The numbers don’t lie. According to the latest report by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, Out of Home Advertising or Outdoor Advertising is still king. Although online marketing is currently booming, nothing still beats good old-fashioned methods of campaigning products and services.
Let’s Stick to the Facts
Big companies like Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon all have one thing in common: they know the power of outdoor advertising. The OAA recently released a study showcasing how effective outdoor advertising really is. Just before or near the point of purchase, outdoor advertising effectively engages customers new and old. Not only that but outdoor advertising actually reaches out to more people as opposed to TV ads. According to the study, close to 99% of the US population are reached by outdoor ads as opposed to TV ads (96%).
Local Market
If you own a local business or brand, outdoor advertising should definitely be added to your marketing repertoire. Why? Well, if you’re in the food & restaurant business, outdoor advertising methods reach 57% of potential clients an hour or so before they decide to eat. And if you have a brick and mortar store in a local shopping mall, you can reach out to potential customers one hour prior to their arrival at the mall.
A Huge, Measurable Impact
Nowadays, all our outdoor marketing efforts can be easily tracked with the help of smartphones. Ads (like billboards, street furniture, and car graphics) can have a quick call to action by directing potential clients to Facebook pages, Twitter handles, or to a website.
So What Now?
Now that we still have quantitative data to back up outdoor advertising’s claims, what do we do with this knowledge? Well, the first thing to do is to go for outdoor marketing mediums that’s coherent with a brand’s overall message. For some brands, it means going with car wraps instead of billboards. For some companies, it’s the opposite. And there are those who can massively benefit by making use of both mediums.
For those who are new to outdoor advertising, remember these 3 steps: 1) Make a professional and memorable visual, 2) Put in the right place, at the right time 3) Track and measure results. Some companies make the mistake of doing everything they can to put up a visually stunning ad but fail to measure results.
Remember the Real Role of Outdoor Advertising
For those in the know, they already understand the power of outdoor advertising. When executing an outdoor marketing campaign, remember that its main purpose is to bolster a brand, never to overly inform. You can put a call to action or even a simple (but memorable) hashtag but you don’t put up an outdoor ad to bombard people with information. A simple visual, a brand name, and a call to action are all that’s really needed.