5 Best Practices for Out of Home Advertising

OOH media is powerful – only if you understand how to leverage the media to your advantage. The life size ads, opportunity to grab attention, the beauty of the outdoor – everything can be converted into a memorable ad campaign for your brand.

However, here are a few pointers and best practices to make sure you get your ads right:

The placement of the billboard

OOH advertising allows you to reach out to audience in a particular location. Understanding the composition of the market in which you are looking at advertising is the first step. Understand the busy junctions and the sparsely populated areas. If you are selecting a busy city bustling with traffic street signs and billboards should be the way to go – especially on busy junctions.  Identify the behavioural tendencies and travel patterns of your core audience and then optimize the placement of your outdoor advertisement.

Optimization of the timing

The timing of your OOH campaign matters as much as the location you choose. It’s important to reach the audience in the consideration phase. This requires a visibility driven campaign. The more the visibility of your product, the better the chances will be to take the customers to the next phase and finally buy from you. Big and recognizable branding and images with crisp concise messaging is the key. Reaching the audience in the purchase intent phase would require the message that has a call to action. So, optimize your billboard ads after analysing your audience.

The ad format matters

OOH offers a number of formats for advertising. Static out of home placements offer 100% share of voice in the allotted space. For the duration of the campaign, it’s your voice and  only your campaign that will occupy the space. It cannot be turned off and it cannot be missed. Digital OOH however, are different. The same space can be shared by different campaigns. They have the ability to display videos and interactive ads can give your campaign a new reach.

Build the right message and creative

For an OOH campaign, the right messaging is very important. It’s a known fact that 81% of people who noticed an OOH ad engaged with the messaging – according to Neilson. The kind of engagement may differ, but the ad leads people to either search for the product, visit the website, make a purchase or share it on social media. Make sure that the messaging is in line with your brand positioning and straightforward, clear and has a strong call to action. The image that goes with the message should aid the ad and help create an impact.

Above all, the entire campaign should be well planned, designed – with the messaging well thought of and the call to action crystal clear. Using OOH as an isolated channel for marketing will not create enough impact. Mix it up with all the other marketing channels – both digital and traditional and you will see the results!