Advertising has been dominated by granular performance metrics and audience micro-targeting campaigns that have short-lived digital impressions for many years now. While digital advertisements and campaigns have their time and place depending on goals, many advertisers are going back to the basics: out-of-home (OOH) advertising.
The ad landscape is oversaturated with digital noise, and once again, OOH is giving brands the space, scalability, and massive impact to think bigger and be bolder.
Big Ideas, Big Canvas
Great advertising relies on scale, and oftentimes, simplicity. OOH is the culmination of both, and a single billboard or large-format digital screen forces brands to cut down their ideas and message straight to the core.
Many ads, especially digital, can become convoluted, messy, and unfocused with extra unneeded verbiage and marketing language. This constrains creativity and confuses viewers. Advertisers are shifting their messaging and campaigns and returning to ad 101 foundations with OOH.
Brands have only seconds of attention to work with, and OOH forces them to make the absolute best of it; oftentimes leading to the most creative, impactful, and viral campaigns.
OOH Reintroduces Cultural Impact
Unlike digital ads that live in silos, OOH lives out in public, where everyone can see and feel them. When a campaign appears on highways, city centers, and bustling transit hubs, people not only see it, but they talk about it. Pictures are taken, social media posts are uploaded, and a buzz is created.
This unique ability, creating culture impact and presence, is what allows OOH campaigns to bypass granular marketing plans and go straight into the bloodstream of pop culture and popularity. Big ideas thrive in big visibility markets, OOH offers just that.
OOH Encourages Bravery
Placing a message in the physical world is a statement. It signals commitment to an idea, a belief in it, and true confidence. That public visibility pushes brands to take creative risks, especially since billboards often have so few words. Risks are avoided in digital placements, but billboards are the distillation of confidence and impact; a place where brands take a risk or two.
Ads are designed to disappear quietly on digital platforms, especially if they underperform. OOH is the opposite, it demands ownership and accountability.
Final Thoughts
OOH is not replacing digital advertising, but it’s reminding the entire ad industry about the fundamentals and basics of advertising. By restoring messaging and campaigns back to what truly works and makes impact, brands are able to perform bigger than ever.
