You’d have to figure that a marketing channel called out-of-home would be forced to transform when the pandemic forced consumers to, well, stay home. The quarantine period, in fact, led to a nearly 30% drop in OOH spending in 2020, according to one survey. But with 2021 almost at its midpoint, the OOH industry has made significant changes to connect with homebound customers through digital channels.

“We’ve been able this past year to connect all the pipes, the DSPs and SSPs, the connected programmatic out-of-home pipes,” said Barry Frey, President and CEO of global digital out-of-home marketing association DPAA.

More inventory is accessible through programmatic buying, and advances in location- and identity-based attribution have made OOH more attractive to marketers who insist on data-backed strategies.

While traditional billboards and signage is still a hallmark of the channel, newer digital screens are giving marketers a platform to showcase content in video form in addition to ads, matching the varied demands of consumers to be entertained, informed and engaged, said Frey.

“In the old days, out-of-home was an ad on the side of the road,” he said. “Because of the addition of programmatic, ads can be changed according to the temperature, the weather or to fit a specific audience.”

This nimbleness puts OOH on par with other digitized channels when brands and media agencies are selecting the right mix to reach their intended audience. By connecting mobile signals with users located near an out-of-home screen, the out-of-home component can drive traffic to a store.

“It’s enabled our members to generate the opportunity that would have gone to video or mobile, because we are offering engagement up and down the marketing funnel,” said Frey.

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Investment in content marketing isn’t the challenge anymore. Those of us leading SEO want to hone that resource to generate repeatable results. Luckily, there’s a systematic way to bring longevity and relevancy to your content lifecycle to drive results long after you hit publish.

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Google published a list of transparency related policies for publishers in Google News.  Google said it determines what constitutes meaningful transparency from news sources by what types of information an ordinary person might find helpful.

These policies include a list of items and factors that are looked at on the site level and article level. Site level items include mission statement, editorial policies, staff information, contact information and owners and funding sources. Article level items include article bylines, publish date, article labels for type of article and so on.

Why we care. If you are a publisher and produce news content that you want to perform well in Google News, you should make sure your site hits the mark on both the site level and article level criteria.

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As customers interact with your business through various channels, the streams of information they provide can be endless. But, that data can also be hidden and difficult to tap into. Join experts from Actian, who will help you simplify real-time customer insights across your martech stack while reducing dependency on IT, making faster decisions and recovering costs.

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PR tech leader Cision has announced the closure of its deal to acquire Brandwatch, the consumer intelligence platform. This follows its 2019 acquisition of social media management platform Falcon.io.

Brandwatch’s consumer intelligence, with 100 million data sources, will be integrated with the Falcon.io platform. It will also be embedded in the Cision Communications Cloud where it will apply its advanced analytics to Cision’s monitoring of hundreds of millions of new sources.

Why we care. An increasingly important aspect of customer experience is a brand’s outward-facing communications. Customers expect to hear from brands, in the right channels, at the right time, with the right tone of voice; and also expect brands to respond to their concerns. By pairing deep social listening with social media management, Cision presents a compelling solution.

Join us online, June 15-16, to explore cutting-edge SEO, PPC, and user experience topics and trends… everything from tech SEO tactics for improved visibility to a deep dive through Google Search Console Performance and Experience reports.

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This week’s Marketoon taps into something that’s been on all our minds, or should be. Since the pandemic began, many customers have changed their behavior, engaging with companies through new channels at all times of day.

Fishburne’s take: Some of the desire for business to go back to normal is an illusion. Customer expectations will continue to evolve. The post-pandemic world will also have its own changing dynamics that will require businesses to keep up. A report released this week from January Digital and Foresight Research found that “50% of US consumers expect brands to retain and improve upon pandemic conveniences.” This creates an opportunity for organizations that can continue to keep pace.

Why we care: Good service builds trust with customers, and advances like conversational AI make the increased engagement by customers manageable. Don’t forget, the more conversations and messages you have, the more feedback and data businesses obtain to further improve experience. It’s a virtuous circle accelerated by the pandemic.

“In talking with B2B marketing CMOs and marketing ops pros, CDPs are being thought of as the better (next?) version of marketing automation database with activation and segmentation capabilities being promised. We never could get there with MA. The challenge is most are taking the same actions with CDPs as MA systems – send email nurture, route to BDRs for followed up on ‘scored’ contacts.” Scott Vaughan, Chief Growth Officer, Integrate