THE RISE OF OOH

Posted In: Media by Alicia Lai,
August 6, 2024

Alicia Lai, Account Manager

Latest figures from Outsmart reveal that the UK’s OOH industry has grown around 16% QoQ in Q1 of 2024 showing brands are continuously harnessing the mass reach channel to achieve their marketing goals. OOH is an exciting media channel with various benefits – you can target certain audiences, is a trusted advertising source for consumers, is highly flexible with the rise of DOOH meaning you can turn adverts on in a flash and can reach massive amounts of people with one single advert. 

Thinking of dipping your toes into the world of OOH – we’ve rounded up some tips to help launch your next OOH campaign. 

Objectives: 

The first thing that should be on your mind is what do you want this OOH campaign to do. Do you want to drive footfall or increase brand awareness? Is this to increase site traffic or drive awareness for a new product? Knowing what your goal is can influence certain factors in the campaign.

Location: 

Once you’ve figured out what your campaign objectives are, you can figure out where you want to be. You could go national or to test your campaign, you could advertise in certain regions to measure campaign success against other control regions with no OOH ads. If you only have showrooms/stores in certain locations, you could ensure you only have OOH sites that are within a certain radius of them.  

Budget: 

Your available budget will impact how much you can do but never fear, you can still activate OOH campaigns with budgets on the lower end of the scale. You could burst your activity within a longer timeframe to allow your advert to reach your core audience. If you’re able to commit to a long term plan, media owners can often bring their rates down for long term campaigns. With a larger budget however, OOH campaigns can get even more exciting! 

Formats: 

OOH doesn’t have to be all 48 and 96 sheets. There are some great visually striking formats out there. 

• London Underground station takeovers: Your brand can takeover a whole station, including the walkways and ads on the escalators. You can even think bigger and rename a London Underground station like Buxton Water did with Canada Water station. In 2020, Playstation replaced the tube roundels at Oxford Circus with the iconic Playstation controller’s buttons. 

• 3D billboards: In 2022, Call of Duty took over the iconic Piccadilly Circus boards with a 3D billboard to launch their new game Modern Warfare II.  

• Taxi wraps: Taxi wraps are a great way to make a stand out impression using the iconic London Black Cabs. Louisiana’s tourism board recently did 10 taxi wraps to highlight their food, music and culture. 

• Mural ads: Ahead of the Euros 2024, the British Heart Foundation used murals to highlight the impact of sudden cardiac death.  

Integration: 

Is there scope to make this an integrated media plan? Some campaigns tie a similar creative across other channels like TV, Radio and Print to keep reaching potential customers at different touchpoints in their day to day lives to keep the messaging front and mind. This could be a great idea if you were planning a new product launch or a significant drive in brand awareness. 

Hopefully, this has sparked some ideas for a great OOH campaign. OOH is a great way to reach a mass audience and increase brand fame. If any of this has tickled your fancy, we can help your make your OOH dreams come true, just give us a call!