Brands go big on OOH (in more ways than one)

According to OAAA, spending on OOH increased by 3.3% in the first quarter of 2016, with McDonalds, Apple, HBO, Verizon, and Chevrolet being the top five advertisers across this medium. And, interestingly, several brands are said to have more than doubled their OOH spend from the year before, including Chevrolet, Ford, Budweiser, Showtime, Amazon, HBO, and Walt Disney Pictures.

Social media channel Snapchat has been making a splash on OOH for some time now and this year used the medium to launch its “geofilters” capability, and then again in September, when the company rebranded as Snap Inc. and launched the new Snapchat spectacles. Their recent campaign using OOH formats, which depicted their ghost logo with unusual googly eyes (a reference to the spectacles), had people taking to social media to speculate.

A similar approach was taken by Guns N' Roses, who used electronic billboards to fuel interest about their possible reunion, prompting fans to take to social media and ultimately boost ticket sales for a forthcoming tour.

Like Snapchat, other tech giants have made good use of OOH, including Google and Facebook, whose simple and effective ‘Friends’ campaign incorporated extensive OOH to reach audiences while they were outdoors and offline. This earned plaudits from AdWeek'', who noted that “[Facebook] is an iconic brand by now, and is finally acting like one.”

It’s not only established brands stepping out on OOH, though. According to Digiday, a number of US startups are taking to out of home to single themselves out from the crowd. Companies venturing into this space include marketing tech startup, Percolate; mattress company, Casper – who found the New York subway to be “the best place to get a captive audience”; online food-ordering company, Seamless; and health insurance company, Oscar.

Digiday credits Buddy Media with pioneering this trend. Five years ago, the company took the then unusual step - for a startup - of investing heavily in outdoor, especially in airports. This seems to have paid off substantially, perhaps because appearing on a billboard invests a brand with credibility and presence, bringing the “power of the public promise” (as FEPE president, Matthew Dearden, puts it) into play – thereby giving a company the glamour of big brand status.

"Brands are increasingly recognising the value of including OOH as a core part of a strong campaign," notes Peter Lindstrom, sales and marketing executive for Primedia Outdoor. This has perhaps been encouraged by last year’s ‘FeelTheReal’ campaign, which used out of home to advertise itself, highlighting the many strengths of the medium – its ability to foster engagement,  drive online traffic and target specific groups – as well as demonstrating some of the corresponding limitations of competing mediums, notably digital and online advertising.

“The combination of OOH’s old school charm, its innate synergy with cutting edge mobile and digital technology, its capacity to be a head-turning showstopper and to reach audiences at their most receptive, all make for a winning combination,” says Lindstrom.

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