People often talk about digital-out-of-home advertising trends, or DOOH trends for short, but there is no pure form of DOOH trend. It is all meshed and intermingled with other stuff. There is no clear distinction from one to the other because our lives rarely have such a distinction. Even at work, what we are looking at on our phones is monitored, our social media knows we are at work, our other accounts know we are not home. We are carrying around devices that tell big data miners exactly what we are doing and where we are, so “Out of home” trends and “In-home” trends are smushed together into an unholy stew of collectible data. 

Here are five digital trends that occur out of the home as often as in the home but are still called out-of-home metrics and trends. 

1 – Digital Advertisements Outsides the Home

There are ads on everything now, from digital signs in stores to ads playing in the waiting room of a vet’s office. We used to see posters, we used to see advertisements written on the side of busses. Now, we are seeing everything from 3D signs on the sides of buildings, to video kiosks standing in the middle of walkways in malls. 

2 – Location Based Advertisements

We all know there are smart billboards that are equipped with Geo-specific ads based on where people are. Some even work depending on where people are driving from or to. There are interactive ads that are based on things as nutty as how tall people are. There are things like QR codes for people in certain locations to receive ads from certain locations. 

Some location-based advertisements are frankly insulting. For example, have you ever had those YouTube ads on your phone where somebody with your local dialect starts chirping about a product. You know for a fact that people who live in different areas are hearing the same content but being read out by somebody with their regional accent. It is insulting because the idea that everybody talks with such a broad regional accent is dumb. Imagine if they were running ads just for Chinese people and they did a stereotypical Chinese-English accent on their ads. They would be thrown off the Internet and canceled faster than Andrew Tate with his shirt off. 

3 – Data Driven Advertisements

If the big-data churners say that bitcoin is a big deal this month, then cryptocurrency is on the menu for every Smartphone, PC, and digital sign advertisement from here to where you are going. We all worry about our phones listening to us, but we don’t have to worry because big data already knows what you are going to want before you want it. The fact you say the same thing at a right time is just a coincidence. 

4 – Multi-Channel and Multi-Platform Ads

Ever had those ads follow you from one website and social media to another? How would you like them following you around the streets. Following you on your phone, on other people’s digital signs? Don’t get too comfortable in your home because your ads will follow you back home too. How is this done? Mostly through the fact that you are carrying around a phone with you all day, and it knows where you are and what you looked at while you were home, while you were out, and while you were connected to your mobile Internet. 

5 – Advertisements Are More Cost Effective

Being able to mine big data and get a clearer view of what you want before you want it, ads can be better optimized to only offer people what they want from where they want it and when they want it. There are different ways that out-of-home technology tracks you, but the fact they are tracking you means they can sell advertising much cheaper. They can sell advertising with a bigger promise that the ads will be effective.