Out of Home Advertising: Go Big or Go Home

For the past decade, the only form of non-digital advertising to see global growth in investment is out-of-home and outdoor advertising. And with good reason. Out-of-home and outdoor ads cannot be skipped. Out-of-home and outdoor advertising is the only medium viewers reportedly find non-disruptive, and out-of-home fills valuable visual space in consumers’ worlds.

Our out-of-home media planning and buying complements both brand-building and direct response media buying through its impact and innovation. Laser-focused location selection and frequency planning – to ensure viewers encounter the message multiple times for assured impact – are hallmarks of our work using this traditional channel in disruptive ways.

In the last decade, global out-of-home spending grew +49% (from $25.54 in 2010 to a projected $38.06 B U.S. dollars 1), with emerging economies seeing unprecedented demand.

Despite this growing demand for outdoor and out-of-home advertising, global restrictions on new inventory for legal billboard spaces mean out-of-home advertising costs are rising.  To illustrate: in the US, two out-of-home advertising firms collect nearly half of the out-of-home industry’s revenues.

As an independent media buying agency, our role is to objectively weigh the cost-benefit of advertising placements, and negotiate for the greatest value, in light of the unique benefits that out-of-home may offer to a brand’s multichannel media mix. Similarly, our counsel for clients has evaluated the advertising value of off-market opportunities, such as the billboard value of a cruise line’s signage at an international port.

Growth of the out-of-home advertising market is assured in the transition to digital. Why?

Digital billboards and outdoor ads pull in roughly 7x the amount of revenue as static formats. That’s because digital out-of-home allows a rotation of multiple advertisers based on share of voice, or even time of day, rather than 100% sponsorship. Digital out-of-home and outdoor ads mean that advertisers pay higher rates for only fractional exposure – great news for the out-of-home industry, so-so news for many brand advertisers.

Whatever the format, we work to ensure the added benefit of digital – bright lighting, video and animation, dayparting, and digital-to-offline measurement – yields returns proportional to our client’s advertising investment.

Too often, outdoor ads and out-of-home advertising is the complement to a multichannel campaign. Creative often “echoes” the messaging of ads seen elsewhere in a campaign. But to the consumer, outdoor and out-of-home may in fact be the first point of contact with your message.

Across all our campaigns, we believe all channels must withstand the rigors of a lead channel (a first, primary touchpoint), and a “follow at frequency” which can support the driving message to carry the consumer through to conversion. Lazy creative renders outdoor and out-of-home ad investment particularly ineffective given the size, and visual potential of the medium. Wild posting isn’t the place for plain messaging (or faces, which are easily defaced). Billboards should be bold. And out-of-home in specialty environments, such as transit hubs, should consider the consumer’s attention span in the context of their surroundings.