OOH Uncut Podcast: Grace Teng
Grace Teng, Partner & Chief Media Officer, Zambezi, joins host Rick Robinson, CEO, PJX Media, on OOH Uncut, the 5-minute podcast featuring leaders in the Out of Home advertising world discussing OOH media industry topics.
November 27 2023
Three challenges hindering the scalability of Out-of-Home advertising: the necessity for local focus, the time and effort required for creating region-specific creative messages, and the cost implications, especially when transitioning from a local to a national campaign.
We need to make large format Out-of-Home ads more accessible on digital platforms via programmatic OOH, to attract national budgets and elevate the effectiveness of Out-of-Home strategies.
Grace Teng Discussion on OOH Uncut Podcast with Rick Robinson
Rick Robinson: Hi everybody. Rick Robinson here, with PJX Media, and yet another episode out of home uncut Today's guest is special because she was our first guest on our first ever episode of Season 1 and that's Grace Teng. She's the partner as a reminder, she's a partner and chief media officer of Scale by Zambezi here in Los Angeles, and scale is a modern media practice that believes in executing creative, media backed by data. Grace's lovely to have you.
Grace Teng: Thank you. Hey everyone.
Rick Robinson: So let's jump Remember in season one, We ask, What can out of home, do that? No other medium can do and everyone whacks poetic about the power of the president's showing up and public spaces. The residents, the amplification, all these things that happen without a poem unique out of them. and then I was asking, we were going to the season, I was asking myself, gee For season Showman asked the question and for all so great, if we're doing more digital doing better measurements. And all of those things, why are we seemingly as an industry? Stalled out? Kind of stuck at 5%. So Grace, I ask you, why is that?
Grace Teng: Yeah, I would say, first of all, we all love out a hole, We already talked about all the benefits of it. At the same time I think what makes it a little bit more challenging to scale is essentially three things. The first thing is in terms of, if you're running national versus local,
Grace Teng: Out of home requires you to be local. I recognize there is programmatic and we can address that later. But generally speaking the power out of home is being able to buy locally and then the second part is to create some really great creative message that really speaks to the local environment there. And that just takes more time and effort. I mean, ultimately if you're doing La New York, Chicago, etc. I mean, that's already three different cities, making sure that the copy makes sense. For all three of those cities is great, but it just takes a little bit more time. And then, the third I was to say is cost because let's just save your running a national campaign. And yes, you still want to focus on some specific cities that just starts to add up and it's only in those areas versus national. So I would say those are the three things that may hold it back.
Rick Robinson: So now let's talk about that the localized factor. that's the double-edged sword. It's a strength, right? It's what makes out of them, special the caring craft and the public sees a message that is this perfect merger of content and context. It looks like the appreciate that reward for their attention.
Grace Teng: Right.
Rick Robinson: But now, when you start stacking the markets, the cost goes, I'm not talk to us about this cost. Where does this cost start becoming an issue?
Grace Teng: Yeah, I would just say when you start having to really look at markets, when you didn't necessarily have that as part of your overall strategy. So let's just say, CPM wise, if you're talking about 20 30 dollars, I mean that's where video is that, So if it's similar, it's like, I mean, you're gonna have to weigh the pro and con of it. So I think a lot of times that's where maybe out of home gets caught, I will say, I mean, there's a lot of forms, In terms of the different ways out of home, shows up, so it can go, I know down to 10 dollar, CPM etc. But generally speaking, at that amount, the units may be slightly different. And that's not always what people are looking for.
Rick Robinson: Sure, it depends on the strategy. The lower CPM is generally the mass, reach blanket, a city. All…
Grace Teng: Right.
Rick Robinson: versus getting really surgical down to a street corner. And more premier inventory is going to have higher CPM and…
Grace Teng: Right.
Rick Robinson: create those Marky moments. looking it In a national scope. I just wanted how often your agency considers the idea of programmatic digital out of home, where you can literally just buy the whole country and…
Grace Teng: Right. Yeah,…
Rick Robinson: you can try to narrow it by format someone.
Grace Teng: So I would say we actually do do that for our clients for Ukg healthy, kombucha, Google Fiber. We've all dabbled into programmatic for sure. We think that that's very helpful with Ukg, we can hit the office buildings on a national level with health aid. You can be in the key awesome from the stores. I think the challenges at the same time, it's great to be in those areas, but I think people do want the bigger format, billboard type of opportunities. And we don't necessarily see the programmatic being able to hit this type of format. So because you're so targeted in certain areas that are eye level, which is great. But I think there is still that need to be. And a bigger format screen. And I think when that happens, that will help open the budget as well.
Rick Robinson: There's the message to our audience. Put the large format out of home on the dsps. All right, make it accessible and that may draw more national dollars into that particular out of home tactic. the grace it's awesome to have I know you're a big fan of the medium. So everyone I think feels that from your energy as you're talking on this interview The localized factor, it's our strength. And a bit of a weakness cause can be issue as a stars to stack up. And boy, you'd love to see more of the large format on the dsps. I will thank you for your time.
Grace Teng: Yeah, that's right.
Rick Robinson: It's terrific to have you
Grace Teng: Thank you. It's always good to be here.
