Out-of-home advertising is an effective and rapidly growing advertising medium proving to increase visibility, boost brand awareness, and generate consideration. With developments in technology allowing for more creativity and programmatic OOH advertising offering an automated approach, the possibilities seem endless and reaching new audiences feels more seamless than ever.

The global out-of-home ad expenditure for OOH is predicted to amount to 45 billion US dollars by the end of 2024 (1) and as more brands consider the value of OOH advertising, we thought we’d take you through a number of our effective OOH advertising campaigns - from planning and strategy, through to activation and results - to give you more of an idea on just how valuable OOH advertising can be.

What is out-of-home advertising?

As the name suggests, OOH advertising is the process of placing advertising outside of the consumer’s home. This can include billboards, bus stop advertisements, street furniture ads and more.

There are two types of OOH advertising: traditional and digital.

Traditional OOH advertising has existed for decades - simply because it works! Traditional OOH advertising includes using billboards, transit advertisements and station posters to promote products, services, brands or events outside of the home.

Digital OOH advertising, on the other hand, is the newer approach that uses technology and screens to dynamically promote products, services, brands or events outside of the home.

Examples of effective OOH campaigns

Here are some key features of effective OOH advertising campaigns:

Creativity and Visual Impact

OOH campaigns that deliver creativity and visual impact are excellent at capturing the attention of passersby, an important feature of any OOH advertising format, particularly in such a saturated media landscape. Working with Raventós Codorníu, we created the brand’s first high-impact bus wrap and as this was the brand’s first, we knew it had to pack a punch.

We broke out the bubbles by leveraging the brand’s photography and the campaign theme “Sparkling Life” for the holiday season by designing a bus wrap that captures the joyful bright sparkles of the wine and placing the brand front and centre. The bus features several large bottles of sparkling wine with the brand and product name clearly visible, alongside imagery of greenery and sparkles; symbolic of Christmas and perfect for the holidays.

For high-impact, goodwill and PR, we designed and produced the full bus wrap in London which kickstarted the entire cross-format nationwide campaign. The bus was later photographed next to London icons in a one-day event to be used on our report, PR agency and shared internally with their teams with great enthusiasm!

Strategic Placement

OOH advertising relies heavily on strategically placing advertisements throughout a consumer’s daily journey to create a captivating and engaging experience. We worked with UNiDAYS in 2022 to launch its very first out-of-home campaign for freshers named Ready For Anything, launching across the entire UK.

The objective of the campaign was to build brand awareness on out-of-home for the first time as well as generate sign-ups. Our cross-channel multi-format approach included covering the London Underground, student halls, buses, large format and more which helped us to boost awareness of the brand and raise consideration.

We strategically chose to place the brand on the London Underground through tube car panel adverts, a key transport hub with mass cost-effective exposure and one of the best media (in our opinion) due to the high dwell time and very high frequency of exposure.

To complement and raise consideration, we selected key stations, large roadside billboards, main shopping centres and bus advertising across 5 key cities in the UK. Finally, in the same cities, we placed eye-level digital 6-sheets at select locations such as student halls and ad bikes at universities.

With detailed planning and research as well as taking into consideration population density for correct budget allocation, we used this strategy to maximise commute frequency. As well as tactical eye-level and large formats to drive awareness, engagement, direct response, brand recognition and brand trust.

Since 2017, the brand has seen a decline in awareness year on year with spikes showing the peak periods for the brand which are freshers and black Friday.

This out-of-home campaign reshaped UNiDAYS awareness and intent, outperforming the previous year (2021) by +100%, breaking the yearly downtrend and making this campaign an astounding success, a first for the brand.

Audience Relevance

It’s important to tailor messaging as well as ad placement to your target audience in any media campaign, to create a more impactful strategy and deliver content that speaks directly to them.

With our cross-format media campaign for Butternut Box, it was key for us to plan and time their campaign efficiently due to their somewhat niche audience: dog owners.

We set about by mapping all the potential relevant locations of this brand’s audience across retail parks, supermarkets, shopping centres, roadside and even selected large formats to boost trust and dimension to create a complete detailed media plan.

From this, we could determine where and what their audience was doing throughout their daily journey and effectively place ads with relevant messaging in front of them. We therefore could deliver enough high-frequency across key locations in both digital and traditional forms that would target potential buyers at both eye-level, high dwell opportunities and high-traffic routes.

One thing is certain about dog owners… They love their furry friends. We capitalised on this by featuring images of beloved dogs and messaging centred around furry friends and their love for food. The text reads “Fresh food so good, we can’t get a photo of it”, playing on the popular trend of food photography.

The brief and objective challenged us to scale marketing efforts by adding another channel into the mix: radio. Using our proprietary media planning tool that aggregates multiple sources of data and conducts research on radio audiences, we set an effective non-wasteful radio plan across key radio stations, hours of the day and locations.

More importantly, we worked with our radio producers and the brand to create a highly engaging radio ad that proved outstanding success based on survey data and analysis of the brand performance across their business intelligence.

The radio ad creative takes listeners through the process of coming up with an effective radio advert and the challenges of demonstrating product benefits purely through audio. The creative uses pronouns such as ‘we’ to make listeners feel included in this process whilst discussing some of the key features of the Butternut Box brand. The ad finishes with the simple point that they’re not experts in radio ads but are experts in dog food, leaving a memorable impression on listeners.

