The demand for creative OOH campaigns has increased in recent times. This is because OOH advertising — now widely used due to its impact and cost-effectiveness — has proven to be one of the best ways to get your brand directly in front of your target audience.
In the US, advertisers reportedly spent about $8 billion on OOH in 2022. According to Outsmart, OOH advertising reaches 98% of the population every week. Arguably, the best OOH campaign in 2022 was CALM’s suicide prevention ‘smiling portraits’.
As viable as out-of-home advertising is in targetted brand awareness creation, you need to consider some factors to achieve optimal ROI. Context is one of those crucial factors.
While you deploy all tactics to ensure the success of your OOH advertising campaigns, you should be cognizant of the surroundings where the advertisements will be displayed. For instance, it is counter-productive to display travel-based ads on a road that does not lead to the airport.
Why You Should Consider Your Surrounding for the Best OOH Campaigns
Surroundings matter a lot in positioning OOH campaigns. It has a direct impact on the effectiveness of your campaign.
Contextualizing the surroundings means understanding the location and its inhabitants. For your outdoor advertising to matter, the content needs to be relatable to the residents. This requires your astute understanding of their behaviors, cultural habits, socio-economic attributes, and more.
An objective of advertising is to create awareness and inspire conversations. Creating relatable OOH ad campaigns can turn out to be real conversation drivers. Where else would you want to advertise Hawaiian print shirts if not in Hawaii?
3 Factors to Consider in Your Surrounding for OOH Campaigns
You should consider the following factors within your surrounding to get the best out of your outdoor campaigns:
1. The Right Location
Arguably, outdoor advertising is closely related to real estate. In both industries, location matters just as much as calcium does to the bones.
The trick is that whichever space you want your ad to occupy, the content of your ads must align with the residence of that environment as well as highlight the solution that your brand offers.
For instance, a billboard that advertises electronic products and gadgets in an environment battling extreme poverty and insurgency would drive little or no real-time results.
2. Nature of the Market
The nature of the market is an important factor that will determine the form of OOH campaign that you should deploy. Let’s assume you decide to put up outdoor media in a city like Houston, where most residents move by road, it would be perfect to use highway billboards. This way, while they are driving by the highways, they get to see the adverts. On the contrary, New York City residents ply the subway more often.
3. Content of the Message
OOH advertisements that consider the surrounding are very contextual in nature. The content has to consider the state of mind of the residents. Also, the ad has to be in line with the current trends. That way, the audiences can relate better to it. Relatable advertising has been shown to be far more effective than generic ones.
Similarly, you need to ensure the content of your ad is familiar to the residents of the surrounding. You don’t want people gawking at your ad and trying to figure out the message. Take your time to understand the people that inhabit a surrounding and tailor your content to speak directly to them.
