Digital Out-of-Home was the topic of a discussion recently at the Second German Media Convention (2 Deutschen Medienkongresse). According to the German magazine Horizont, the exchanges about the current relevance of the media were ‘frank’.

Christof Baron, CEO of the media agency Mindshare, was first to shoot: “Digital signage is still a niche media and not at all a ‘must-have’ as part of a campaign”.

The main criticisms centred on the lack of strong national networks, lack of standards, and the absence of studies proving the media’s effectiveness. As a result, digital signage is rather used as an ad-on in a media plan. Nevertheless, Thomas Gries, Coca-Cola’s Marketing Director said “We’d like to run national campaigns if the infrastructure is there and if it is cost-effective.”

Another comment from advertisers: the lack of creativity in campaigns. Claudia Willvonseder, in charge of marketing at Ikea, said “We don’t use digital signage at the moment, but we also haven’t seen any knock-out presentations from the creative community either.”

At present, digital signage accounts for only 3% of the OOH spend in Germany.