What to Add to OOH Advertising for Super Effective Results

BY Rachel Cagle
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Your clients probably reduced out-​of-​home (OOH) ad spending the last two years because… well, consumers weren’t out of their homes. But it’s time for them to rethink that strategy. According to a recent survey by OAAA, by winter 2022, 42% of consumers plan to return to living their pre-​pandemic lives. This means they’ll dine inside at restaurants, shop in person, attend social gatherings, etc. Another 26% plan to increase their socialization but do so creatively/​safely. So, they’ll dine outside, plan outdoor activities and attend socially distanced gatherings. The remaining consumers either aren’t sure (10%) or will be practicing COVID-​level social practices (22%). This is terrific news for OOH advertising.

People are Noticing OOH Advertising

Between September 2020 and October 2021, more consumers say they’ve been noticing OOH advertising. The percentage of consumers who say they’ve been noticing it much more since March 2020 rose from 14% to 23% year-​over-​year. The ad types they’ve been noticing more include billboards, outdoor video screens, posters, signage, and other outdoor ads. Let’s take a look at who has been noticing OOH advertising more as of October 2021:

  • Urban Dwellers (with populations of over one million): 64%
  • Urban Dwellers (with populations less than one million): 56%
  • Suburban Residents: 37%
  • Rural Residents: 32%
  • Gen Zers: 72%
  • Millennials: 62%
  • Gen Xers: 39%
  • Boomers: 23%
  • Males: 44%
  • Females: 41%

Not only are more consumers noticing OOH advertising more often, 85% of them find the ads useful. The ads these consumers find the most useful feature:

  • Special offers and promotions: 42%
  • COVID-​19 safety and hygiene practices: 32%
  • New businesses or services: 29%
  • Business hours and services: 25%
  • Website or social media information: 21%

OOH and Social Media

Your OOH advertising clients should pay special attention to that last bullet point. Yes, OOH advertising works well as a standalone medium, but imagine the possibilities of multimedia campaigns. If 21% of consumers use outdoor ads to navigate to social media pages and websites, that means they also trust these media types and want to do research there. So, your clients should not only add their website and social media pages to their OOH advertising, they should extend their advertising efforts online.

According to AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel, within the last year, 88.6% of Outdoor/​Sign/​Billboard Ad Responders took action after seeing ads on social media. They’re active on Facebook (80.5%), YouTube (68.8%), Instagram (68.2%), and Twitter (50.2%). Additionally, within the last year, these consumers took action after seeing sponsored search results (87.7%), internet banner ads (85.5%) and text link ads on websites (79.7%).

Who Should be Using OOH Ads

OAAA’s study also asked consumers “How relevant to your interests do you find outdoor advertisements?” The top business types include:

  • Retail: (63%) 20% of consumers find OOH advertising very relevant for this business type, while 44% say it’s somewhat relevant
  • Fast Food Restaurants: (62%) 23% find it very relevant, and 40% say it’s somewhat relevant
  • Food and Beverage: (60%) 21% very relevant vs. 39% somewhat relevant
  • Medical and health services: (55%) 19% say it’s very relevant and 36% say it’s at least somewhat relevant
  • Consumer technology: (54%) 22% say it’s very relevant, while 31% say it’s somewhat relevant
  • Automotive: (52%) 18% find them very relevant and 34% say they’re somewhat relevant

And those are just the top six categories.

Consumers are noticing OOH advertising more than they have in a while, and that attention is translating to higher revenues. If you pair OOH ads with social and online ads, your clients could see even better results. So, what are you waiting for? Let them know about this opportunity that their competition may still be sleeping on!

Want to learn more about the impact COVID-​19 has had on media sales? Download our free white paper: 2020 State of Media Sales: COVID-​19 Special Report from AdMall.

Photo credit: Bram Naus


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