Marketing campaigns thrive on analysis. At first, you’ll do some research to find out what your best approach is. Most often, this first approach is very basic: it will probably include some form of social media marketing, maybe emails, and something related to your website. However, when you start looking past the standard marketing campaigns, you’ll realize there are many ways to integrate different mediums into your marketing approach to enhance your current strategy.
Integrating out-of-home (OOH) into your existing marketing plan can bring you many benefits, both at a local level and a national level. With an investment tied to your budget and specially produced for your campaign, we can find you the right location that will give you the best value. The results you’ll get will match the results you’re looking for—we don’t just speak in terms of impressions or engagement, we can get you sales and clients. This is the power of billboards.
Why Billboards
At first glance, thinking about OOH might not sound interesting. There are many questions that may come to mind: Why should you pay for a static image on the side of a highway? Why pay for a traditional medium? For those who haven’t tried outdoor advertising, these questions are standard.
We work with clients who say: we’ve tried everything, and nothing is changing. Their marketing campaigns have become stale, and they’ve maxed out their online push. These are often smaller businesses, relying on neighborhood advertising.
We also work with clients who have successful marketing campaigns, but they want an extra push. Their social profiles, emails, and website are performing just fine—they just want more, and they can afford to have big marketing campaigns in all mediums. These are often national brands, with money to invest but needing local guidance on which locations would be good for outdoor advertising.
In either case, outdoor advertising can help your brand stand above your competition thanks to its powerful community influence. One billboard next to a busy highway can showcase your brand to thousands of people each day, and with our demographic targeting, you’ll be sure to find the audiences that are most likely to buy into your brand.
Billboards aren’t just static images
OOH is much more than just images printed on vinyl displayed on large showboards. It’s a means of reaching large swaths of the population in an affordable and effective way. With OOH, you can get the results you need. For example, if you’re a car mechanic shop and you know you need at least five new clients to make up for your investment, we can work with those goals and make sure you get your return on your investment.
Furthermore, the data speaks for itself:
Over 70% of Americans make it a point to look at billboards while driving.
58% of Americans learned about an event or restaurant they were interested in attending by viewing a billboard.
37% say they look at an outdoor ad each or most of the time they pass one.
56% of Americans mentioned a billboard in conversation with others because they found it funny.
26% of Americans took notice of a phone number on a billboard, while 28% took notice of a web address written on a billboard.
Billboards can also be used as directional imagery to lead your audience toward your physical location. For instance, a gas station billboard near a highway exit can help drivers know where to stop for gas, especially if you show updated prices on the billboard. Instead of just being an image, this is a reminder and encouragement for your audience to stop by your location and make a purchase.
Of course, some billboards aren’t even static in the first place! Digitals are LED-powered billboards that can change creative and feature moving graphics to capture your audience’s attention even more effectively. Digitals are the newest tech development in OOH and are quickly becoming the best way to advertise out of home.
Billboards aren’t just a traditional medium
Billboards aren’t like regular advertising media. When you watch TV, ads interrupt your experience. TV ads stand in the way of you and your favorite TV show. Same goes for social media ads and mobile ads. With billboards, they are simply a part of the experience of driving. You don’t stop driving when you see a billboard—in fact, billboards are a welcome distraction. Most people enjoy looking at billboards, and they take notice of those brands.
How to Integrate OOH
For many brands, the question of integrating OOH can seem like a challenge. How do you take your existing marketing efforts and add outdoor advertising?
The benefit of adding OOH to your marketing campaigns is that it’s an easy complement to any strategy. With any marketing effort, adding outdoor advertising is as simple as finding where your target demographics live and then picking the right location to reach them.
You don’t have to develop a brand new campaign when using outdoor advertising—an OOH campaign can be molded to an already existing strategy. However, you can also include outdoor advertising when designing a marketing strategy, thus making the outdoor campaign much more effective.
Combining OOH and Mobile Advertising
Even before the pandemic, OOH and online ads were already an effective duo. Studies show that adding OOH to an online ad campaign can improve the efficacy of the campaign by over 300%. With smartphones becoming a much more intrinsic part of our lives and most people carrying them outdoors, it’s easier for OOH to use automation and provide data for re-targeting online.
Consider the purchasing journey. When a person is thinking about buying a product, the research process is often where advertising works best. A person might be thinking about fixing their roof, for instance. They may have some options in mind, and they may even have already called some of their options. But when they see ads on mobile, they may have another option to consider. When you add outdoor advertising to the mix, you can reach this person when they’re out living, eating, commuting, and even shopping. By the end of the campaign, you’ve managed to keep your brand on the forefront of your audience’s mind.
Commuting is a huge part of people’s lifestyle. When people see an outdoor ad with frequency, they’re much more likely to invest in your brand. Then, you can reinforce your brand with mobile advertising. It’s an approach that makes sure to reach your audience in different avenues. When your audience is out of the home, they can see your advertising on OOH, which builds trust and reliability. When they’re on their phones, they can see mobile ads that will have clear CTAs and lead to shopping opportunities.
The connection between outdoor advertising and social media is also huge. The partnership comes to life when they’re paired intentionally, increasing exposure by 13% and sales by 8%. You can also push the power of sharing: since outdoor advertising is mostly visual, people love sharing fun creative on their social media, which then leads to viral posts being shared with many followers.
Local Appeal
Achieving local appeal is outdoor advertising’s bread and butter. A billboard mostly reaches the people who drive around that location on a regular basis, so you’re mostly going to get results based on geographic location targeting. This is where our geographic profiles come in handy—we’ve already mapped out regions and neighborhoods with demographic profiles to help you reach the audiences most likely to buy into your brand.
Businesses that have local ties are best suited to using outdoor advertising. Any business with a brick and mortar location can benefit from neighborhood advertising, like restaurants, small businesses, dentists and hospitals, and even home repair. Some businesses don’t necessarily have physical locations, but they operate locally and often use OOH to their benefit, like attorneys or real estate agents.
When people drive by a billboard on a regular basis and see your name or brand frequently, you’ll build trust and reliability within that community which leads to more business referrals and a higher return on your investment.
National Appeal
OOH can also be perfect for national brands. For example, big brands like McDonald’s often place the same creative throughout different cities and states. When people travel, they can recognize the branding and the pricing and crave their favorite hamburger. National brands have the opportunity to replicate their branding throughout the country to maximize brand recognition.
But smaller brands can also get national attention. Though it’s not always in their interest, local brands can get national attention via creative. Billboards are often shared through visual social media apps like Instagram, and when these posts go viral, small brands can see a surge in popularity that might grow their business.
Integrating outdoor advertising into your marketing strategy can improve your results and help you reach a better return on your investment. Talk to one of our account executives today and start seeing the benefit of adding outdoor advertising to your marketing campaigns!