Out-of-home: Why the industry needs to shout more about the benefits of OOH advertising

Consumers are paying attention to OOH, so it’s time for marketers to do the same, says Sophie Pemberton, group chief strategy officer at Talon - and it’s our job to make that happen together

The out-of-home (OOH) channel is the oldest in the game. Since the 1800s, brands have been bringing their messages to the great outdoors to achieve their marketing goals.

OOH has stood the test of time and remains a strategic part of advertising planning. However on average, advertisers allocate just 3-5% of their budgets to OOH. How can this be? OOH has transformed significantly over the years and is now far more than a brand building tool. Yet there is a disconnect among the wider industry, who are not taking full advantage of its potential to supercharge advertising campaigns.

The buck stops with us - those working within the OOH industry - to raise awareness and grow our share.

We must do more to collaboratively advocate for the medium and look beyond the four corners of our billboard world. We need to shout even louder on impact, effectiveness and how OOH has evolved and adapted to become a true omnichannel player. We’ve got to educate clients and agency planners on OOH’s USPs - only this will earn us a bigger slice of the marketing pie.

Tech take-off

Let's face it, OOH was not the first channel to embrace advancing tech capabilities. However, once it adopted these capabilities the channel rapidly transformed.

From the planning and buying processes through to creative delivery, technological innovation has been etched through every part of OOH. I could spend hours discussing the incredible use cases of tech in OOH, but instead I’m going to highlight two aspects where this innovation has made a real difference: targeting and measurement.

The integration of sophisticated data analytics and geospatial technology has enabled advertisers to pinpoint specific consumer behaviors with valuable accuracy. Geotargeting too has emerged as a powerful tool that allows advertisers to tailor messages based on the location of the audience. This ensures greater relevance and engagement and escalates the impact of the campaign.

Starbucks used Talon’s proprietary data management platform (DMP) Ada to increase engagement among Gen Z audiences. The challenge was to get Gen Z coffee lovers to ignore all other coffee houses and head straight to Starbucks for their morning latte. Talon identified and built a bespoke audience in Ada (Gen Z, frequent coffee drinkers, not-loyal to a coffee brand) for Starbucks. It then activated the dynamic creative campaign in areas this audience would frequent (and are within a good distance to a Starbucks store). This highly targeted approach led to significant uplifts in audience delivery and generated long-term results - shifting Gen Z’s consideration of Starbucks significantly. The campaign also won silver at the Media Week Awards for Best Use of Data in Audience Buying.

And when it comes to measurement, advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms now enable advertisers to consistently assess the impact of OOH campaigns. This provides valuable insights into audience reactions, footfall traffic, and conversion rates. These improvements in measurement collectively contribute to a more efficient and accountable OOH advertising landscape, aligning the medium with the evolving demands of a data-driven marketing ecosystem. It’s time OOH takes its rightful seat alongside the data-driven channels which still tend to dominate performance conversations.

Creativity beyond compare

A huge superpower for OOH is its capacity to engage and inspire. It is the only channel that can do this in the real world to - quite literally - show-stopping effect. Recent research from Kantar showcases how real-life channels are valued by the audiences we are trying to reach, with consumers placing both OOH and DOOH in their top three attention-grabbing channels and top five preferred channels.

And these innovative real-life activations can drive incredible awareness for brands. Take for example the giant blue Ikea bag on Oxford Street in London, creating a huge buzz for the highly anticipated opening of its new store.

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) can also create immersive experiences in the real world. An example of this is Pepsi Max’s augmented reality experience, which transformed a bus shelter into a ‘window’ that transported unsuspecting commuters into a new world with giant laser-shooting robots and more. It can also drive huge engagement - energy drinks brand Rockstar harnessed creative OOH to launch an AR token hunt, inviting passersby to engage to win on the spot prizes and watch a first-of-its-kind digital concert experience headlined by global superstar, Stormzy.

Where next for OOH?

The OOH channel has evolved significantly over the years, making it an engaging and powerful advertising medium. And this shift has been driven by the application of technology and data-driven insights which have made it far more measurable and targeted. This means it has huge value for advertisers and marketers looking to drive impact and effectiveness.

However, the dial has not moved enough in terms of increasing OOH's share of marketing budgets. We need to collaborate as an industry to drive awareness of the business outcomes OOH can deliver. OOH offers real-world audience-first solutions that consumers pay attention to - and in 2024 we need to work together to make sure that OOH’s evolution is firmly on every advertiser's radar.