How Clear Channel International and Broadsign are making yield optimization possible in OOH

July 22, 2021

The issue of yield optimization is a difficult puzzle to solve. How exactly can media owners achieve the best possible outcome for their network while meeting increasingly complex client needs? 

Recently, Ola Reppling, CTO at Clear Channel International (CCI), and Broadsign’s Senior Director of Product, Seamus Hunn, were invited by The World Out-Of-Home Organization (WOO) to address this question and share how CCI is tackling the optimization challenge head-on.

It’s a complicated concept, but our two experts were able to deconstruct it. Here’s a rundown of everything from the optimization challenges to solutions that were covered.

If you’re a more visual person, you can jump into the full webinar below. If not, keep going for the highlights!

Understanding the yield optimization challenge

Managing thousands of opportunities with infinite permutations

Here’s an example that’s probably familiar to most media owners: 

Let’s say we’re looking at one screen over the course of a single week. That screen is live for 20 hours per day so can run over 7,000 10-second ads per day.  You add in client needs and now things are getting tricky. Every campaign will have unique parameters, from different creatives, time-specific particular days, and weather triggers to impression targets, and so on. It’s almost not humanly possible to manage so many moving parts – and that’s just for a single screen.

Fully understanding the complexity of this challenge is the first step to creating a solution. The following is a visual representation of the yield optimization conundrum:

Optimizing your network’s yield

Automatic rebalancing of supply and demand 

Powered by algorithms that maximize inventory, Broadsign’s next-generation optimization engine automatically optimizes a network’s yield with content redistribution so smart that it could never be done by hand.

The system dynamically makes room for incoming campaigns during an availability check based on incoming demand and the available supply. It is the optimization engine’s way of considering potential rebalancing outcomes when determining whether a brand-new incoming campaign can or cannot be booked given the criteria and goals. The result is that you have the power to say yes more often to campaigns and customer goals.

Regardless of the amount of planning that is done, things can still go wrong. If your screens go offline, there’s an electrical problem, or any one of many potential issues, those campaigns shouldn’t be lost. The optimization engine will work to reallocate those campaigns and continue delivering on their goals wherever possible.

And let’s not forget event-driven campaigns, such as weather triggers or sports updates. Since there typically isn’t much forewarning for these, the ability to shuffle things around in the blink of an eye without compromising other campaigns is vital.

Reducing the operational burden and giving you more time for value-added activities with clients is the ultimate goal.

Our new optimization engine is currently in beta with Clear Channel International. We expect it to be released for general use later this year. The optimization engine will be included in Broadsign Direct.

Want to know more?

Watch the full webinar!