What is OOH advertising?

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Out-of-home (OOH) advertising refers to any type of marketing that reaches consumers when they are outside of their homes. This includes a wide range of formats like billboards, posters, flyers, transit advertising, street furniture, murals, retail displays, digital signage, and more. OOH advertising has the benefit of exposing brands to consumers as they move through their daily lives and navigate public spaces. With OOH, brands have the opportunity to reach target audiences in a local, timely, and impactful manner during the moments that matter.

OOH has been around for centuries, with signs, posters, and notices being some of the earliest forms of out-of-home advertising. In the 1800s, the rise of cities and expansion of public transportation like streetcars expanded OOH into a mass medium. Brands and merchants heavily utilized transit routes, stations, and vehicles to promote their products and stores. The development of the highway system and rise in automobile usage in the early 1900s further propelled OOH, with roadside billboards giving motorists information about accommodations, food, fuel and more while driving busy roads and traffic. 

Even with the rise of radio, television and eventually digital media, OOH has persevered and evolved as an essential advertising channel. Today, OOH takes many innovative forms including:

– Billboards – Large format roadside displays along highways and busy urban areas designed to capture attention from passing vehicular traffic. Traditional printed boards are now giving way to digital billboards that can display different ads or messaging in a rotating manner.

– Transit Advertising – Ad space on and inside public transportation including buses, subways, transit shelters, stations, trains and more. Allows brands to geo-target by locale and demographic.

– Street Furniture – Bus shelters, newsstands, kiosks and other urban structures that provide opportunities for advertising posters or digital signage.

– Place-based Media – Digital and static signage placed in specific retail and recreational venues such as malls, theaters, fitness centers, bars & restaurants. Allows geo-conquesting of audiences in a given location.

– Murals & Wallscapes – Building facades, walls and large urban spaces painted with advertising imagery create eye-catching OOH art installations.

– Digital OOH – LED billboards, video walls, place-based networks and other digital signage provide flexibility to display engaging content that can change in real-time.

– Ambient Media – Branding placed on unusual items or locations like sidewalk decals, shopping carts, fixtures, stair risers or bathrooms to surprise and delight.

– Experiential Marketing – OOH integrates with on-site brand experiences such as pop-up shops, sponsored events, street teams and more.

– Guerrilla Marketing – Unconventional OOH techniques like sticker campaigns, chalk art and projection mapping create buzz and viral sharing.

This diversity allows brands to execute OOH campaigns ranging from national out-of-home networks to hyper-targeted activations in a given city, venue or location.

Key Benefits of OOH Advertising

There are several unique advantages OOH provides as part of an integrated advertising strategy:

– Mass Reach & Impact – OOH exposes brands to a significant volume of consumers as they move through their daily routines. Large format OOH grabs attention as people navigate roads and public spaces. The impact results in stronger ad recall than many other mediums.

– Targeting – OOH allows advertisers to geo-target messaging to specific trade areas, venues or locations where their target audience lives, works, plays or congregates. Localization is essential for retail, real estate, entertainment and other brands.

– Flexibility – Digital OOH introduces dynamic content opportunities, allowing brands to tailor messages based on factors like location, weather, time of day and current events. Creatives can be changed instantly. 

– Brand Building – OOH provides an impactful branding platform unmatched by cluttered digital environments. Creativity and bold visuals help brands differentiate.

– Scalability – OOH networks are extensive across local regions, allowing for rollout from small test campaigns to national executions. Spend can be adjusted across days and locations.  

– Measurability – Providers use impression analytics, dwell time and audience data to quantify engagement. Results inform planning and optimization.

OOH Campaign Strategies & Best Practices

There are a few key strategies to develop an effective OOH campaign:

– Geo-Targeting – Pinpoint specific trade areas, venues or transit routes where your audience congregates. Localization is crucial for OOH relevance.

– Creative Optimization – Ensure bold, simple creative that is legible from distance. Leverage digital for impactful motion and interactive elements.

– Timing / Dayparting – Match flight dates and dayparting to audience behaviors – e.g. coffee ads in the morning commute or event ads on weekends.

-CONTEXT – Tailor OOH to the surrounding environment whenever possible. Fuel ads on highways, real estate near homes for sale etc.

– Audience Insights – Incorporate demographics, psychographics, location data and other intelligence to engage your target market. 

– Measurement – Set quantifiable objectives and leverage analytics to gauge engagement and conversion. Iterate based on results.

– Integrated Strategy – Incorporate OOH into larger campaigns across TV, digital, social and experiential channels. Connect the dots.

Digital OOH Trends

Digital signage, advanced displays and data-driven OOH techniques are evolving rapidly. Key trends include:

– Programmatic OOH Buying – Software automates data-based planning, buying and optimization of ad campaigns and inventory. Enables efficiency and personalization.

– Attribution Measurement – Digital screens allow for new models to connect OOH advertising to online and offline consumer behavior and purchases. Proves business impact.

– OOH Retargeting – Serves targeted digital ads to consumers after they have viewed an OOH display, reinforcing the message across channels.

– Mobile/Wearable Integration – Bluetooth, NFC and visual recognition allow mobile devices to sync with OOH units and augment the experience via AR or additional content.

– Beacons & Sensors – Proximity-based interactions deliver hyper-targeted messaging and offers to nearby consumers via their mobile device.

– Facial Recognition – Cameras on OOH displays dynamically optimize content based on anonymous impressions and audience demographics like age and gender.

– Civic Engagement – Digital OOH provides valuable public information and connectivity regarding news, emergencies, transportation and community events.

The continued innovation in advanced displays, data integration, and distribution provides brands fresh avenues to captivate and engage consumers as they navigate the outside world.

Blue Sky Events Services

Blue Sky are a digital advertising and events company that leverages its network of OOH screens to provide advertisers with dynamic messaging capabilities, all over the UK.  

With expertise in outdoor events, experiential marketing and advertising, Blue Sky helps brands optimize their OOH strategy and activate high-impact campaigns using our digital screen inventory. With the UK’s largest fleet of digital advans, available to 

Aldi ad LED Screen DIGIVAN

Some of the key ways Blue Sky Event Services utilizes their OOH network include:

Geo-Targeting – Strategically place screens near venues, retailers, and high-traffic areas to target audiences in a hyper-local manner. Brands can geo-target messaging near their locations.

Dayparting – Program screens by location and time of day, adjusting messaging to that context. Coffee ads in the morning commute. Movie promos in the evening. Concert activations during events. 

Dynamic Content – Screens can rotate through different creatives and pull in real-time data like social media feeds, weather and local promotions. Tailor messages to audience, location and moment.

Live Events – During concerts, sports, festivals and high-profile happenings, display timely and relevant messaging and information to attendees. Sponsors can tie campaigns directly to the action.

Audience Intelligence – Collect anonymous impressions and engagement data to inform planning. See how long audiences dwell on a screen and their responsiveness to placements, creative, copy etc. 

Flexibility – Update or pull campaigns in real-time as situations change. Breaking news, cancelled events, and other factors make dynamic OOH valuable.

Performance Measurement – Leverage industry tools to capture granular campaign data including impressions, changes in foot traffic and engagement. Quantify ROI.

This array of advanced capabilities and Blue Sky’s OOH expertise allow brands to execute data-driven OOH strategies that engage precisely the right consumers at precisely the right time and place. The agility and optimization enabled by digital signage provides brands with an essential component for an omni-channel approach. OOH’s unique ability to influence audience behaviours, purchases and brand perceptions in the physical world makes it an indispensable part of a marketing mix.

Find out more about Blue Sky Event Services here.

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