How Effective Is Out Of Home Advertising/Marketing?

As we head away from the COVID-19 pandemic we think about the most effective ways to reach a target audience and successfully market products and services. “Out of home marketing is the most effective offline medium in driving online activity.” Nielsen OOH Online Activation Survey. With a £1.6bn revenue in the UK, we discuss Out of Home sites and how you can utilise this marketing channel as it continues to grow in popularity into 2022.

What Is Out Of Home Marketing?

Any advert found outside of your home and not on your mobile is most likely a form of Out of Home marketing. Out of Home (OOH) can be found across billboards, buses, posters, airports, taxis and street furniture.

Most Out of Home sites are traditionally print, but digital screens (DOOH) offer further interaction opportunities and therefore have risen in popularity due to their success. OOH doesn’t discriminate it is for all to see in plain sight and cannot be missed. However, OOH is often placed in strategically chosen locations to ensure that the desired target audience is reached.

Key Out Of Home Advertising (OOH) Statistics:

Consumers are 48% more likely to interact with a digital ad after being exposed to an OOH ad first
OOH advertising/ marketing revenue in the UK totals £1.6bn
People spend 70% of their time outdoors
83% of people admit remembering OOH ads they saw within the last 30 mins of going shopping

What Is The benefit Of Using Out Of Home Marketing?

Out of Home marketing is a strategy that brands should consider to effectively target the consumers who have become numb to online adverts. They are difficult to avoid due to their size and contrast which makes it impossible to swipe past. Some of the world’s largest companies are the top OOH spenders Including Apple, McDonald’s, and Amazon.

As an industry, Out of home has “always embraced change – evolving, transforming, and sometimes even disrupting, in order to stay relevant in today’s digital landscape”(Oaaa).

The team at GottaBe! support our clients with Out of Home marketing and know the importance of location. Our experts look for areas that are heavily populated with a client’s target audience in mind. Our recent work with Global Banking School saw us go live with over 50 out of home sites across Leeds targeting the South Asian and Eastern European communities.

How To Ensure That Your Out Of Home Advertising Is Effective?

To ensure the Out of Home is effective, they need a blend of creativity and share-ability to create a buzz. Less is more when it comes to text on Out of Home sites, as they predominantly use visuals to catch the consumer’s eye. Most importantly, placement is key with Out of Home as we can see with the BBC TV Show Dracula billboards. Only 2 boards were installed, one in London and the second in Birmingham.

The innovative piece was shared worldwide, reaching thousands and possibly millions of people. It is therefore proven to be more effective to invest in a location with higher traffic than to spend across multiple quieter sites. Combining Out of Home with digital is ideal to get the campaign to go from phone to environment or vice versa and become impossible to miss. Unlike digital and onscreen advertising there is no competing as nothing can overlap at the same time.

Examples Of Successful Out Of Home Marketing

Weather-Reactive McCafe Campaign (McDonald’s)

This campaign took place in the UK and featured two of McDonald’s seasonal frozen drinks- strawberry lemonade and the “Millionaire’s Frappe”. As the temperature rose above 22 degrees Celsius the creative automatically updated to include the city’s name and temperature. At night as the temperature dropped, the city’s name and the current temperature were removed from the digital sign.

Skoda’s Touchless, Interactive Campaign

Skoda launched a campaign to promote their new range of Skoda’s SUV’S. Passers-by could interact with the screens in shopping centres by gesturing their hands. They were also available to explore vehicles and book a test drive there and then via QR codes which appeared on the screen. The touchless screen enabled potential customers to get involved with the ad whilst still abiding by health and safety measurements in response to the pandemic.

Make The Most Of Summer (Google)

Google’s campaign included responsive, data-driven digital OOH advertising/marketing based on the topic of summer in the UK (in response to the pandemic’s tight travel restrictions). By featuring Google’s Search and Maps tool, popular local and seasonal search terms were shown. Business hours, star ratings and map directions were shown across different sites.

Examples Of GottaBe!’s Successful Out Of Home Marketing

Domino’s DigiVan

At Southampton University’s Fresher’s week, Domino’s teamed up with us to display a digital message to inform passers-by and attendees of their involvement with the Fresher’s Fair. Domino aimed to create buzz around the brand to maintain their place as “The Number 1 Pizza Delivery Company in the UK and encourage brand loyalty”.

Middlesex University

Middlesex University is a public university in Hendon, North- West London. They approached us to help them drive applications and enquiries from three key communities (Polish, Spanish and Nigerian). In total 200 ethnic shops were merchandised with posters and leaflets to target the three communities. This helped to increase brand awareness amongst the specified communities to in turn drive traffic to Middlesex’s Open Day sign-up digital form.

Global Banking School (GBS)

Here at GottaBe! we have been working with GBS (Global Banking School) to promote the opening of their new campus in Leeds. One aspect of their marketing we covered was out of home marketing. Digital posters were placed around key locations in Leeds to target ethnic minorities and encourage more people to enrol.

Why Should Your Brand Invest In Out Of Home Advertising?

Out of Home advertising looks to extend engagement further than any other form of medium. People are spending more time outdoors, shopping, travelling, or just commuting and are far more exposed to OOH marketing. Billboard advertising costs 80% less than television and OOH is 382% more effective at driving online activity as opposed to television engagement rate according to Top Media Advertising.

OOH looks to be one of the star performers, with a 29.3% increase forecast for 2021 as a whole and a further 21.3% rise forecast for 2022. This is driven by digital OOH formats, however, which are forecast to achieve a 43.7% increase in 2021 and a 27.1% increase in 2022 according to ancillary forecasts from WARC.

Not only is OOH effective in its own right, it also gives your other marketing channels a boost. Creating innovative multi-platform campaigns that excite your consumer and entice them to look further into the product or services advertised.

How GottaBe! Can Help With Out Of Home Advertising (OOH)

We offer Out of Home marketing to many of our clients and are experts when it comes to finding the right location to effectively reach the right demographics. If you are looking to run an OOH campaign but are not quite sure where to start, we can help you to get it right. Give us a call on +4423 8063 4283 or complete our contact form and we can schedule a chat with our experts.