If you've been following my blogs since I began a few weeks ago then you know my feelings about Out-of-Home Media (OOH). I see it as a growing medium that has tremendous potential and it's only a matter of time until advertisers begin to take note. With that said, there is always one hard to find component for OOH network owners; content.
Sure anyone can find content. You can download the latest top rated videos on YouTube and lace some advertisements in the middle and consider that content. You can simply subscribe to the Associated Press and play an ad between each news clip. You can even hire a graphics department to develop attractive and sleek pictures to catch peoples attention. This however, is not content.
Good content comes from knowing your audience and finding something relevant for them. Remember that in-home television, viewers choose the channel they want to watch. In the OOH model, the audience can not choose so it has to be relevant to them, in order to get them to watch. Good content is also a mix of relevant info about the viewers settings.
If the OOH network setting is a subway system in a busy metropolitan city then the content needs to mirror what those people specifically want. Not only does this increase the chance of your audience paying attention to your content, it also proves a better case to the advertisers. One example would be riders of the BART system in San Francisco. Proper content for these riders would not only include the typical info of weather and daily news, but also information about the traffic conditions surrounding the stations, airport delays for riders heading to Oakland and San Francisco airports, or interactive maps of tourist destinations, and especially up to the date information about Silicon Valley technology magnates.
The point is this content is hard to come by. The reason is because content is expensive to continually develop, find, and especially create. Content teams are an unnecessary cost to OOH media companies until they sell enough advertising to justify. (You see the chicken and egg thing here, right?)
So back to the original header for this blog. There are only a few companies who have the resources to become large OOH Media players. Right now several companies are dabbling in the opportunity, few have mastered the industry. Microsoft could be that company. There are two reasons.
MSN features more content than any site across the net. They feature information that targets both men, women, teens, and seniors. Their content ranges from autos to entertainment and health to sports. They feature breaking news, videos, pictures, and detailed city information. More importantly, they aggregate content from all sites online.
MSN is also one of the leaders in online advertising sales. To go along with their wide range of content, they have a wide range of advertisements to target each demographic. MSN does this extremely well.
I don't even have to begin to discuss the resources and technology barriers that most companies face. MSN would have no problem with the initial investments and upkeep.
As you can tell by now I'm a big proponent of OOH media and the industry is still seeking a dominant leader to come in and take over several vertical markets; retail, rail, airports, college campuses, restaurants, etc. MSN solves the problems that most OOH media companies face. Content and advertising.
The next time you see an OOH network, think of the possibilities for MSN.
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