seizingthe opportunity to display photos of participants who've signed up for Gulffor Good’s upcoming challengesacross key locations on Sheikh Zayed Road in real time. Leveraging BackLiteIntelligence's Dynamic Content Solutions, the campaign provides live updates on participants who have registered forGulf for Good's upcoming challenges with their photos displayed on BackLiteMedia’s Digital Icons. This unique concept further solidifies BackLite’sdigital advertisingplatforms, where brands can unleash their creativity and engage moreeffectively with a global audience. Participation in Gulf for Good adventurechallenges guarantees individuals a coveted spot on these renowned sights,further inspiring Dubai residents to sign up for their upcomingexpeditions. 

Katherine Kearsey,Chairwoman at Gulf for Good, expressed her excitement, saying, "As acharity that thrives on pushing limits and creating meaningful change, we areexcited to partner with Backlite Media to bring the stories of our challengersto the heart of Dubai through this billboard campaign. These billboards willinspire passers-by and remind everyone that small actions can lead tomonumental change." 

BackLiteMedia’s expertise in outdooradvertising ensures that Gulf for Good's "Champions of Change"campaign will be prominently and attractively displayed, amplifying the impactof each featured story. 

The "Champions ofChange" campaign embodies Gulf for Good's core values of empowerment,unity, and transformation. Each billboard tells a unique story, reflecting thediverse backgrounds and challenges that Gulf for Good participants have taken on to raise funds foreducation, healthcare, and welfare projects for underprivileged children. Gulffor Good invites everyone to drive by and witness the inspiring storiesof these everyday heroes, contributing to the betterment of communities andlives worldwide. Together, we can make a significant difference.

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BackLite Media, one of the leading digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has announced a partnership with Place Exchange, the leading SSP for programmatic out-of-home (OOH) media, to accelerate the programmatic transformation of DOOH in the UAE and increase opportunities for DOOH to be included in omnichannel marketing strategies.

BackLite Media offers premium DOOH media opportunities across a diverse array of settings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, ranging from bustling highways like Sheikh Zayed Road to upscale malls and destinations. This expansive coverage across the UAE ensures that BackLite Media effectively reaches individuals throughout their daily journeys. The integration with Place Exchange enables advertisers to seamlessly tap into this extensive inventory through their DSPs with a variety of  programmatic buying options, including open auction, programmatic guaranteed and private marketplace deals.

Sean Gadsby, Head of Programmatic at BackLite Media, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership with Place Exchange, highlighting the potential to unlock new revenue streams and attract interest from global buyers. “Place Exchange is a prominent name in the industry, and we’re eagerly anticipating the prospects this partnership brings on a global level. The collaboration with Place Exchange will empower our clients with unparalleled programmatic capabilities and a seamless workflow to incorporate BackLite Media in omnichannel purchases.”

“There is growing demand by local and global advertisers for DOOH inventory in this market,” said Nick Bennett, SVP of Partnerships at Place Exchange. “Through this integration with BackLite Media, they can now deliver high-impact OOH messaging to audiences throughout the UAE with scale, automation, and flexibility like never before.”

The BackLite Media and Place Exchange integration heralds a new chapter in programmatic OOH media evolution in the UAE. This collaboration will enable advertisers to seamlessly leverage BackLite Media’s comprehensive DOOH inventory while capitalising on the benefits of programmatic buying and streamlined workflow integration. As the partnership gains momentum, it stands poised to contribute to the continued evolution of programmatic advertising in the UAE market.

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In the constantly evolving world of retail, staying ahead of emerging trends is crucial for brands and advertisers to remain competitive and ahead of the game. As we enter the second half of 2023, the realm of retail media is undergoing a significant transformation driven by changing consumer expectations, technological advancements, and a shifting advertising paradigm. From seamless shopping experiences to the rise of sustainability, BackLite has identified key market-altering trends that are reshaping the future of commerce media:

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• Retail Media Investment Will Attract SMEs: Retailers, who previously focused on big and well-known brands, are expected to explore alternative sources of revenue by paying attention to smaller companies in 2022. While fully managed retail media solutions may not be suitable for smaller brands, programmatic capabilities will help attract these often-overlooked companies with limited resources and optimise budgets. With more than 350 screens available to buy programmatically with BackLite Media, retailers will have a more diverse set of revenue sources encompassing a spectrum of brands they collaborate with

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• Retail Media Strategies Will Emphasise Diversification: In a similar vein, an increase in retail media partnerships will enable retailers to diversify their revenue sources across multiple networks, platforms, and solutions. Instead of relying on a single supply-side platform (SSP), retailers are likely to establish and maintain partnerships with multiple providers simultaneously. This diversification allows companies to avoid overreliance on a single source and instead distribute their efforts across various ad formats, audience segments, and target markets, depending on each provider’s expertise.

