When looking at the digital out-of-home space (DOOH), we often say around here that this isn’t your grandmother’s billboards. The sector continues to expand as the ad world diversifies and as the potential inventory is limitless. That includes an exploding subsector of DOOH otherwise known as retail media.
But sticking with DOOH in a broader sense, the opportunities and inventory continue to expand. And the latest player to enter the space is an unlikely one: TikTok. The first reaction is often the strange notion that TikTok – a darling of the social and digital media/advertising realm – is expanding into billboards?
But of course, it’s more nuanced than that. The company recently revealed that it sees an opportunity to expand its footprint from dance videos on your 5-inch screen to brand marketing opportunities on bus stops, kiosks, and movie theaters. In fact, it’s calling the effort its “Out of Phone” program. Clever.
Broader Bundle
So what does this entail? TikTok is essentially becoming a DOOH ad network, following the standard arbitrage model of that sector. Building from its existing positioning as a brand advertising play within its own app, it sees opportunity to offer a broader bundle of cross-channel offerings, starting with DOOH.
Specifically, this includes billboards, movie screens, and flat panel displays in places like airports, gas stations, bars, restaurants, and retail stores. Of course, one can’t just decide one day to be a DOOH player. The “network” part of the ad network play requires that you secure all that ad inventory.
And that’s what TikTok has been quietly doing. It started with 3,000 Redbox Kiosks earlier this year – an experiment that whet the company’s appetite for the DOOH opportunity. Presumably, that went well because it more recently has been on a partnering spree for a variety of DOOH outlets.
So far these include music video network VEVO; in-airport TV network Reach TV; brick & mortar DOOH screen network Raydiant; gas station DOOH player GSTV; business streaming TV service Loop TV (think: dentist offices); movie theater ad company Screenvision; and billboard giants DIVE and Adomni.
Sum of its Parts
This list should tell you that “Out of Phone” is serious. And it makes sense, as the broader ad world continues to seek revenue diversification. Though that often happens through non-advertising revenue streams – such as Snapchat+ subscriptions – mixing up the ad formats likewise has strategic merit.
Specifically, the play is to establish more privacy-safe channels. As we’ve examined, one of the benefits of DOOH is that it’s aligned with privacy reform. For example, the targeting metric is contextual and geographic rather than behavioral. As we examined at Localogy Place ’23, contextual is the new black.
In addition to being privacy-safe, having more multi-channel options is always a strong move in terms of appealing to a larger addressable market of advertisers. TikTok now becomes attractive to brands that have a hunger for DOOH, in addition to viral dance videos. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
So altogether this move makes sense on strategic levels. The question is execution. Does TikTok have the native footing to pull off the DOOH playbook with seemingly no experience? That will have to be seen in time, so we’ll track it closely. Meanwhile, look out for TikTok ads, coming to a movie theater near you.
