Lighting Up Outdoors: The Power of LED Screens in Outdoor Advertising
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising presents a constant opportunity to reach consumers as they commute, run errands, relax outdoors, and go about their daily lives. As you consider OOH options to promote your brand, LED screens offer compelling benefits compared to traditional formats like print and static signage. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore key advantages of LED displays for outdoor advertising and strategic recommendations to deploy them effectively.
The Power of LED Screens
LED billboards and mobile LED screens provide significant advantages over traditional static signage that make them highly effective for outdoor advertising. Let’s examine some of the key benefits.
Dynamic Visuals Draw Eyes
Unlike stationary billboards, LED truck rear displays and digital information kiosks feature bright, colorful motion graphics and video that capture attention as consumers pass by. Brands can display elaborate animations, attention-grabbing effects like explosions or transitions and high-impact video content. This dynamic imagery contrasts with static environments to stand out.
Research by Grand View Research indicates over 80% of participants recalled seeing digital billboard content, while only 19-20% recalled static billboard ads [1]. The outdoor advertising firm Alma studied 18 digital billboard campaigns and found that animations with multiple scenes increased awareness by up to 200% compared to single static images [2]. The unique ability of LED screens to deliver evolving, kinetic visuals helps break through the visual clutter to drive engagement and message recall.
Updatable On the Fly
You can instantly update LED displays to feature new products, pricing, seasonal promotions and more. This keeps the content timely and relevant. Compared to standard print billboards that display a single ad for months, LED boards cost-effectively feature different dynamic ads each minute for higher impact.
Brands can adapt messaging to align with current events in real time. For example, an LED screen at a sports arena can instantly change creative to celebrate a home team victory. A retailer could update a roadside LED display to promote same-day deals. This flexibility allows brands to capitalize on trends and optimize relevance.
Placement Flexibility
While print billboard sites are limited, portable LED truck rear displays and wheeled info kiosks go where the people are. Strategically place them along busy streets, at events, on campuses and other high-traffic areas. When a spot underperforms, easily relocate units with forklifts or vehicles to better locations.
Rent or lease terms allow for flexible short- or long-term use matching your campaign needs and timeline. Brands can geo-target campaigns by demographics using portable LED screens creatively positioned at gatherings like concerts, conferences, farmers markets and more. This tactical placement potential surpasses static signs.
Metrics for Insights
Many modern LED boards feature remote telemetry systems to track metrics like runtime hours, location history, operating status and more. This helps provide usage insights and calculate cost efficiency. With print OOH, marketers lack robust metrics beyond periodic drive-by observations. Know exactly how often your ads played to optimize campaign performance.
Analytics can reveal details like:
- Total on-air hours across devices
- Displays reaching daily/weekly impression goals
- Peak hours of visibility for inventory planning
- Campaign cost per playback
- Operational uptime to improve reliability
Brands gain data to fine-tune LED utilization based on business hours, event calendars, weather patterns and more. Instead of assumptions, metrics offer definitive direction to plan, budget and increase ROI.
Brighter by Day, Visible by Night
Thanks to advanced LED lighting technology, screens achieve up to 6000-7000 nits brightness for crisp daytime visibility. They remain clearly visible at night, with brightness control to dim appropriately after dark. Compared to print boards that rely on external illumination, LED displays make your ads prominently stand out morning to night.
This 24/7 visibility potential allows brands to extend campaign exposure into evening hours when many indoor signs go dark. Peak vehicular traffic occurs in early mornings and evenings during commutes [3], so LED boards effectively reach consumers around the clock.
Endless Creative Potential
LED outdoor advertising grants nearly endless creative options, while print billboards limit brands to static images and text. Vivid LED screens welcome all types visual content from text tickers to elaborate multi-scene animations. They also easily integrate with other innovations like QR codes, augmented reality and object recognition.
Brands unwilling to simply recreate a print billboard ad can hugely amplify campaign creativity. For example, Target designed an interactive LED display that matched passerby clothing colors using AI-powered cameras [4]. Hyundai filmed drivers on an LA highway then moments later surprised them by broadcasting the live video on a massive roadside LED board [5].
LEDs serve as creative canvases to pioneer attention-grabbing concepts impossible on fixed print boards. Marketers say larger HD LED configurations allow them to “create art” rather than just display ads [6]. This drives up engagement and social sharing for secondary exposure.
Minimal Production Timelines
Getting standard billboards designed, printed and installed can eat up weeks of lead time. But creative teams can design animated LED content in just days before swiftly uploading digital files remotely. This accelerated timeline provides more flexibility to refine concepts or respond to emerging opportunities.
