Naver Lowers the Barrier to Outdoor Advertising for Small Businesses; 8 in 10 Run Ads Themselves

[Financial News] Eight in 10 small businesses using Naver's digital out-of-home advertising run their ads directly without an advertising agency. The ad continuation rate also topped 70%, suggesting that attracting customers through low-cost advertising is taking root as a new marketing tool for small businesses. This is attributed to Naver using artificial intelligence (AI) to lower the barrier to entry into the digital out-of-home advertising market for small businesses.
According to industry sources on the 2nd, Naver published the 'Naver Digital Out-of-Home Advertising Report,' produced jointly by research teams led by Professor Jang-ho Moon of Sookmyung Women's University and Professor Hye-seung Jeong of Inha University. The researchers analyzed advertisers' transaction and booking data, as well as in-depth interviews, for those using digital out-of-home advertising in the second quarter of this year, examining the solution's effectiveness and its impact on supporting small businesses.
The study found that many advertisers using digital out-of-home advertising were concentrated in local, consumer-facing sectors such as hair salons, beauty shops, fitness centers, private academies and pet-grooming salons. Of all advertisers, 78.5% ran their ads themselves without help from an advertising agency or other intermediaries.
With traditional outdoor advertising, the process was complicated: advertisers had to contact media operators individually and produce ad materials to meet each medium's specifications. High minimum advertising costs also made it difficult for small and midsize businesses to access the medium.
Last December, Naver launched a digital out-of-home advertising solution and used AI technology to digitize the ad-buying process. It added weekly options to an advertising model that had previously centered on monthly bookings, making it possible to run ads on a small budget.
The ability to run outdoor ads for as little as 200,000 won or less per month was also cited as an advantage of Naver's digital out-of-home advertising. The average quarterly spend per advertiser was 184,542 won. Advertisers whose quarterly spend was less than 50,000 won accounted for 41.3% of the total. In 61.7% of cases, the daily campaign budget was 10,000 won or less.
Advertising was also showing signs of continuing rather than being a one-off. Of advertisers with a history of running ads in April, 72.6% continued in May, while 71.2% of advertisers active in May also ran ads in June. The average ad continuation rate for the second quarter topped 70%.
Naver is also expanding its support for running ads. Since last September, it has been running a promotion for Naver Place business owners that offers dedicated 'Biz Coupons' worth up to 300,000 won for use in digital out-of-home advertising. Ads can currently be displayed on 359,000 digital out-of-home devices. Starting on the 12th of this month, Naver plans to expand the available ad channels to Internet Protocol television (IPTV), making it possible to reach approximately 20 million households nationwide.

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