TikTok continues to pursue an unlikely distribution channel for its content: billboards. It’s calling this “out of phone” (OOP) media… a variation on the digital out of home (DOOH) category that houses billboards and public digital displays. It has unlocked this opportunity through a partnership with Vistar Media.
The partnership specifically brings TikTok from the small screen to the big screen, which makes it a more attractive place for brand marketers to place their chips. In addition to high engagement on TikTok’s app, this partnership lets the social giant offer advertisers the ability to tower over Times Square.
In fact, Vistar Media operates Times Square DOOH assets, while the bulk of OOP activations will likely be in everyday venues across its network. Vistar Media specifically operates screens that appear in more than 1.4 million venues globally, and sits under the umbrella of T-Mobile Advertising Solutions.
The coupling of TikTok’s native placements and OOP also makes sense with the growing digitization of out of home media. Like CTV, billboard placements are increasingly programmatic, which not only optimizes campaigns for impact, but also atomizes the inventory in ways that make it more accessible.
With additional distribution to OOP screens, TikTok’s high-energy content is given additional surface area. Another reason that OOP is a good fit for TikTok is that its native content style translates well to DOOH screens (more on that in a bit), while reaching non-overlapping audiences for amplified reach.
Immediately Engaging
Backing up for context, what’s driving the OOP opportunity for TikTok, and what’s the vision behind what we described above as an unlikely distribution channel? Though it seems like an odd pairing at first for TikTok or any social app, there are synergies that become evident once we start to peel back layers.
For example, TikTok’s native style tends to play well in DOOH contexts. This is an ad environment that requires high-energy content that’s attention-grabbing. TikTok content is often cheeky and visually compelling. The forced brevity of the platform also makes content punchy and immediately engaging.
Another thing that makes TikTok content translate well to DOOH contexts is its sound-off approach. Digital displays and billboards mostly feature media that’s carried on its visuals alone, given that there’s no sound involved. TikTok happens to thrive natively in a sound-off context. This makes it born for OOP.
Meanwhile, brands have played with TikTok’s comment feed to liven things up. Brand messaging can populate the feed, or it’s an opportunity to display user comments live (think: Times Square), which incentivizes participation. “If you engage them, they’ll engage you back,” TikTok’s Dan Page told us.
But the ultimate factor that marries this odd couple is that they both live within the same media phenomenon: the attention economy. Back to Vistar Media, it’s been working with TikTok for a while, but the two recently announced the union. Expect to see the results at a DOOH screen near you.
Header image credit: Andreas Niendorf on Unsplash
