By Liz van der Westhuizen

According to Hi Lite Advertising, OOH advertising can be broken down into four broad categories: billboards, street furniture advertising, transit advertising and alternative advertising. Billboards in this instance refer to both large billboards and small posters as well as digital billboards and advertising on the sides of buildings or on walls. All bus and train shelters and benches fall under street furniture advertising. Then, transit advertising refers to all advertising on platforms that are mobile, such as taxis, busses, trains and mobile billboards. Alternative advertising consists of all 'other' forms of advertising, such as gas station pumps, blimps, advertising at stadiums, on beaches and in parking lots. Hi Lite Advertising even includes event and experiential advertising under OOH.

Ingrid von Stein, MD of Indigo Zebra Communications captures the variety of opportunities that OOH offers aptly when she says that “there are many open spaces around us that create the same rich and meaningful possibilities for advertising and communications”.

However, in order to best utilise these spaces, one needs a solid understanding of OOH and, more importantly, how consumers reactive and interact with the advertising. As Von Stein explains, people are increasingly spending time away from home. One of the main reasons for this is the ease with which people can travel. A quick survey among my friends pointed out that most of us commute between 40 and 80 kilometres to and from work per day. And most of us travel the exact same route on a daily basis. Von Stein also touches on this when she quotes Porterscope’s SA Out-of-Home Consumer Survey, which reported that 58% of people travel the same route on a daily basis.

This is something marketers can harness. Not only can advertisements promoting products be strategically placed along specific routes to convert passers by into consumers, but this daily repetition of seeing the same advert can do wonders for building your brand and increasing your brand presence.

Another interesting statistic that Von Stein quotes from the same survey is that “over 80% of respondents notice street pole posters, billboards and bus advertising, 85% notice advertising outside a shopping mall and 76% are influenced by billboards.” I squarely fall into all of the above categories. In fact, while chatting with a colleague on the topic, she explained how – while she never really use to eat at Spur, the Spur billboard along the N1 (on her way from work) always leaves her craving their food. As such, she has been taking her kids there a lot more regularly.
There are also some very interesting trends and predictions as to what to expect from OOH in the near future. Perhaps the most exciting trend is that OOH is becoming all the more interactive.

As Posterscope USA's CEO, Connie Garrido explains on Search Marketing Standard: “[We]’re entering an age where consumers can see an OOH campaign and immediately, via a range of technologies, connect directly to a brand’s website for a specific offer or to learn more.” Garrido predicts that soon near-field communications will enable consumers to simply touch their phones against a poster and instantly have access to mobile content.

Recently there have been some very creative local OOH campaigns. One of my favourites is the green billboard that MediaVest, NU Venture, Tractor Outdoor and Draftfcb collaborated on. Done for Emirates airlines, these abovementioned parties conceptualised an exceptional campaign during which they grew plants on a vertical ‘wall garden’ and used it as a billboard. MediaVest’s Robert Notica explained that “the plan was to engage ‘green conscious’ consumers by showing them how the airline connects the world through the use of environmentally friendly material and ‘grows’ its message over time.” The campaign raked in 25 million blog visits, over a 100 000 Twitter mentions and almost 500 000 Facebook likes.

Another innovative OOH campaign was executed by Morrisjones. As a means of launching Indigo Tree, a new online fragrance website, they wrapped big purple scented ribbons around rows of Jacaranda trees. Not only was this a means of grabbing the target market’s attention and gaining additional publicity, but it also allowed passers by the opportunity to literally smell the various fragrances available online on these specially designed scented ribbons.

While there are various examples of unimaginative, bland and wasteful examples of OOH, if it is backed with knowledge of your target market and strategically executed, it can add a touch of flair to your campaign quite unlike any other advertising platform.

What do you think? Have there been any OOH adverts that have grabbed your attention?