With some LED providers even offering online self-service portals, advertisers can upload finished ads themselves instantly. Digital flexibility creates minimal delays between campaign conception andvisible execution.
Sharper Imagery
Ultra-high resolution LED configurations provide image clarity and sharpness significantly surpassing traditional vinyl boards. While outdoor print ads appear visibly pixelated and disjointed from afar, state-of-the-art LEDs present smooth, seamless visuals viewable from any distance.
High-density configurations like LG’s Black Pearl Series achieve up to 10 times the resolution of conventional LED boards [7]. This showcases products beautifully with pristine text visibility from a nationwide campaign down to location-specific ads.
Lower Production Costs
Printing numerous static ads across many vinyl boards lifts production expenses, especially for larger formats. Brands also commonly incur expenses sending install crews to mount campaigns across cities or regions.
LED content remains fully digital, avoiding all print, materials and labor costs to display locally. Updated messaging uploads remotely in minutes with no personnel requirements. This reduces monthly costs and logistical barriers for broader OOH LED campaigns.
Simplified Campaign Changes
Evolving print board creative requires reproducing new vinyl signage then dispatching installers for physical swaps across potentially thousands of displays. This utilizes substantial manual labor costs and risks installation delays across distant locations.
But with LED systems, creative adjustments and additions upload digitally in one step. Brands using centralized content management platforms can update hundreds of LED units across continents simultaneously at the click of a button. This enables more frequent creative refreshing to prevent message fatigue.
Successful Campaign Examples
Now that we’ve covered the main benefits of LED technology, let’s examine real-world examples of brands effectively leveraging displays:
- Jägermeister launched an interactive LED video board campaign targeting the college demographic. Passerby could tweet a team name or logo from their phone to a Shortcode, prompting the LED display to show a custom animation riffing on the school mascot and parties [8]. This generated 63% higher engagement than typical OOH formats.
- Honeywell presented vivid safety graphics on eyewash product LED screens at trade shows then tracked attendees who stopped for demos. They then followed up post-show to discuss home or office installation needs captured from badges. This successfully increased purchase conversions.
- PepsiCo analyzed data showing Friday as peak sales days for a product line then launched LED screens specifically promoting Friday discounts. Focusing efforts on ideal high-traffic after-work areas increased immediate weekend purchases.
- A LED video board at the entrance to an urban walking trail played nature relaxation content to inspire more usage and align with park goals for resident wellbeing. Park trails saw a measurable increase in weekly users.
From giant Times Square spectaculars to portable vehicle LEDs, this versatile technology provides a customizable platform matching virtually any campaign objective and location.
Strategic Recommendations
Now that we’ve covered LED benefits and use cases, here are 5 strategic tips to make the most of your outdoor LED advertising:
- Prioritize Location Relevance
Assess site traffic, resident/worker demographics and user mindset for your targeted LED placements. A fitness app would better resonate along busy running trails vs. parking garages. Hospital campus screens should promote different messages then a local grocery. Match sites with audiences. - Spot Test New Sites
Initially test new LED sites on a two-week basis while tracking metrics before longer commitments. This allows time to gauge viewer reactions, foot traffic and operational reliability while minimizing risks. Refine sites over time. - Sync With Broader Campaigns
Integrate outdoor LED messaging with your TV, social media and web content for amplified exposure. Cross-promote your other channels on LED screens to maximize synergistic reach. - Incorporate Interactive Elements
Prompt passerby to engage via QR code scans, text-to votes/polls and other two-way experiences for more memorable and shareable interactions. - Update Content Regularly
Refresh LED content every two weeks at minimum, avoiding static set-and-forget placements which quickly blend into the background. Feature new promotions, videos, animations and seasonal themes to continually capture interest.
In Summary
Street furniture, mobile trailers, facades and more usher LED screens into virtually any outdoor environment you need to reach consumers. These displays deliver unique engagement power beyond conventional formats through dynamic motion, interactivity, metrics-driven flexibility and creative versatility. Following core best practices around strategic placement, testing, integration and content updating will lead brands to impactful large-scale deployments. Contact our team anytime for guidance on selecting optimal LED solutions tailored for your next campaign.
Sources:
[1] https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/out-of-home-ooh-advertising-market
[2] https://almaooh.com/blog/digital-billboards-motion-boosts-ad-recall/
[4] https://www.campaignlive.com/article/led-screens-lighting-creative-potential-ooh-medium/1462131
[5] https://streetsmartoutdoor.com/case-studies/hyundai-livtrafic-billboard/
[6] https://www.solari.com/our-thoughts/articles/dynamic-digital-out-of-home-advertising/