Campsite: all digital benefits transposed into displays

We took advantage of our meeting with Maxime Desabrais, senior brand manager at Campsite, to learn more about the functionalities of the self-serve digital out-of-home (DOOH) platform. Thanks to the platform, a digital out-of-home specialized platform, any brand can now develop a pan-Canadian advertisement campaign. Here's how.

Picture by MANNY

Even though traditional advertising displays have been around for many years, the very first digital out-of-home screens only emerged in 2005. It took about 15 years before they became as performing and accessible as today.

In 2019, the traditional marketing display platform Broadsign purchased Campsite and Ayuda. Together, the three brands delivered a simplified process of acquiring traditional media space, both indoors and outdoors. Today, we are analyzing Campsite in order to show you how the free-service platform allows any advertiser to launch several digital advertising campaigns in only a few clicks.

Starting point: the growth of DOOH digital display

Many experts agree that 2020 might be a turning point in terms of digital exposure. A recent PQ Media report reveals that in 2023, 38,3% of outdoor displays bought by brands will be digital. Since it is way less expensive to purchase digital rather than static displays, we understand that this way of advertising will become more and more popular. Currently, the same report shows that DOOH display represents 28,3% of advertising expenses in out-of-home displays, while in 2013, it was around 20,7%.

For its part, Campsite allows advertising on more than 20 000 screens across Canada, including 10 000 in Quebec only. Before the end of 2020, their business goal is to publicize 85% of DOOH Canadian display. Without being too precise, we can confidently say that when it comes to outdoor marketing display outside of your work environment, Campsite, with his pan-Canadian network, is essentially a staple.

Audiences are defined with a real-time inventory

Thanks to his partnership with Native Touch, Campsite offers brands an exclusive offer to mobile audiences database that gets in touch with its digital screens. Since the same methodology is put together for every supplier, an advertiser can base its campaign by targeting a precise audience, as illustrated in the image below. The platform suggests a solution with the numbers of screens available in real-time, based on a few targeting parameters, like the city (Montréal), the place (restaurants), the persona (a foodie) and the number of people we want to reach.

Concretely, Campsite goes from collecting data to targeting the right audience in four steps: by creating a location, collecting its mobile data, analyzing them and putting together those locations by creating audiences. The result: Campsite knows who passes by its screens and in which proportion. Starting from this information, which is always updated, Campsite offers targeted options to every advertiser when it comes to the time of building a digital campaign for them.

Justine, our digital campaign manager, says she is thrilled with the idea of releasing poster campaigns the same way she releases any digital campaign.

"For a campaign manager that has progressed in the digital world, it is great to know that we can try outdoor posters the same way we would launch a Facebook campaign, as an example. When it comes to choosing audiences as well as buying inventory, it's familiar ground. It opens so many new, unexpected doors!"

An easy way to display that is worth it... even for small companies

Advertising signage has always been a notorious media that only well-established companies were able to afford. With traditional displays, we can connect with a vast amount of people, and fast. Knowing these metrics, releasing a conventional media campaign in urban cities always was an expensive procedure, restricted to larger businesses that could afford it.

Digital advertising is now way more targeted, and the bridge between itself and the product is generally shorter but also easier to track. It has always been more favourable for a small business to go the digital advertising route: for the same amount of money invested in traditional media, they can generate way more conversions. Now, a few upcoming self-service sites such as Campsite allows them to increase and vary their points of contact with their target audience, reaching them while they are going about their business. It is also an excellent way to reach the right people without being obstructed by an Adblocker. Most of all, it allows them to do so in an exact way, thanks to its user's database that gets in touch with these screens.

Data that goes beyond a digital screen

In August 2019, Broadsign announced it was now possible for brands displaying on Campsite screen network to export its user's database to reach anyone that ever was in contact with one of their advertisements using their cellphone.

"When we are used to measuring each advertising interaction and that our digital marketing investments are analyzed with precision, we can be reluctant to try the more traditional marketing media that offers fewer data. But with this new way of crossing online and off-line data, we can ensure to create the best possible synergy." - Justine.

All of this, simply

The profitability of the invested dollar considerably increases with everything Campsite proposes. Still, even more, thanks to its free-service platform, any brand can now easily display its key message at a precise location.

"Of course, the first time you work with Campsite, it can take quite a while to get used to the platform. Once this phase is over, putting together an entire campaign can easily take around...5 minutes." As was pointing out Maxime Desabrais when he visited Republik office space.

Thanks to Campsite and its partners, we are far from Excel documents where each PEB et CPM had to be calculated by hand. And it's for the best.

To learn more about this self-service platform, head over to their website.