The Resurgence of OOH Advertising

Sam Tidmarsh investigates Co-op’s new OOH advertising campaign ahead of Chief Customer Officer Ali Jones’ presentation at ad:tech London 2019

Out-of-home advertising, also known as outdoor media, is tailored to consumers “on the go” as they travel and move through public spaces.

Historically OOH has been difficult to measure, with planners and brands lacking sufficient data to build effective insights on audience.

In recent years, however, OOH has seen a resurgence, thanks to newfound granularity and flexibility generated by data and digital. Mobile has been at the forefront of this revival, enabling advertisers to understand movement and behaviour of audiences in real time.

This allows planners to access highly-localised audiences based on specific characteristics and attributes, in a wide variety of locations across towns and cities – audiences that are often far more relevant than those of other media channels.

Through digital-out-of-home (DOOH), planners can even build location-based activations in conjunction with mobile data as individuals enter the proximity of a particular medium.

In the years since Nike’s successful “Write the Future” campaign, we’ve seen increasing cases of reactive, smart campaigns powered by data.

Data-driven insights can ensure a personal, localised experience. But this doesn’t mean that the creative side will simply be left behind. In Co-op’s recent campaign, what we see is a carefully crafted creative focus that enhances relevance and ensures impactful storytelling.

Connecting with community through hyper-localised OOH advertisement

Co-op has launched its new out-of-home campaign, and just in time for summer.

The campaign: “It’s what we do”, a collaborative effort between Carat, Posterscope, and Lucky Generals, is the first time in Co-op’s 175 year history that its three central arms – Food, Funeral, Insurance – have been brought together under one cohesive OOH marketing strategy.

“In the heart of communities across the UK”

The campaign features 150 localised messages starring real-life beneficiaries of their Local Community Fund.

The advertisements, placed “in the heart of communities across the UK”, are placed carefully in proximity of stores and funeral homes.

One advertisement reads “Our tea gives Warrington Mencap a break”, referring to a local charity that supports social inclusion of those with learning disabilities, a charity that Co-op also runs events for.

For Lee Mabey, integration strategy director at Posterscope, the OOH campaign offers “relevance at scale… [connecting] people with the good causes that they care about”.

“We’re ensuring that every media channel has a layer of personalisation and storytelling built in”, said Kate Lunt, Client Director at Carat.

Can OOH really offer more tailored local communication? 

We increasingly hear that brands want to open a conversation with consumers and build a relationship.

The excitement of OOH advertisement is that it moves beyond indifferent digital clicks.

It can feel more ‘real’ for the consumer who walks past a Co-op advertisement on the way to the hairdresser, or when they rattle past in their car on the way to work… it drives dynamic connections that move beyond clicks and (likely weak) conversion rates.

It’s not a secret that we’re becoming increasingly numb to online advertisement. Across all ad formats and placements display ad CTR is just 0.05%… yep, that means five clicks per 10,000 impressions. No wonder Google no longer publishes banner ads data… 

For companies that want to cut through the noise, reaching consumers in the right place at the right time, makes a significant difference.

Is OOH the future of advertising?

Out-of-home advertising must be working – as the marketplace is exploding. The global digital OOH market is on target to grow at a CAGR of 11% during 2019-2024.

As we hear of novel OOH techniques like 3D holographic images, cloud-based peer-to-peer content creation and display, ever evolving software and hardware options, improving IoT connectivity and, of course, AI… it’s unsurprising to hear that OOH is catching on once more.

So is it the ‘future’? Well, in all likelihood it’s more nuanced.

Consumers who receive messaging across channels have way higher engagement — consumers are 166% more engaged when communicated to via more than a single channel, and a whopping 642% more engaged than customers who received no messages whatsoever.

The personalisation of advertisement is more important – reaching the consumer in the right place, at the right time, in the right mood.

Innovative cross-media optimisation helps brands reach the consumer in a world where consumers want things seamlessly, easily… and right now.

Successful marketers are increasingly utilising multiple channels to reach the consumer, and OOH allows brands to deliver advertisements in a truly exciting, innovative and creative way.

Combining creativity with data-driven insights can drive engagement through personalisation and relevance at scale, and campaigns like “It’s what we do” are leading the resurgence.