UK/FRANCE. JCDecaux UK has added programmatic buying capabilities to its advertising locations at London Heathrow Airport.
The new offering connects advertisers and media buyers to advertising inventory via VIOOH, the leading premium global digital out-of-home supply-side platform.
JCDecaux said that advertising clients can blend the precision targeting and flexibility of programmatic buying with the effectiveness of high-impact digital out-of-home (DOOH).
DOOH is the second-fastest growing media after mobile advertising at Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport.
JCDecaux is introducing the new programmatic capabilities across all digital advertising assets in Heathrow terminals and onboard Heathrow Express, amounting to over 700 screens.
Programmatic buying gives advertisers a new way to reach millions of Heathrow passengers using anonymised data to optimise campaigns in near-real time, JCDecaux said.
Advertisers can integrate their own or third-party data triggers into campaigns. They can also use passenger numbers by terminal, unique consumer profiles and information about how travellers move around the airport to reach the audience.
Programmatic DOOH as a share of all out-of-home advertising is growing rapidly. In the UK JCDecaux has accelerated its transition to programmatic. The company claims it can make more than seven billion impressions a month available to buyers across roadside, retail, rail, supermarket and now airport channels, via multiple demand-side platforms (DSPs).
JCDecaux UK co-CEO Chris Collins said: “Today, programmatic DOOH is an essential part of a brand’s omnichannel marketing strategy. Ever since we’ve been running programmatic campaigns we’ve noticed two key trends.
“Firstly, brands that have previously invested in traditional out-of-home or non-programmatic DOOH are adding incremental budgets to complement long-term campaigns with strategic bursts of activity around key moments in time.
“Secondly, there has been an influx of new brands into out-of-home advertising owing to the medium’s connections into the digital online ecosystem through our programmatic platforms. So this introduction of further buying capabilities at Heathrow will open up this fantastic environment to even more brands.”
VIOOH CEO Jean-Christophe Conti said: “Combining JCDecaux’s premium airport inventory with VIOOH’s programmatic capabilities will enable brands to create highly targeted, flexible and measurable DOOH campaigns across Heathrow Airport.
“This offering also enables more brands to tap into the airport audience – who have a high dwell time and are ready to spend – making this audience extremely desirable from a programmatic perspective due to these highly sought after audience segments.”
Heathrow Retail and Property Director Fraser Brown said: “We’re proud of the state-of-the-art digital advertising portfolio at Heathrow, and programmatic will provide a great opportunity to open up access to an even broader range of brands. This in turn should make the screens more engaging for our passengers, improving their airport experience.”
JCDecaux operates advertising in 154 airports in 38 countries and in seven of the top ten airport hubs worldwide.
Aside from Heathrow, the company has introduced programmatic sales across JCDecaux’s media space at airports in Singapore, Frankfurt, Milan, Turin, Sydney, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Hong Kong and Paris, as well as 12 French regional airports.
JCDecaux plans to extend programmatic sales this year to other American airports where it operates the advertising concession.