The activation and campaign were successful, having substantially increased brand awareness and generating an uplift of subscriptions for the region of Ireland. To measure the success of the campaign, and since this activation was just in this region, we were able to isolate it in pairs with a control group. We’ve monitored Google Trends, Organic Brand Search Terms, Paid Brand Search Terms and Direct Traffic all on Google Analytics thus having clear visibility to confidently attribute results and sales generated by this out-of-home campaign.

Integration with Digital Channels

We aim to have a cross-channel approach with our media campaigns and statistically, the campaigns that do have synergy between OOH and online advertising, deliver great results. In fact, when using digital video platform advertising, OOH has the ability to double, triple or even quadruple the reach of your message. (4)

Consistent messaging across different channels helps to strengthen brand awareness and drive consideration. If a customer sees your ad on Instagram and is retargeted with a branded billboard advertisement, there is a higher chance that the customer will consider taking action, potentially increasing ROI.

Our media plan with Raventós Codorníu was to cover all of the UK and in broad strokes to include ITV video-on-demand, London Underground formats, supermarket screens, YouTube and Display ads as well as the much-loved bus wrap. We believe these formats are a great balance between cost, efficiency, and reach, considering the brand’s ambition and budget.

From our own analysis with Google Analytics, surveying and Google Trends, the brand’s peak interest and uplift was 40% higher than the previous year, 2021, and this level of awareness was not seen for the brand since 2017. The client shared with us that for Q4, they recorded a 35% increase in sales and Nielsen data shows the capture of market share and growth, in a shrinking category.

How effective is OOH advertising?

According to Statista, 52.32 million unique individuals saw out-of-home ads in Great Britain(2) in the first quarter of 2023, underlining the medium’s ability to reach mass amounts of people. Furthermore, digital OOH is highly effective at driving greater audience intent, with DOOH advertising encouraging 66% more people to search online and 50% more people to make online purchases (3).

The effectiveness of any OOH advertising campaign comes from a combination of strategic planning, creative execution, audience relevance and enough cross-platform frequency that capture the attention of consumers, commuters and more.

Challenges of OOH Advertising and Future Trends

Out-of-home advertising has been around for centuries and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Thanks to modern technology, advertisers can leverage tools to ensure OOH performs efficiently and effectively. That does not mean the advertising medium is not devoid of challenge.

The effectiveness of OOH advertising depends on the quality and creativity of the content displayed. This includes the design, messaging and overall visual appeal of the advertisement. Brands, businesses and advertisers are therefore always competing for new and inventive ways to effectively capture audience attention and convey compelling messaging, particularly in such a saturated market. In densely populated areas, your ad can become part of the visual clutter. Choosing an agency such as One Day Agency that delivers a highly collaborative and tailored approach to creative design can be instrumental in cutting through the clutter.

Additionally, immersive experiences could potentially become an integral part of your media campaign strategy with 3D digital billboards leading the way, providing brands and advertisers more creative versatility and increased consumer engagement.

OOH advertising is thought to be unmeasurable. However, there are a variety of ways to measure the impact and effectiveness of your OOH advertising campaign, from social media monitoring to GPS location data. And with the ongoing transition from traditional to digital OOH advertising, there are more tools than ever before to effectively measure a media campaign.

We expect there to be a huge shift in digital advertising in the near future and programmatic out-of-home advertising is a key component of this. Programmatic digital out-of-home is the automated process of buying and selling ads. It allows advertisers to target locations where your audience moves throughout their day and build an engaging journey for your audience. Furthermore, it allows advertisers to optimise campaigns in real time, providing increased flexibility and efficiency.

This data-driven approach signifies a shift from traditional static OOH advertising towards dynamic, digital OOH advertising. The integration of programmatic technology means advertisers gain comprehensive insight into campaign performance, allowing them to measure key metrics and advertise effectively.

Overall, OOH advertising is experiencing a major shift and this is reshaping the way brands communicate with their audience. As we navigate the evolving realm of advertising, technology plays a pivotal role in reshaping traditional practices and amplifying the impact of OOH campaigns.

The examples we present here and our other work demonstrates the effectiveness and versatility of out-of-home advertising. It also indicates that synergy between OOH and online will prove highly beneficial for brands. If you’re considering the journey to crafting a highly effective and measurable cross-format OOH campaign, reaching out to an experienced specialist agency is a key initial step. Contact us today to get started.

FAQs

How effective is OOH advertising?

Out-of-home advertising works and has been done for centuries. Evidence shows that it not only has the ability to reach millions of consumers, but it also responds well to it with between 38% and 86% providing a consumer response.

How do you measure the effectiveness of OOH advertising?

There are a variety of ways to effectively measure OOH advertising, including reach and frequency, social listening, surveys and feedback, impressions, sales attribution & more.

Do billboards have high ROI?

Outdoor ads typically have the lowest cost per thousand (CPM) of almost any medium at around £1-£30, depending on the type of advertisement making them a cost-effective solution for reaching a large and diverse audience. According to the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), billboards have an astounding 497% return on investment.

References

https://www.statista.com/statistics/273716/global-outdoor-advertising-expenditure/#:~:text=Nevertheless%2C%20this%20showed%20a%20rebound,by%20the%20end%20of%202024.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1372113/out-of-home-ooh-reach-great-britain/#:~:text=Out%2Dof%2Dhome%20advertising%20reach%20in%20Great%20Britain%202020%2D2023&text=In%20the%20first%20quarter%20of,a%20three%2Dyear%20time%20period.

https://econsultancy.com/digital-out-of-home-advertising-omnichannel/

https://oaaa.org/news/new-study-finds-ooh-amplifies-all-major-media-more-than-90-percent/

If you want to learn more about Effective OOH Advertising, reach out to us today.