3D DOOH can’t be a blip in the innovation timeline of OOH

If 3D digital out-of-home (DOOH) doesn’t evolve and transform, it could be another blip in the innovation evolution timeline of OOH. It must scale and align with a one-to-many media channel to gain the support of the industry and our clients.

Remember the gender recognition ad placement or the touchscreen interactive ads? No? That’s because these technologies required transformation to become a staple but were resigned to the ‘it’s too difficult’ pile.

3D illusions or forced perspectives were first seen around the 1500s in the early Renaissance period painted by highly skilled artists, notably seen in Holbein’s The Ambassadors painting with a skull or vanitas, which shocked onlookers as they approached the painting from an angle.

This sense of illusion continues today, with some in the OOH industry allowing, almost willing, for the false perception of this forced perspective to be seen as amazing technology at work. The truth is (and I might be shot for this), the screen is just playing out an MP4 video file, just like any other in the loop. And now any full-motion OOH screen can show 3D content.

So, what does transformation look like for a sustainable future for 3D DOOH that has longevity?

Scale sits at the heart of OOH

The amazing 3D content currently showing on the best iconic screens in the country has a solid place.

Clients are benefitting and capitalizing on what is still seen as a ‘media first’, with great earned media value from PR and social amplification. But we should be mindful of how long this could last. There’s another place for 3D DOOH that sits at the heart and the commercial purpose of OOH – and that’s scale.

Transformation is key to how we get there. OOH screens are the best advertising medium to engage with audiences when they are in a uniquely receptive mindset. But creativity must always come first. If we empower creativity, OOH will become a stronger consideration within the media mix, and the whole industry must focus on the long-term goal of positioning OOH as the home of creativity and less on shorter-term gains.

Everyone I’ve worked with in OOH passionately believes in the channel, and when galvanized they literally break down seemingly insurmountable hurdles, which culminate in reinvention. And we’re at that watershed of opportunity again if we’re going to see 3D DOOH transform into a scale-based solution.

We all remember BA’s Look Up, Pepsi Max’s Bus Shelter, Skoda AR and Walkers’ Gary Lineker vending machine – truly innovative dynamic campaigns that remain in the ad community’s psyche today.

But the media spend of these single-screen campaigns was almost insignificant, just like 3D DOOH is today. And, because the real fame and viral value of these ground-breaking campaigns were driven online, many within OOH were not supportive at the time. But we’ve seen a transformation in the last couple of years, and creative dynamic OOH now accounts for a significant proportion of media bookings as a scale-based media buy.

This transformation was made possible through standardized delivery with support from the media owners so our clients knew exactly how to buy. Once standardization is in place, the functionality of dynamic becomes secondary to the creative, almost invisible, and that’s when we see amazing creative like Tesco’s award-winning campaign for Ramadan last year.

OOH on the horizon

Next week, we’ll see the world’s first 3D DOOH scale-based campaign for Maybelline on over 200 UK screens with the support of Clear Channel, JCDecaux, Ocean Outdoor and Open Media. Each screen requires its own unique viewing angle for the 3D content to perform and we’ve taken the same transformational path by putting in the extensive groundwork necessary to productize scale-based 3D content, so our client can concentrate on the creative, which in this case we’ve conceived, created and produced at DOOH.com.

2023 reminds me of 2014 when I started DOOH.com, the excitement to transform our industry again is truly palpable and, just like dynamic, only digital out-of-home can deliver 3D.