Most people are naturally curious;  they actively explore and engage when their curiosity is peaked. As consumers interact with the world around them, location-based beacons are making it easier to bridge the physical world with the digital.

One of the challenges of out-of-home media is that it is still seen as a broadcast medium-going from one to many. Advertisers today want one-to-one conversation with consumers in the same way online and mobile channels currently offer, and beacons are one way to provide brands with that opportunity. The ability to have a more relevant conversation with consumers using targeted, dynamic creative triggered by real-time data has brought the out-of-home space closer to that desired one-to-one conversation.

Combining location-based beacons with placed-based out-of-home enables brands to convert a one-way impression into a two-way engagement, providing immediacy for consumers, while at the same time, making them more comfortable interacting with the technology going forward. In the near future, these interactions will be able to use a consumer's mobile history and interaction to deliver even more relevant messages with advertising that is not only contextually correct-delivered at the right place and time-but also to the right consumer. Beacons allow brands to encourage immediate engagement.

For example, placing beacons within a retail environment enables brands to collect more detailed data to support creative messaging, particularly once the beacon has been able to track where the consumer has been, and what they have potentially seen in-store.

It is often assumed that consumers want to engage with technology, but there is still some consumer reticence slowing the adoption of beacons. Making engagement easier is the key to success and it will provide a major catalyst for out-of-home industry growth.

Capturing behavioral data enables the out-of-home space to provide campaign measurement and accountability, which brands and agencies require to increase OOH campaign budgets including mobile engagement. So it's little wonder that more brands are asking for this type of justification to support advertising investments. Agencies education is key to implement beacon-based campaigns, and it will be a major driver for business going forward. Lamar Advertising began selling mobile interactive campaigns pairing out-of-home with beacons more than two years ago, and it's been exciting to see more agencies pair out-of-home with mobile technology.

We've proven examples that combining mobile engagement with out-of-home significantly increases consumer interactions. Whether you represent a brand, agency, vendor or a technology company, I encourage you to educate your company about location-based beacon technology. The only way the out-of-home industry will continue is to test and learn what best fits our medium.