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• Video & Experiential Will Dominate Retail Media Ad Placements: As more companies develop their own retail media platforms, conventional ad placements like sponsored product and sponsored search have become standard. To stand out, advertisers need to utilise more engaging formats like rich media, video ads and brand activations to further enhance experiences. The dynamic nature of these formals allows advertisers to include various touchpoints across the sales funnel, maximising the potential impact of a single ad unit. Regardless of the ad formats employed, advertisers need to tie their retail media spending to critical metrics such as positive return on investment (ROI).

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• First-Party Data is Highly Valued: In a world without cookies, brands are becoming less reliant on third-party data. First-party data has emerged as a valuable tool for advertisers to provide personalised and relevant experiences to consumers that drive results. By partnering with retail media networks, BackLite Media has access to significant amounts of first-party data on customers’ behaviours, reasons to visit the mall, demographic information, and purchasing power of mall visitors. Using these insights, we collaborate with brands and retailers to design and optimise retail media ad campaigns that enhancethe effectiveness of their media investments.

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BackLite Media takes pride in its extensive retail media networks, which encompass key malls in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, such as Dubai Festival City and The Galleria Al Maryah Island. Our networks have consistently attracted brands from a wide range of industries, including luxury, e–commerce, and automotive. With a thriving consumer culture in the UAE and world-class shopping destinations, this marketing approach holds significant prominence. Leveraging our retail media network in malls in Dubai and Abu Dhabi can greatly enhance brand visibility, increase consumer engagement, and influence purchase decisions near point of sale.

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Brands must seize dynamic opportunities to capture their target audience’s attention and thrive in this ever-evolving competitive retail landscape. At BackLite, we are committed to delivering leading mall advertising solutions, ensuring maximum reach and impact for your brand in the region.

Earlier this year, we had the honour of interviewing Tom Goddard, President of the World Out of Home Organisation in our annual magazine SpotLite 1.0, about their goals and ambitions. Here’s what he had to say:

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What are the World Out of Home Organization’s goals for the near future?

To continue to connect, celebrate and elevate the world of Out-of-Home (OOH). However, we will be looking to help drive sector growth across the industry by encouraging collaboration both globally and locally.

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We will be putting a spotlight on the issue of sustainability across the OOH eco-system through our newly formed task force to be led by WOO Board Member and BlowUp Media CEO Katrin Robertson. Our aim will be to increase our global presence in areas where we have not traditionally been strong, including MENA, but also Southeast Asia, Greater Africa and Latin America.

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How was the MENA Forum held in Dubai? Did it achieve what you wanted it too?

We couldn’t have wished for a better MENA Forum. The quality of the speakers, including James, was tremendous with really invaluable advice and tips for competing better and harder in an always challenging regional and global media market. We really couldn’t have hoped for more. And, possibly even more important, it was an incredible chance for an industry across a huge and diverse region to come together, share their experiences and make common cause so we can move on strongly together. From a WOO perspective we received an amazing welcome, one which made us proud to play our part in a wonderful media industry.

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What would you like to see in the OOH industry in the coming years?

Greater collaboration in the industry through active support of trade associations including greater sharing of best practice from across the world. Overall Sector growth with OOH taking a greater percentage of overall media spend would be the ultimate sign of success. This will be supported by us working more closely together as an industry on key areas including measurement and sustainability.

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BackLite has partnered with Neurons Inc., a neuromarketing research company specialising in using neuroscience and behavioural science to understand consumer behaviour and decision-making processes. Neuromarketing research uses EEG and other techniques to measure brain activity in response to marketing stimuli. Their suite of neuroscience tools is called Predict, a cloud-based attention prediction AI.

