Image provided by Volta.
by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times
Source: www.digitalsignagetoday.com, April 2023

Adding outdoor advertising to EV charging stations increases the engagement and relevance to consumers, explains Chadi Borghol, director of sales at Broadsign, who spoke at the EV Charging Summit and Expo at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.

EV charging stations are one of the fastest growing self-service offerings in the U.S., as noted in the 2023 Kiosk Marketplace Census Report. And while the growth creates an obvious market for payment hardware, it also signals an expansion for digital out-of-home advertising opportunities.

Chadi Borghol, director of sales at Broadsign, a digital signage and technology provider, outlined the digital advertising opportunities for EV charging networks during last week’s EV Charging Summit and Expo at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.

Chadi Borghol unpacks the digital outdoor advertising opportunity for EV charging networks.

Acknowledging that EV charging networks are in an early stage of development, Borghol compared the current state of the industry to the early days of the Internet.

Remember the early Internet?

The Internet 30 years ago was full of potential that few people believed in. The main question was how it could make money.

“Enter advertising, and advertising changed everything,” Borghol said. “With advertising came new opportunities and pivots to a new business model. There were now no longer just websites, there were new media platforms …You can now run your entire (Internet) business on advertising.”

Google launched AdWords in 2000 and now makes most of its revenue with advertising.

“Something very similar is happening with EV chargers,” Borghol said. “Charging revenue alone just doesn’t cut it, especially considering that most EV charging stations around here are all talking about how quickly they want to grow. They need money to do that.”

Adding outdoor advertising to EV charging stations increases the engagement and relevance to consumers.

“The screen can be on 100% of the time, which means you can always monetize it,” Borghol said.

It also makes it easier for charging station networks to find locations and improve relationships with site partners.

Change is needed

But for EV charging networks and their host locations to realize this opportunity, they must rethink what the EV charger can do.

The industry’s current focus is on the EV driver since the driver is the main revenue stream. To realize the opportunity that DOOH offers, the focus must expand to include the whole customer audience that is exposed to the digital screens.

“When you add digital advertising into the mix, everything changes … because you no longer focus just on the driver, but everyone around the station, and your charger becomes a focal point for everyone around your station,” he said. “The screen especially starts to engage with the community, and it turns everyone into a potential customer, not just the driver.”

For existing EV customers, digital advertising makes the experience more engaging while they are charging their vehicles. For consumers not using the charger, it makes EV chargers more visible, thereby reducing the anxiety many consumers have about the lack of charger availability.

“You’re building a preference to a potential customer base in the future,” Borghol said.

Opportunity for EV charging site partners

Besides creating a revenue opportunity for the charging networks, digital advertising also creates new revenue for EV charging site partners.

Some EV charging networks are already working with site partners to deliver marketing content and site driven public service announcements.

The added profitability can also make an EV charging network more attractive to its shareholders. Investors like advertising because it’s a tested market.

“Wherever you put a charger there is data that’s tied to how much money you can make there,” he said.

Advertising agencies are already making inquiries to his company about EV chargers. This is partly due to a shift in the advertising market in how brands buy ad space.

“There’s high demand now for ad opportunities to specific environments,” he said. “Advertisers are shifting their dollars to the out of home market.”

An outdoor digital ad can be delivered to locations such as stores and hotels where people want to be, not where they need to be, making them more attractive to advertisers, he said, “because it’s an affluent audience who has a wallet in their hand.”

Digital advertising impressions can be quantified, Borghol said. There are audience measurement services that can tell you the traffic in front of a store or on the side of a highway, along with how many people would be in front of the screen.

To know what to charge for the advertising, Borghol said there are companies that can provide the data based on what is transacting in the market daily for a demographic area.

Promote sustainability

Such ads also associate the advertiser with sustainability, a trait all of today’s top brands want to be associated with.

Asked what percent of the advertising contribution should be expected by a location owner to compensate for the cost of the charger, Borghol said it varies, but it can be 60%. It also depends on the business model — Do you sell the advertising directly to the advertiser or do you outsource it?

Programmatic advertising (the buying and selling of digital advertising through an automated bidding system) is now as much as 60% of the advertising versus “direct” advertising.

“It is still a sales channel that you have to manage with the help of an expert,” he said.

For chargers that don’t have screens, the station owners would have to work with a hardware partner to add one. Hardware display manufacturers have the ability to offer it.

“There are existing partners you can involve to have this in your properties,” Borghol said.

“If you’re only relying on your charging revenue and your membership revenue, that’s not going to happen,” he added.

ELLIOT MARAS

Elliot Maras is the editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Vending Times. He brings three decades covering unattended retail and commercial foodservice.