I keep seeing DOOH articles that refer to Mobile and Social as if they are interchangeable. There are good reasons why Apple isn’t Facebook and visa-versa.
Mobile is often a great communications channel for a social layer, but it is not the only one, and frequently not the best one.
When talking about “mobile” companies servicing the DOOH market - e.g. they specialize in mobile marketing, smart phone apps, blue tooth proximity marketing, mobile games etc., it is not a given that they can also deliver or address requirements for social engagement.
A social layer for DOOH that requires the distribution and curation of multiple real-time (or otherwise) social streams to hyper localized screens is not something that mobile marketing platforms have been designed to address.
This is particularly true at scale, where the tools to direct real-time social media to hundreds or thousands of screens, each with it’s own rules, filters, cms systems etc require an enterprise-grade robust solution that better be the focus of the company providing it.
Likewise, a mobile marketing platform will include features that might be over-kill for a DOOH application.
The DOOH market has its own unique challenges, and it is therefore even more critically important that DOOH practitioners understand the very different capabilities of mobile and social platforms and the DNA of companies offering either.
As always, you need the right tools for the right job.
Tags: blue-tooth, Digital Out-of-Home, digital signage, Digital Signage Expo, DOOH, Facebook, foursquare, Interactive, Las Vegas, LBS, LocaModa, Location, location-based, mobile, mobile marketing, moderation, place based, place-based social media, Place-Based Social Networks, smart phone, Social, social layer, Social Media, Social Networks, Stephen Randall, twitter, user-generated content
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