IAB Canada held its fourth annual Location Based Advertising event to unpack the state of Digital OOH and location data at time of dramatic change in the industry. Thought leaders gathered to discuss the shifting landscape and how it might affect access to rich data pools that have quietly evolved the OOH offering into a new digital media darling.
According to the IAB Canada 2021 LBA Barometer study, privacy is top of mind and the industry is concerned about privacy reform from both a regulatory standpoint as well as the industry’s moves to eliminate IDFA and Cookie data.
While COVID-19 is sure to have impacted investment levels in 2020 and into this year, it is clear that the DOOH sector has been in the development trenches readying itself to launch advanced tools and data insights to help drive investment into the channel. We also heard encouraging reports on measured effectiveness of the channel throughout the pandemic.
During day one, there was clear optimism expressed about the future of location data and its relative immunity to the cookieless future. Accessing location data through SDKs will remain intact providing core insights, while developments from the IAB Tech Lab on the SKadnetwork API will help provide some visibility into measurement and attribution, in an otherwise impaired environment.
Connected TV was also identified as a major growth opportunity that could be enhanced through the use of location data. Creating hyper-local TV advertising opportunities for brands to leverage may become increasingly valuable to drive performance. Infusing location data with other enhanced insights could provide advertisers with a whole new world of opportunities to place highly relevant and timely content.
One thing is certain, the future is bright for location-based advertising across the board. Our survey indicated a strong appetite for improved measurement, predictive models and the ability to integrate DOOH with other digital media activity in an omnichannel way. The good news is that it’s all on the way.
To join the conversation at IAB Canada contact us at [email protected].