Everywhere you look, there are advertisements: mounted to nearby streetlights, sandwiched between the editorial page and the advice section of your favorite magazine, and even affixed to the wall of the bus stop down the road. Although some advertise legal services and others market cosmetic products, they all have one thing in common: they are all fighting for customers’ attention. Posters and billboards are two examples of out-of-home advertising that continue to gain popularity and revenue. Additionally, modern technology now enables campaign managers to track audience statistics and improve marketing in real-time.
OOH advertising, hence, has experienced the fastest growth in recent years, growing steadily and regularly while other media are experiencing a drop.
Benefits
Industry experts assert that OOH’s compatibility with digital and traditional media can be attributed to its perception as a more trustworthy medium that promotes brand loyalty.
When deciding to promote outdoors, there are a wide variety of options. There are many aspects of the great outdoors that can be outside the box rather than tailoring an advertising campaign to television, which would essentially place it within a box. Consider the large-scale sides of buildings. Because of their size, they will specifically contact customers as opposed to, say, a radio or television advertisement that can actually be tuned out. Outdoor advertising offers particular, inherent benefits that other forms of advertising simply do not.
Both small and large organizations have the opportunity to step up their game and stay in the league by incorporating OOH into their marketing mix.
According to advertising groups, OOH is also a significant sales activator and action motivator that is critical to the “last window of impact,” that crucial period before a ready customer takes action or makes a purchase.
But are you paying enough attention to OOH? Here are a few excellent reasons to.
- OOH provides rapid mass reach and is here to stay.
The scale of outdoor advertising is stunning, and it effectively conveys a brand’s core values or purpose by using a larger-than-life style. A great outdoor campaign benefits from striking visual backdrops. It can either lift people to a higher position or level with them. Outdoor advertising, in general, is one of the most compelling marketing platforms available. Billboards are natural communicators that benefit passersby and the environment.
You have the opportunity to engage a captive audience that could otherwise be challenging to reach, both in urban and rural markets, with OOH advertising in parks, indoor and outdoor arenas and sports venues. This increases the likelihood that the advertisements you produce will speak to them or connect with them. Additionally, you’ll have a good indication of how many people the OOH advertisements reached based on their location.
- Source
According to the most recent data from the OAAA, OOH advertising has been expanding since 2017 and is expected to continue to increase steadily through 2023, whereas TV, radio, newspaper, and magazine advertising have all seen declines in recent years.
The reach and consumption of other means of advertising are declining, particularly among younger generations, but OOH has grown stronger over the past ten years and can connect with those audiences in a manner that online and TV advertisements cannot. - OOH provide incredible results at a lower cost
When compared to other forms of advertising, out-of-home advertising is one of the most cost-effective solutions available in terms of the amount of exposure a campaign will receive. Numerous studies have shown that out-of-home advertising can significantly reduce advertising costs. To reach a 1000-person audience, online advertising can cost up to $18 per thousand impressions, while magazine or cable advertising can cost up to $22 per thousand impressions. OOH serves the same audience at a significantly lower cost, nearly half of what is spent behind other advertising mediums to reach thousands of impressions.
According to Nielson’s study, OOH is the most effective offline medium to drive online activity. This study shows that out-of-home generates more online activity per ad dollar spent than television, radio, and print. - OOH helps your other channels to grow
OOH helps boost the impact of your other media channels and encourages customers to take action or make a purchase.
According to the Canadian Out of Home Marketing and Management Bureau, OOH specifically increases the effectiveness of digital channels by up to 31 % for online advertising, 56 % for paid-social, and 80 % for search. Other prompted actions after watching OOH advertising include utilizing a search engine to look for anything advertised in an OOH ad, visiting or discussing it on social media, or other similar acts.
There are several benefits to including out-of-home advertising into your entire marketing strategy, even beyond the function it once had in boosting brand recognition. And now that location-based intelligence, audience targeting, analytics, insights, and so many other things are giving out-of-home advertising a new lease on life, there has never been a better time than now to reconsider how your company uses OOH advertising to its fullest advantage.
OOH and online ads
OOH, advertising includes ads on billboards, point of display, street furniture, and transit ads which means when companies are using a particular ooh medium like billboard or transit there is no limit to customers, it targets multiple markets while targeting audience on the digital space by advertisers is limited to the people who fit their desired audience profile. The OOH advertising is filling a gap between the audience and the brand and acts as a bridge to engage the audience with the brand. It ensures that no stone is unturned to reach the right audience who might be not covered by the digital ad.
