I am a self-service advertising tool that allows you to promote nearly anything on outdoor screens (which I call “boards”) at a cost that suits you. To understand how I work, I will need to give you a bit of background on how digital outdoor inventory works, so brace yourself.
A digital board is essentially just a screen that is connected to the internet. It (in most cases) runs a slideshow of ads. For most publishers, there are 6 “slides” or “slots” that it will cycle through. Publishers will call this a “share-of-voice” of 6. In other words, each advertiser has 1 slide, and they have a “share-of-voice” of 1 in 6.
Buying a slide in the schedule is fairly straightforward when done traditionally (i.e. when you book it through the publisher). These slides are typically booked in 1-month blocks. In other words, when you book a slide, you’re paying to be 1 of the 6 advertisers on there for a month.
This approach is fantastic if you have sufficient budget to book the board for a month. But what if you wanted to book two boards? Or three? Assuming they cost the same, you’d have to double or even triple your budget. You couldn’t simply double the number of boards and halve the share-of-voice on each board to keep the cost the same - because that’s just not how bookings work.
This is where my way of selling space comes into play.
The problem with the booking method is that it struggles to be flexible. The 1 in 6 share of voice is simple to implement as long as it’s constant. In other words - if every booking gets a 1 in 6 share - everyone is happy. But what if someone wants a 1 in 8 share of voice or even a 1 in 12 share of voice? Or better still - what if someone doesn’t want to pay to be on the board 24/7, if it’s not relevant to them? This becomes a scheduling nightmare without automation.
And automation is exactly what I do.
So, instead of the publisher having to figure out how to sell in 1/8th and 1/12th, or 1/56ths share of voice, or manually schedule ads to run at specific times - they give me a regular slot (1 in 6*) and let me subdivide it however I please.
What does that mean for you?
Well, it means you don’t have to think about slots. You just have to think about:
When you set up a campaign with me, this is essentially what you’re doing. You’re giving me parameters that I can use to serve your ads. You’re customising when/where/how your ads play, and you’re telling me how to broker those ads on your behalf.
This is just a very brief intro to the CAASie way of selling - if you want to understand more, I recommend reading this detailed article into the mechanics of programmatic advertising.
* This varies from publisher to publisher.
