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Problem: Dynamic Creative API Costs are Too High

The Problem

Dynamic OOH creatives have an inherent drawback: increased costs from bandwidth and third-party API requests, plus reduced reliability. Relying directly on third-party data APIs can lead to unexpected slowdowns, outages, and high data costs. Every screen making individual API calls to external data providers results in exponentially increasing costs as campaigns scale, making dynamic advertising financially prohibitive for larger deployments.

Why Existing Solutions Fail

Traditional dynamic advertising approaches create expensive and unreliable data dependencies:

  • Direct API Dependencies: Each screen makes individual calls to third-party APIs
  • Unpredictable Costs: API costs scale exponentially with screen count and data frequency
  • Network Reliability Issues: Dependency on external providers leads to slowdowns and outages
  • Bandwidth Constraints: Heavy data transfers consume expensive bandwidth
  • Performance Problems: Slow response times from third-party APIs delay creative rendering
  • No Intelligent Caching: Systems make unnecessary API calls even when data hasn't changed
  • Lack of Fallback Systems: No graceful handling when data sources fail or become stale

Lucit Solution

Lucit's advanced caching layer is engineered specifically to reduce network costs and API requests for digital out-of-home creatives. By serving as an intelligent middleware between screens and data providers, Lucit eliminates direct dependencies on unpredictable third-party APIs while dramatically reducing costs.

How Lucit Solves This

  • Smart Caching Infrastructure: Lucit securely caches all necessary data within its own robust infrastructure
  • Lightning-Quick Delivery: Players only interact with Lucit's optimized servers, not slow third-party APIs
  • Optimized Content Packaging: Creatives are delivered as compressed, optimized packages (40-50K for JPEG snapshots)
  • Intelligent API Scheduling: System ramps up API calls only during critical moments (like live sports games)
  • Automatic Fallback Systems: Seamless switching to cached or static content when data sources fail
  • Stale Data Detection: Continuous monitoring automatically switches to fallback content when data becomes stale
  • Location-Specific Caching: Each screen location caches relevant data independently for hyper-local content
  • Sub-800ms Rendering: Rapid creative rendering without waiting for slow third-party responses

Benefits

  • Cost Reduction: API requests can be reduced by up to 90% in many cases
  • Massive Scale Support: Successfully handles campaigns with 40,000+ screens using weather data
  • Improved Reliability: No dependency on external API uptime or performance
  • Faster Performance: Sub-800 millisecond render times for entire creatives
  • Bandwidth Savings: Compressed, gzipped packages minimize data transfer
  • Intelligent Resource Management: Data calls are optimized based on content requirements and timing

Step by Step Guide

Pre-Requisites

  • A Lucit account
  • A campaign with dynamic data requirements
  • Data sources configured in Lucit

Implementation Steps

Configure Data Sources 1. Navigate to Apps & Data → Add 2. Select your required data sources (Weather, Sports, etc.) 3. Configure data source settings and parameters

Set Up Data Source Rules 1. Access Apps & Data 2. Configure intelligent scheduling rules for each data source 3. Set up fallback content for data outages 4. Define data refresh intervals

Monitor Performance 1. Use Lucit Analytics to track API usage reduction (See Analytics Tab in the Data Source) 2. Monitor creative render times and reliability 3. Review cost savings reports with your API Provider 4. Adjust strategies as needed

Example Use Cases

Sports Campaign: For live sports data, Lucit intelligently ramps up API calls only during active games by pre-determining game schedules and start times, conserving costs during idle periods while maintaining real-time accuracy when it matters.

Weather-Based Advertising: Location-specific weather data is cached independently for each screen location, ensuring hyper-local content delivery without individual API calls from thousands of screens. Weather sources can also be configured with specific radiuses for each screen depending on needs.

Large-Scale Deployments: Campaigns with 40,000 screens can leverage weather triggers without overwhelming costs or performance issues through intelligent caching and batched data retrieval.