One of the launchpoints for the real-world metaverse will be the longstanding digital out-of-home (DOOH) space. Activations for AR and other immersive media can happen through everything from billboards to bus shelters to retail endcaps.

Key Takeaways

Here are a few key messages or insights that we gleaned from this session.

• The digital out-of-home industry is experiencing a resurgence. This is partly due to privacy reform that degrades demand in digital media that target users behaviorally (e.g., social). Advertisers are shifting budget to contextually targeted media that includes DooH and CTV.
• This trend coincides with the growth of immersive and interactive media such as AR overlays. These can deepen the experience otherwise confined to a 2D screen, and let brands correspondingly deepen their engagements from DooH activations.
• Yet a third supporting factor is the resurgence of the QR code. These can be an effective bridge from DooH displays and immersive tech integrations, such as AR overlays. The goal is to bring a brand’s creative to life and boost key metrics like dwell time.
• All these factors continue to converge and are at early stages of what could become the real-world metaverse.

Immersive Digital Experiences for the Physical World

Though the metaverse is often discussed as an online/virtual endeavor, the real opportunity is to bring digital dimension to main street. The question is how?

Stephanie Gutnik, Yahoo
Nathan Elliott, Frontrunner
Jimmy Hunt, Spectrio