Finally, the train station inventory from the NS / Dutch Railway is available for programmatic Digital Out of Home (DOOH)! Here’s what you need the know about the NS digital screens and why you should consider it for your next outdoor campaign.
Global wins NS concession: 370+ screens added to DOOH portfolio
Last January Global Media & Entertainment announced they’ve won the NS concession. This means that they now added 370+ digital screens to their DOOH portfolio. The screens are located on 21 train station across the Netherlands with the highest measured passenger foot traffic everyday. For example, Utrecht CS, Amsterdam CS and Rotterdam CS.
1.1 million people visit NS stations everyday
Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) moves 1.1 million people through the Netherlands every day. Mostly to commute to work and for private reasons, like for example visiting familie or friends, cultural sight seeing or going to festivals.
Because of the extensive rail network and the comfortable trains, the train is a populair transport for all ages. Audience research by NMO Print & Merken monitor shows that young adults (20-49y) travel by train most frequently (once per week or more), with Gen Zers (20-24y) being the biggest audience within that age group. This is probably also why the graph below shows that most of the frequent passengers are students (30%) or work for a boss (50%) instead of being sell-employed.
Reach the right audience on the right NS station at the right time
With the NS inventory opened up for programmatic DOOH, marketers now have extra screens to reach their target audience with their message. Especially those who seemed not to be able to be targeted with traditional marketing channels: Gen Z. So that’s some great news! But as for all sorts of venue types, not everyone is crossing the same NS locations at the same days, or even times. Think of this: where students often leave their colleges’ seats before 16:00, commuters mostly leave for home in peak hours. And commuters on the payroll are traveling for work via all possible NS stations, you’ll most likely find lots of students at NS locations with a university nearby.
Thus, to increase the likelihood of ads only being shown to your desired audience it’s smart to identify the right NS-location and the right times. With the NS-portfolio being connected to the Sage+Archer platform, the screens are also mapped out for audience targeting. This means that rather than putting effort in identifying the right station at the right times, you can now effortlessly select an audience category and the targeting will be done automatically based on your selection. Read here more about the use of audience targeting in out of home.
NS digital screens: Rich, high-impact and dynamic creatives
Run dynamic creatives
The second best great news is you can run dynamic ads on the NS screens! Global Media is one of the certified media owners to run HTML5-built creatives with dynamic elements to add localisation or personalisation your content (read here why you should care about personalisation your DOOH ads). Dynamic creatives are type of ads that enable personalisation and localisation of DOOH content, automating relevant DOOH ads and messaging in the right locations, at the right times and to the right audience. This means you use one of our dynamic creative templates that are available in the Sage+Archer Creative Builder.
Full motion allowed
On top of that, the 370+ billboards allow full-motion creatives, so you can harness the power of movement to grab the attention of passengers. For example, by using The Cube or by showing a scene of your TVC or online video like UGG did for their brand campaign.
High-Impact Screens available
Last but not least, the NS-portfolio also offers 17 high-impact screens. Exclusive available on 7 NS locations: Utrecht CS, Amsterdam CS, Rotterdam CS, Breda, Den Haag CS, Leiden, Amsterdam Bijlmer Arena. These enormous sized screens are often being used by brand to create a brand experience to prompt a lasting impression with consumers.
High effectiveness probability due to waiting time
On average consumers spend 7 minutes on a NS-location waiting for their transport, according to passenger traffic analysis by NS and Global. In terms of campaign effectiveness, this is good news for two reasons. One is that marketers have a 7 minute window to show the brand message to their audience more than once (reach and frequency). Secondly, you actually have the time to get AND (if you’re successful) keep your audience’s attention to spend maximum time viewing your ad. These factors (reach, frequency and viewing-time), plus a strong creative, have been repeatedly reported as key effectors for ad recall. For brands looking to increase memorability and impact for their advertising efforts, this inventory may sound like a no-brainer.
Keen to learn more about digital out of home?
Would you like to learn more about the train station inventory or retrieve more insights in the passenger audiences? Feel free to contact us. Please reach out to Tim Markestein through mail or call us: +31 20 702 8206. Want to plan your DOOH campaign, using the the NS inventory, immediately? Log into the Sage+Archer platform or get a demo!