Media buyers are continuously exploring new paths of innovation to target consumers more precisely. With dynamic real-time content, more creativity and better visibility, DOOH advertising is bringing in new opportunities to drive more engagement and improving campaign outcomes. DOOH advertising, a digital take on out-of-home ads, is powered by digital signage technologies and helps to connect brands with audiences by displaying the right message at the right time and place.
The DOOH industry is the last of the digital mediums to have any form of independent verification and to ensure its success and credibility as a channel, needs third-party verification more than ever. Third-party verification provides an independent assessment of campaign performance; was the ad delivered to the right screen, state and time of day, and did it get the correct exposure? thorndyke with years of experience in building ad technology and verification, has developed into an independent verification partner for DOOH campaigns and works directly with media agencies and brands. Jason Cooper, Co-founder and CEO of thorndyke was with the CEOViews team to share details about how they are delivering better campaign measurement to brands with DOOH verification.
CEOViews: thorndyke delivers independent 3rd party DOOH verification for advertisers and
media owners. DOOH is one of the last digital mediums to be measured. How did you develop this idea? What was your mission at the outset?
Jason Cooper: We saw the evolution of verification from our time working on building digital measurement solutions for desktop and mobile. Online verification has been around for more than 12 years now, and during that time we saw a growing sophistication with fraud and other issues concerned with brand safety and media quality. We noticed DOOH (digital out of home) did not suffer from these issues and offered a fabulous platform for brand messaging. However, there was no independent verification that the advertiser was getting what they paid for. Our mission is to bring this transparency to this medium through verification and independent measurement, and ensure advertisers can track ROI and media owners are held accountable.
We saw the evolution of verification from our time working on building digital measurement solutions for desktop and mobile.
CEOViews: How are you improving the medium’s credibility?
Jason Cooper: Actually, we are improving the medium’s credibility through transparent, account- able results that are independently measured. When that happens, trust and transparency grow, outcomes are improved and investment in the medium increases everybody wins. We have also got some fabulous clients who believe in what we do and encourage us to drive forward new ideas and product innovation.
CEOViews: What are the different types of innovative services provided by your firm to its clients?
Jason Cooper: We have clients from both media owner and agency side and have a 360-degree view of the market requirements taking into account both side. For the media agency and advertisers we are able to independently verify campaign spend and performance, starting with the simple questions, did the ad actually play, whether the ad played on the right screen, on the right day, time and in the right state. Having that information delivered in real time through a centralized reporting dashboard means that campaign performance can be optimised in-flight and media owners can be held accountable to results and delivery.
CEOViews: thorndyke states that they are a believer in independent measurement and are excited about the DOOH opportunity. What is this DOOH opportunity all about?
Jason Cooper: DOOH commands less than 8% of total global advertising investment. However as a medium it doesn’t suffer from some of the issues blockers or paywalls so reaching the audience in some ways is easier. That coupled with a huge creative canvas for messaging, presents a power that have plagued digital advertising, namely fraud, brand safety and viewability. There are still issues with accountability and accuracy on delivery, however as a medium it tends to be safer from the brand safety perspective, there are no ad ful medium for a brand. However, how we go about increasing that 8% investment requires independent measurement that will help advertisers quantify their investment.
CEOViews: How does your firm measure progress on new ideas? Any special procedure to do so?
Jason Cooper: In some ways we are lucky as we have been building digital measurement products for over 15 years now from ad servers, rich media solutions to verification platforms. In this sector, we’re answering a lot of those same questions regarding campaign performance: ROI, accountability and maximising the investment in the medium. So, we have been able to produce products that address these questions and improve decision-making.
CEOViews: In what ways do your innovative ideas assist your customers?
Jason Cooper: It really comes down thinking about the customers first and foremost. We understand the problem we are solving, how we are empowering them to make better buying decisions and then assist them with forward planning and improve campaign outcomes.
CEOViews: What type of working culture do you maintain in your firm? What does it take to build a great team?
Jason Cooper: As a team we know each other’s strengths and we have been able to naturally slot into positions we are familiar with and excel at. My role as a leader is about providing our team a platform to grow and learn, empowering them to become autonomous and make decisions to increase success. Our technical team explores new technologies and frameworks that can improve efficiencies. I think people are happier when they are able to express themselves, explore and experiment with new ways of doing things.
CEOViews: What challenges did your firm come across in meeting the dynamic market trends in the DOOH sector?
Jason Cooper: There has been rapid changes in the DOOH sector over past few years with digitisation of screens and 3rd party verification where the media owner allows tracking tags inside the screens in order to perform measurement. And now we are seeing programmatic trading take off, a centralised way of buying media which means new plumbing is being established. Previously, media owners had constraints of allowing verification. It was seen as a threat and would expose inefficiencies with performance and delivery. However, over the past few years, media owners have started considering verification as beneficial. It has increased their credibility as a trusted channel providing an independent assessment of performance.
Our technical team explores new technologies and frameworks that can improve efficiencies.
CEOViews: What type of future vision do you have for your firm?
Jason Cooper: We have a solid foundation for growth. Over the last few years, we have been able to establish ourselves as a solid, trusted and credible source of truth. We are now all set to expand on that success with North American firmly in our sight. We are scouting locations in New York and will be making a move very soon. The platform is in place for success and we are enormously excited about the opportunity.
