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The most commonly used outdoor advertising format, billboards can be presented in static, mobile, online or digital formats.
Street furniture advertising displays may include bus shelters, bus stops, street poles, kiosks, roadside ads and so on.
Sometimes also called public transport advertising, common examples are seen on buses, taxis, trains, metros, planes and other vehicles.
Point-of-sale materials (POSM) or point-of-purchase (POP) advertising is typically found in-store or next to a checkout counter of your company. POSM advertising examples are adverts above containers and branded display stands designed specifically for a marketing campaign.
With wide applications, from shopping malls, convenience stores to cinemas, stadiums, airports, etc., place-based advertising also offers various media formats, from the traditional to digital and online.
A common example is a fleet of cars or bikes with visible, eye-catching ads moving through the traffic on a certain predefined route.
Banners, posters, lampposts, construction, truck, car wrap and wrap advertising. There are many other out of home ad formats to suit your branding needs.
1Past data – What happened that help direct your future investment
Take a look at previous marketing activities and focus on past out of home advertising results. What have you learned from those experiences? How has the situation changed between then and now? How will it affect your planning for next out of home advertising campaigns?
2Current conditions – What you currently have that can affect your campaign
You can consider a SWOT analysis to have an overview of your current position, as well as your competitors. Don’t forget to review your budgets and current marketing plans and activities, especially content marketing, since this is a great source to tap into as you create the message for your outdoor ads.
3Future expectations – What you want to achieve
Make your outdoor advertising goals crystal clear and avoid vague statements such as “improve our brand awareness”. SMART goal is a wise practice here. Based on the goals, you will know which metrics to apply when it comes to tracking the campaign’s effectiveness.
Note that it’s not required to work from the past to the future. A common practice is to “start with the end in mind”, which is your ultimate goal for this outdoor advertising campaign.
After every factors are clear, it’s time to consider 5 things directly related to your out of home ads.
- Target audience - Who do you want to view your OOH ads and what actions do you want them to take?
- Format - Which formats are the most suitable?
- Location - Where are the best places to put your OOH ads
- Timing - When should you put your OOH ads and for how long?
- Message - Which story should your OOH ads tell?
STEP 2: DESIGNING
As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you must know what’s considered “beauty” in the eyes of your target audiences. This information should already be made clear in the first step – planning.
There are many factors that impact a design’s effectiveness, but when it comes to branding, you can’t ignore consistency. Make sure your outdoor ads align with your unique brand identity design to convey the feeling of oneness to your audiences, hence increase your brand’s credibility.
In addition, the viewability of an out of home ad will change depending on environmental conditions, including lighting (especially for shopping malls and convenience store ads) and weather (with street advertisement, this one really matters).
Everything looks nice on paper or computer. Make sure you know how it should look or will look in the real location and optimize the out of home ad design accordingly.
If you choose DOOH ads, don’t ever skip the displaying test on different devices, as a less-than-optimal digital ad may harm your company’s hard-earned reputation.
STEP 3: IMPLEMENTING
All ingredients are ready and calling for the chef. It’s time to put your DOOH ads on the selected channels or print your OOH ads and bring them to the places they’re destined to be.
Since the reality may still be different no matter how thoroughly you plan, be ready to make adjustments as needed. You may apply a period of intensive care right after the ads are placed to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible.
STEP 4: TRACKING
Remember that you don’t have to wait for your ads to be taken down to start tracking its impact. Especially with digital out of home advertising, you need to follow closely its performance to make adjustments right when needed.
Let’s take a look at some common outdoor advertising metrics.
- Impressions: The average number of times an individual views your ad.
- Digital trails: This type of metrics can mean very differently, depending on how you apply it. Let’s see some examples.
1QR code, coupon or promo codes
You measure how many people use those codes on your ads. If you add different codes on different out of home ads, you can compare their effectiveness in converting the viewers. However, this metrics only focuses on conversions while leaving out the total number of reach.
2URL tracking
Usually, your campaign is linked to a specific landing page, so you can measure the traffic driven to your site by your out of home ad.
3Social media
You can track hashtags related to an out of home ad on social media. Be noted that to be effective, this out of home ad must be put in places with high dwell-time such as public vehicles, as people don’t often stop to post on their Instagram an interesting billboard on the way they walk home.
4Online search
The number of keywords and brand name inputted in search engines can partly tell you about your out of home ad’s effectiveness. Coupled with the right SEO strategies, you can enjoy even greater digital results.
a. Before designing – What should be done right before any OOH ads are put up?
This helps you decide on the best location and timing for your outdoor ads. Remember to take into consideration dwell time, as place-based advertising differs based on this factor, both static and digital media formats.
Another practice when calculating real foot traffic of a certain area and measuring OOH effect is removing the “regulars” – people who live near the area and are consequently less impacted by the ad.
Another practice when calculating real foot traffic of a certain area and measuring OOH effect is removing the “regulars” – people who live near the area and are consequently less impacted by the ad.
Besides target audiences’ preferences, don’t forget to consider current surrounding ads, especially those of your direct competitors. The same color, layout or even size may compromise your originally designed ads.
b. After implementing – What can tell you if you’ve done a good job?
