Mixed in with the continuing positive DOOH market data from PQ and others, the truth for high tech start ups and entrepreneurs in DOOH is that it’s still an industry with more questions than answers.
OK - that’s why we’re excited about it - there’s so much room for innovation and disruption, but, is the industry really destined to be big enough, or is it a collection of struggling small networks, fragmented infrastructure, apathetic agencies and tactical sales people?
Ouch.
Well sometimes, the truth hurts - and that pain gets us closer to what we actually need to do to change the world.
Before the web, the Internet looked a little like DOOH - the big players (Prodigy, AOL, CompuServe…) had little or no interoperability and seemed unassailable. We know how that story played out. The invention of the web browser effectively reduced infrastructure companies to utility businesses and enabled companies like Amazon and Google to disrupt and dominate on top of new standard interfaces.
Hasn’t looking over the fence at the web taught us anything? DOOH’s infrastructure needs to be flattened and platformised in a similar way. Only then will new applications, ad platforms, commerce and marketing platforms enjoy the huge economic success their counterparts have enjoyed on the web.
The endless prattling on in our industry about QR codes, 3D, Augmented Reality, Bluetooth, Near Field Communications, and frankly anything mobile and/or social is misplaced enthusiasm, naivety or just noise. Yes, some of these technologies deserve a place in our future BUT they are solutions that can only make a BIG difference when they work for the entire market - not just a single proprietary network or tactical campaign.
Until then, DOOH innovators will bear the pain of becoming the Google of Out of Home.
