Creating a successful OOH campaign
Now that we’ve established how an OOH marketing strategy can improve
online visibility and sales, let’s look at what can be done to ensure
your outdoor ads are effective. Here are some of our top tips for
creating a successful campaign:
Use emotional triggers
The best way to use out-of-home ads to drive online traffic is
through emotional triggers. Which types of triggers you use will depend
on the message you are trying to get across — but here’s a few
suggestions:
- Bold, short copy: this can help capture the viewer’s attention, and is estimated to drive search by 58%.
- Humour:
if you can make people laugh, they are more likely to remember your
brand. Who can forget the iconic Snickers ‘You’re not you when you’re
hungry’ billboard campaign?
- A prominent product shot:
OOH ads are all about catching people’s attention. Using a prominent
product shot can help to highlight what your brand is all about, and
what products are on offer. According to ‘The Point of Search’ study, a
prominent product image can drive search by 54%.
Using emotional triggers is also a great way to develop your brand
image. For example, if being fun and creative is part of your brand
identity, you can demonstrate this by including humour triggers in your
ads.
Pro tip: There are lots of different types of
outdoor advertising, including digital and classic billboards that come
in a range of sizes. Make sure your OOH campaign fits the needs of your
audience — so if you’re a local advertiser targeting smaller markets,
for example, try using smaller OOH ad formats that emphasise your
brand’s approachability.
Consider your target audience
Keeping your target audience in mind through each step of designing,
developing, and releasing your billboard can make a massive difference
to your ad’s impact. Search typologies have been shown to mirror need
states, meaning that your ad should be relevant to what your target
audience wants or is doing. Consider the following examples:
- 62% of food, drink and grocery shopping searches are ‘doing’ searches
- 57% of finance related searches are ‘understanding’ searches
- 34% of career searches relate to ‘self-discovery’ or ‘progressing’
This clearly demonstrates that an out-of-home ad design should be
directly influenced by your target audience’s demographic, interests and
pain points. For example, If you’re a food brand and your target
audience is grocery shoppers, an OOH ad that encourages ‘doing searches’
will be more effective.
Think of billboards in locations like Los Angeles and San Francisco:
they’re often placed over motorways or main roads into the centre,
encouraging people who are headed towards the shopping district to try a
new brand.
Utilise your environment
Your OOH ad’s placement and format will impact the number of searches
for your website or product. To maximise your online visibility, try
using your ad’s environment — whether that’s a busy road, city centre,
or local town.
OOH mobile searches have a wide range of triggers, particularly with
regard to location needs, people’s visual senses, and the activities
people are doing. Try using bold, digital billboards to capture people’s
attention, and make sure your creative imagery and words clearly convey
your brand message.
Pro tip: Alight Media has more than 300 digital billboard screens
across the country in a range of formats, sizes, and locations —
helping businesses stand out from the crowd through impactful and
memorable OOH ads.
Integrate smart design
A good OOH ad design should trigger emotion in its viewers. You can
make your design work harder by featuring website links and prominent
logos, so that your viewer knows exactly who you are — but encouraging
emotion is the best way to make your billboard memorable.
Grow your brand awareness in 2023
The findings of ‘The Point of Search’ study have illustrated that
out-of-home marketing strategies are a cost-effective way to drive
online visibility and encourage searches. Unlike some other forms of
advertising, which may struggle to get views and impressions, OOH has
incredibly high visibility — and can ensure that your ad is seen by a
wide audience.
Alight offers a wide range of billboard spaces in prime locations
throughout the UK. We are committed to supporting businesses no matter
their size, and support a number of local and national advertisers. We
also offer a full design service, helping you to create a digital OOH ad
campaign that supports your other marketing objectives.
Contact us today to learn more, and to speak to one of our advertising experts.
Unless otherwise stated, all statistics in this article are from
‘The Point of Search Study’ by Clear Channel, JC Decaux, Global, and
Posterscope.4
1 IPA | Making Sense: The commercial media landscape 2022
2 JCDecaux, Clear Channel, Global and Posterscope launch collaborative research study 'The Point of Search'
3 Resources – Lumen
4 JCDecaux, Clear Channel, Global and Posterscope launch collaborative research study 'The Point of Search'