It’s not uncommon for an OOH ad to be pulled down or a DOOH ad to be changed due to sudden developments. As information travels faster than light now, your ability to quickly change and adapt to new conditions is key to an outdoor advertising campaign’s success.
Impressions, digital trails or post-campaign surveys are some typical examples. Refer to STEP 4 – TRACKING of Implementation Process for more details.
Not all outdoor advertising campaigns can be linked directly to the final sales increase, but it is still a good check on your ad’s performance.
What are some OOH advertising best practices?
Best practices vary depending on many factors, such as your industry and OOH formats. But now we can still explore some general OOH best practices first:
1Apply real-time data
To “plan flexibly to location, time, events, audiences and trigger”
2Learn the equation to optimize your OOH ads
Location + Timing + Message (including Format & Design). Try to combine different placements and formats, but keep your message simple and memorable. You need to repeat your message again and again by various ways and means for it to engrave in the audience’s memory. With the message, less is more.
3Employ cross-media strategies for highest results
Especially mobile and social media. Why these two? Refer to the next FAQ to learn the reasons.
4“Know thyself” and “Know thy enemy”
This is not really a best practice, but more of common sense. Even so, many jump in the battlefield without checking their weapons and their opponents’, only to learn the old lesson the hard way.
Boosts reactions on Facebook and increases spontaneous brand recall by 125%. With effective social media strategies in place, this combination promises to bring about exceptional results.
Boosts mobile reactions in general. Well-placed DOOH ads even have a priming effect, which means consumers will have more reactions to mobile ads if they have seen the same type of DOOH ads before. Also, the right combination between OOH and mobile media will increase the likelihood of visiting the brand’s store up to 5 times and improve 35% CTR (click-through rate).
Increases product discovery as it stimulates the tendency of adventure-seeking mostly in younger groups such as Generation Z.
Used to be the mainstream media mix, it works best when OOH complements TV ads. For high-value consumer purchases, TV ads provide a feeling of trust, but its reach has become too fragmented due to the countless number of channels these days.
As magazines have certain audience groups, this combination provides a constant brand presence in the marketplace, but with limited targeting.
Newspaper is a short-lived media, but when combined with OOH, its life increases, though we can’t ignore the fact that readership of printed newspapers is still on the decline.
1The most visible difference is DOOH’s real-time feature, which traditional OOH lacks.
First, you can edit your digital out of home ads more quickly to ensure your company’s message stays updated and adapted to any change. Second, digital out of home ads also optimize targeting based on location data of your target audience. Last, digital outdoor advertising makes the action of purchasing and interacting easier.
2Another difference lies in digital OOH’s ease to be integrated in digital marketing plans.
Most companies now care for their online profile as much as their real-life presence. Therefore, it means less work to implement a digital outdoor advertising campaign as you can track it with your pre-established digital results.
3OOH’s values don’t lose to DOOH’s.
Do you know that CPM of OOH is actually lower than digital OOH? And there still exists many benefits unique to traditional out of home advertising. First, you don’t have to share your carefully picked places with other brands. Second, you enjoy the benefit of mass dissemination of your well-thought message. And third, the long-standing practice of out of home advertising makes it more trustworthy as it’s ever present to the consumers in the area it was put up in the first place.
Traditional out of home ads used to face the complaint of being hard to measure impact, but it changes since they know how to leverage the power of data. When the world started to embrace digitalization, digital OOH in the U.S was expected to increase by nearly 40%, but it still only accounts for 31% of total U.S. ads spending. The rest belongs to traditional outdoor advertising.
Traditional out of home ads used to face the complaint of being hard to measure impact, but it changes since they know how to leverage the power of data. When the world started to embrace digitalization, digital OOH in the U.S was expected to increase by nearly 40%, but it still only accounts for 31% of total U.S. ads spending. The rest belongs to traditional outdoor advertising.
According to Entrepreneur, billboards are “most effective when located close to the business advertised”, especially in crowded areas. Placed in high outdoor locations, billboards easily attract a wider audience and make stronger impression. However, it’s considered a higher cost ad format compared to others.
With more suitable places, cost is usually not the main concern. Usually placed at eye-level viewing, this type of street ads attracts commuters, pedestrians and motorists in urban areas.
This type of out of home ad is best for commuters – the main users of public vehicles. As commuters have time to read on their way, companies may choose more complex OOH ads to convey more information. However, the effect of complex ads may be reduced greatly during rush hours.
This works best when a company wants to promote a product currently on discount, or a limited or special edition in a marketing campaign. POSM advertising takes advantage of the psychological effect “you can only get this deal right here, right now” to stimulate impulse buying.
(stores, shopping malls, airports, stadiums, etc.): Depending on the specific characteristics of each place, OOH ads will be tailored to realize full potential in attracting, engaging and converting audiences in the digital age. For example, a strategically designed and placed out of home ad in a shopping mall will help build positive brand association and immediacy, resulting in more customers rushing to the brand’s store in the same floor or building.
This out of home ad format is usually used for specific campaigns to increase brand awareness. If your company offers delivery services for your advertised products, your roadshow campaign will yield even better results.