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Predict AI is built on consumer neuroscience data measuring:

+120K reactions of high-quality eye-tracking technology

+100B data points of eye movements and brain responses
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Coupled with data from 120K reactions to high-quality eye-tracking technology and over 100 billion data points of eye movements and brain responses, Predict AI has become remarkably accurate — reaching 95% accuracy for its models. Visual heat maps, fade maps, and benchmarks can all be conveniently accessed from Predict. Because of this, BackLite is better equipped to effectively target, empathise and influentially forecast attention on our platforms.

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This solution estimates a campaign’s creative performance through various image processing functionalities, producing a heatmap (static or video). The tool is based on a deep machine-learning model. It is designed to help advertisers understand whether their OOH creative will likely attract the right audience’s attention in the right places. BackLite can provide saliency heatmap reports to its advertisers before the campaign to identify elements such as call-to-action and branding for improvement to increase message memorability, recognition, and effectiveness

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It’s time to think outside the box, and 3D billboards allow advertisers to do just that. The 3D effect is created by something we call Forced Perspective 3D.

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Forced Perspective 3D, or FP3D, is a technique that employs optical illusion. It manipulates human visual perception using scaled objects and the correlation between them and the vantage point of the spectator or camera. It’s not just an advertisement; it’s a visual experience.

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FP3D content is a specialised form of 3D content that appears distorted or elongated when viewed from certain angles but appears normal when viewed from a specific viewpoint or through a camera lens with a particular aspect ratio. This technique has become increasingly popular in advertising due to its eye-catching and attention-grabbing qualities.

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At BackLite Media, we collaborate with creative partners from around the world to help our clients deliver immersive campaigns on some of the most prestigious digital screens in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. This unique and innovative approach has attracted many brands to develop engaging ways to draw people’s attention to the advertisement and make them curious about what it’s promoting.

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3D billboards are a powerful tool for advertisers looking to capture people’s attention, create a unique and memorable experience and make their brand stand out. By creating unique and eye-catching visuals, they can draw people in and create an indelible impression that will stick with them long after seeing the advertisement.

What are some challenges that you’re working to overcome at the moment?

Having been in the market since 2020, I would say that Seventh Decimal overcame some significant challenges in terms of spreading awareness and getting the endorsement of major stakeholders on the measurement methodology. Now that Streach is rolled out and is heavily used by the industry, some new, yet smaller, challenges emerged that we are focusing on, such as:

1. Remaining relevant in what we are offering to all stakeholders.
2. The level of customisation on the system.
3. Its interoperability and connection with other ad tech (like DSPs/SSPs) or trading desks, among others.

Additionally, I would also like to highlight that some challenges exist in the industry that impacts us as a measurement system but are beyond our capacity to solve solely, and that is why we invited stakeholders to a round table on a technical committee to discuss those challenges and prioritise them based on the industry demand.

I believe that you’re creating a technical committee. Would you please tell us a bit more about this? How is the formation of the technical committee progressing?

Oh yes, indeed, a technical committee to launch a JIC (Joint Industry Currency) was created and includes representatives from the media agencies (MCN Group, Publicis Media Group and Omnicom Group) and media owners (Al Arabia, BackLite Media, Elevision, Hypermedia, and MPN).

The technical committee will have to take collective decisions to standardise, enrich and empower the existing OOH media measurement system.

The topics of the round table include:

• Standardisation of Ad formats

• OOH Inventory naming conventions and unique identifiers

• Metrics Nomenclature, definitions, and calculations

• Transit and place-based media

• Introduction of additional qualitative metrics

We were extremely happy with the warm welcome that stakeholders showed to our initiative, supporting us in driving a mid to long-term roadmap for the OOH media measurement system in the UAE.

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What are Seventh Decimal’s plans for the near future?

This year advertisers have started looking at OOH measurement and data to analyse their campaign’s performance and rethink their OOH strategies. Consequently, we are forecasting major growth in the industry.

We will continue to support agencies and advertisers in their efforts to highlight the potential of OOH; Through the measurement data of Streach (Reach/Frequency/Impressions), advertisers can now accurately model and fairly value the contribution of OOH to their overall media mix and assess their ROAS. Seventh Decimal will extend its support to provide data for agencies with the ultimate goal of increasing the OOH’s share of the omnichannel marketing spend.

One such initiative is the partnership between Seventh Decimal, BackLite Media and Reprise/MCN Group, which we announced a few weeks ago, to collaborate for studies dedicated to the understanding of OOH’s return on ad spend (ROAS) across MCN brands.