Agency Planners Find Room for Digital Place-Based Media

Digital place-based (DPB) media is establishing a spot in media plans. In July 2014 polling by the Digital Place Based Advertising Association (DPAA), nearly 90% of US agency planners said they had included DPB media in their executed plans, and the majority of that group (48.5% of respondents overall) used the tactic in 20% or more of their approved and executed plans—up from 45.4% who did so in 2013. Meanwhile, the percentage of agency planners who didn’t include DPB media in their plans fell from 13.1% to 10.9% year over year.

DPB media usage is about reaching the right consumers, at the right time, in the right place. Among agency planners who had included this in their plans, reaching a demographic target was the No. 1 reason, cited by nearly 60%. Connecting with consumers on the complex path to purchase was also popular for the majority of respondents. Over 40% of those who had included DPB media in their plans had also done so to geotarget by DMA or target consumers by contextual relevance.

Of course, struggles still exist, and the DPAA found that measurement issues were preventing higher DPB media usage.

Unproven return on investment was the No. 1 reason agency planners didn’t recommend using DPB media, cited by 33.7% of respondents. Lack of audience metrics was the second most popular reason for not including DPB media in plans. A similar percentage also said that the strategy just wasn’t a good fit with their communication goals, and around one-quarter didn’t know enough about DPB media to recommend it—indicating a need for more education around the tactic.

Courtesy of eMarketer