The consistent message on billboards and moving vehicles sticks in the audience’s mind because it is hard to forget the message that is repeatedly shown in front of us, and they try to find online ads. It is founded that OOH elevates the effectiveness of online ads by 31%. This is the reason brands are turning to OOH media and it is becoming more popular. This platform is helping a lot to build confidence between brands and audiences by consistently showcasing the brands.
OOH and Mobile
Did you know the time spent on mobile increased by 34% over the last several weeks? Why is this happening?
It is founded that in today’s technological era mobile phones are more than persons in homes which incredibly accelerated the use of mobile phones, but they are not liking ads that pop up when they are using mobile phones. What will happen if, mobile is combined with the traditional channel OOH advertising? It will extend the brand up to the next level. To prove this research has been conducted and found that 45% of consumers are more likely to engage with mobile ads after seeing the ooh ads because ooh advertising provides real-life canvases for creating personalized brand messaging as location-based technology gets smarter.
One of the great examples is McDonald which was successful to earn 6.4 million mobile impressions and 1.9 million unique consumers in just 8 weeks by tying together the ooh billboards and in-app advertising on Waze (a GPS navigation software app). Messages in the ads mirrored those on the billboards, touting McDonald’s menu promotions such as the limited return of the McRib and carrying a call-to-action to “Drive There,” in which Waze navigation guided consumers to nearby restaurants. More than 8,400 navigations were completed because of the campaign.
OOH and TV
Advertising on TV is expensive and targeting people for a shorter period like 30 seconds which the audience does not like to see, but if advertisers use OOH to engage people and show that something is special then the audience would be curious and it will benefit advertisers because when compared with any other traditional medium like print form or radio, out of home advertising is offering best results at minimum cost. The Nielson OOH advertising Study shows that 19% of the people watched a TV program after seeing OOH ads.
In recent years, we’ve seen the rise of DVR technology and streaming services like Netflix that eliminate the need for TV commercials. Because of how intrusive TV advertisements can be, most people who adopt this new technology never return. This unfortunate fact along with high CPM pushes advertisers to add other media to their marketing strategies which undoubtedly OOH is. Adding OOH to TV ads gives the brand an incredible value. The low cost of OOH media Will make an efficient campaign for advertisers as the amount of TV time needed will decrease.
OOH and Radio
You will be shocked that in recent times people love to listen to music on the radio it is just because of extending the commuting time of people. The visual advertising on billboards or other ooh locations when matched with radio ads improves the brand recall messaging. Radio messages are vulnerable to channel switching. OOH can provide brand exposure throughout an audience’s journey.
The dark side of radio ads is people are impacted by visual things more easily, but there is no visual component in radio. The combination of radio and outdoor advertising works well together because they reach a mobile audience by balancing sight and sound.
OOH and social media
The combination of Outdoor media and social media has a perfect match. OOH generates more online activity per dollar spent than television, radio, print, and banner advertising. This is the reason brands are turning to DOOH media and it is becoming more popular. This platform is helping a lot to build confidence between brands and audiences by consistently showcasing the brands. According to Neilson’s report, 60% of people engage in online activity and 80% surely make purchases after seeing ads on transit media. On a local level, billboards, street furniture, or transit media reminds customers about the product and pushes them to go to the company website or nearby store. Interactive touch screens enable customers to connect with brands in boundless ways effectively.
According to Nielsen’s Out-of-Home Online Activation Study, Adults in the United States who have seen an OOH advertisement:
- 46% conducted an online search
- 38% took an action on Facebook
- 25% took an action on Instagram
- 23% took an action on Twitter
- 55% of the audience shares information on social media while seeing an ad.
The revealing facts show why OOH is becoming a key strategy for advertisers to complement and accelerate social media.
Conclusion
OOH advertising is still a commonly misunderstood medium, the truth be known. Out-of-home advertising, often regarded as a channel only dedicated to boosting brand awareness, has developed recently to play much more than just act as a framework for striking brand campaigns.
Out-of-home marketing has evolved beyond its early focus on specific brands. As a result, the channel has rapidly grown into a true performance marketing powerhouse that can increase the effectiveness of a brand’s other marketing strategies. Importantly, more than 75% of people spend their time outside of their homes which makes ooh media a prime channel, low CPM and high ROI as compared to other mediums forced advertisers to choose OOH as a marketing channel.
References
- Microsoft PowerPoint – Nielsen OAAA OOH Advertising Study 2016 FINAL
- https://movia.media/moving-billboard-blog/how-out-of-home-advertising-adds-value-to-business/
- https://movia.media/case-studies/easter-seals-truckside-advertising/
- https://oaaa.org/StayConnected/NewsArticles/Marketing/tabid/324/id/4912/Default.aspx
- https://oaaa.org/StayConnected/NewsArticles/Marketing/tabid/324/id/4912/Default.aspx
