ELAN Media first to offer programmatic buying for digital out-of-home assets

ELAN Media, a leading outof-home advertising company in Qatar, has launched programmatic buying for all its digital out-of-home (DOOH) assets in Qatar and Oman becoming the first in Qatar and only the second company in the GCC to offer clients the flexible and cost-effective impression-based buying system for DOOH advertising.

The move now extends the flexible and cost-effective buying technology to Elan Media’s extensive DOOH network, which includes assets at the Mall of Qatar, Doha Festival City, Ezdan Mall, Mall of Muscat and in the upcoming Place Vendome Mall.

The company also plans to extend the offering to all its future roadside digital assets.

“With the launch of programmatic buying, we are once again living up to our reputation as the DOOH pioneers in Qatar and Oman,” said Jamie Ball, chief operating officer, ELAN Media. “This buying system, which is based on technology by leading DOOH solutions provider Broadsign Reach, offers major benefits to our advertising clients, including heightened flexibility of buying and optimum campaign efficiency as advertisers buy based on the number of impressions created just like with online advertising.”

“Advertiser interest in Programmatic DOOH is surging worldwide, introducing unprecedented new opportunity for the DOOH market. We’re excited to work with ELAN Media to onboard some of the first premium DOOH inventory from Qatar and Oman to our programmatic supplyside-platform Reach,” said Stuart McMahon, director business development EMEA at Broadsign. “Advertisers can now more quickly and easily tap into ELAN Media’s premium inventory and incorporate it into omni-channel campaign buys to extend audience reach with more dynamic creative that speaks to audiences in the here and now.”

Programmatic transactions provide several key benefits to advertisers compared to traditional manual booking process. These include faster process with programmatic brands simply plan their campaign, buy their preferred DOOH exposure and upload copy directly; and increased efficiency through which brands only pay for impressions delivered to the target audience based on the costper-thousand format. Purchase of ad slots can also be triggered based on external data, for example based on the weather or time of day.

“To enhance the proposition further, we are not imposing any minimum purchase volume requirements with advertisers being able to buy as little as 1,000 impressions, which is as low as the buying format allows,” added Ball.

Elan Media clients will still be able to buy via traditional manual booking processes with the company making both alternatives available with dedicated inventory for each buying method in every advertising loop.

Programmatic buying is the future of DOOH. It gives performance-driven media buyers simple, smart, seamless and measurable digital solutions, further enhancing the already competitive appeal of DOOH.