Location-based company Ubimo has partnered with Kinetic U.S., a digital out-of-home (OOH) advertising network owned by WPP Group, to provide real-time audience data for OOH campaigns.

Marketers use a lot of digital data for online ad targeting, but have been challenged to use the online data for offline targeting. Now marketers have the ability to take that online data and target offline advertisements in a variety of platforms, from screens on billboards, at gas stations and in airports, according to Gilad Amitai, COO of Ubimo.

When asked why Kinetic doesn’t use data from an agency within its holding company, Amitai said WPP has lots of data that belongs to their customers, but the ability to connect data to the OOH world is unique. WPP and other holding groups don’t have that ability, he said.

The partnership supports media planning and measurement for DOOH and OOH campaigns. 

The “ability” refers to the skill or capability to connect audiences on one platform and to streamline the process of identifying relevant consumer properties and their proximity to physical locations — expertise that Ubimo offers.

Some 4% of U.S. media spend goes to OOH, with DOOH expected to grow at a rate of 10% each year for the next four, according to Out of Home Advertising Association of America.

Digital is forecast to account for around 37% of the overall OOH spend in 2019, and 35% from the prior year.

Integrating the data into OOH properties connects audience movement and physical locations across the U.S. in stores, venues and other points of interest (POIs).

This major step enables OOH to become one media in a list of several that are supporting an integrated channel campaign. The partnership also gives Kinetic the ability to attribute a OOH campaign to any increase or decrease of foot traffic to stores, a metric that is now commonly used to tie in success.

Ubimo offers data based on foot traffic and controlled and exposed panel data, but companies can add their own first-party data. The anonymized data comes from about 130 million devices monthly, from Android and iOS mobile operating systems.

Companies like Clear Channel use the data and the tool, Polaris, across their sales and media-planning teams.

Machine-learning techniques developed specifically for OOH media owners and agencies allow Ubimo to define POIs and audience types — and, for example, rank or index over- or underperforming OOH properties. They also allow the company to create audience segments or expand audiences with predictive modeling and to attribute the impact of a campaign on lift and foot traffic.

Anonymized and aggregated data is used for campaign planning and execution, as well as in-campaign and post-campaign insights.