In every industry, most marketers have a common goal: to ensure their advertising spend brings in more revenue.
Tactics and strategies have to help drive actions and motivate buyers. But how do you know that you’re spending your advertising budget the right way?
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is becoming relevant and innovative as ever, and it’s the only traditional format that continues to show consistent growth.
In this digital age, attention spans can be short and privacy concerns aren’t an issue, and OOH coupled with digital innovation can offer some very attractive offers for brands to reach out to audiences.
But where do you start, and how do you know you’ll get your money’s worth out of OOH advertising? We offer a few suggestions on making sure you’ve covered your bases as you make your foray into this advertising channel.
1. Create cross-platform ad campaigns and strategies
As with any marketing campaign, a solid advertising strategy is non-negotiable, and when it comes to OOH, your reach and effectiveness can be boosted by incorporating cross-platform campaigns.
The days of single-channel strategies and managing channels separately won’t yield the same results as a comprehensive cross-media strategy.
Having an integrated strategy that links OOH to other channels can help you determine how well your campaign is performing. But it also has added benefits.
During the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, OOH advertising was one of the most trusted ways to relay important public health information, according to IpsosMRBI.
By creating cross-platform strategies, advertisers can use both OOH and the linked digital channels to quickly update messaging in real-time.
Digital and OOH advertising have clear synergy and can be used together to plan campaigns. OOH campaigns are memorable, with up to 82% recall, providing a visual experience to target audiences.
Brands that exist mostly in the digital space can capitalize on OOH by encouraging engagement on digital (social media and more).
OOH is more important than ever, and you can maximize your advertising spend by creating cross-platform campaigns that maximize awareness and engagement.
2. Find a one-stop-shop
Advertising can be a more seamless process when you partner with the right outdoor advertising agency that offers a one-stop-shop for all your needs.
An agency that has a full-service approach can provide support throughout the entire process, helping you choose the right type of advertising and drawing on their wealth of experience for locations, design, and nuances of the particulars of OOH advertising.
Rather than spreading yourself thin with multiple suppliers who have to coordinate and work together, a full-service advertising agency will have experts who have experience working together and with clients in a wide variety of industries and different campaigns, and they can help you optimize your campaigns and maximize your results accordingly.
Look for full-service agencies with years of experience specifically in OOH advertising.
They know the market and challenges you face, your preferences, workflows, and products and services, meaning you can build a long-term partnership with an agency that understands your business.
Their solutions will be customized to your particular situation and needs, and they’ll be able to share best practices with proven success.
A one-stop-shop with a single point of contact will also save you time. One contract, one account manager, A regular pain point is coordinating different vendors and connecting with them individually to get through the work involved in OOH advertising.
Full-service agencies may be able to offer better pricing deals, and coupled with knowledge of the area and market, may save you advertising dollars.
As COVID-19 restrictions lift and people reconnect, socialize, play sort, and take up activities they were deprived of in recent months out of their homes, there will be an important opportunity for OOH advertisers to capitalize on positive feelings and the ‘new normal’.
Choosing a partner with experience who’s not afraid of innovating is crucial, as they’ll be able to help navigate and make the most of this opportunity.
3. Advertise where your customers are: find the right location
Getting your money’s worth out of advertising is about making the right decisions that target audiences in the right way…and the right location. OOH placements are highly location-specific, grassroots, and strategically chosen by the agency so your message can find its way to the audience you’re trying to engage.
Location is carefully selected to target captive audiences, probably more than any other form of advertising. This allows companies to get a quick understanding of how many people were exposed to their ads and of the impact of their campaigns.
This can be highly useful when testing advertising campaigns, which can answer questions about impact, audience segmentation response, and other performance metrics.
A smaller budget can be invested to test a message or tactic, and measuring results will allow you to iterate to improve outcomes and performance.
OOH is creatively versatile and reaches audiences regardless of the media they use. OOH can’t be blocked, skipped, or deleted. And while digital advertising audiences are fragmenting, OOH audiences are consistently increasing, and your audience is captive.
Agencies with the right network can offer everything from grassroots, local, regional, and national media placement opportunities. This means brands can reach audiences at a national level for a highly competitive CPM.
4. Don’t forget your loyal customers
Getting value out of your advertising spend isn’t just about creating awareness or driving new sales. Too many marketers prioritize acquiring new customers over retaining customers, again according to Nielsen ( 41% of marketers rank acquiring new customers and 28% named increasing brand awareness as the top objective, compared to 13% for retaining customers).
Unfortunately, this often means that you may be missing out on an opportunity. With customer loyalty dropping globally, brands can’t rely on previous exploits to keep their customers. They need to adjust their marketing techniques and tactics (and investment) to boost and recapture customer retention.
Acquiring a new customer can be far more expensive than retaining an existing one, and if you believe research by Bain & Company and KPMG, among others, if you can increase customer retention rates by 5%, you increase profits by anywhere from 25% to 95%. This can be the biggest revenue driver. In fact, customer retention can mean the difference between companies that grow and those that stagnate.
So when you’re determining your advertising budget, be sure to carve a space for campaigns that target existing customers. Diversifying your customer base is important, but so too is rewarding those who stay loyal to your brand. And if you can use OOH effectively to offer genuine, relevant content to your loyal customers, you’ll likely be rewarded and appreciated, especially during turbulent times like these.
Over to You
Are you taking advantage of the strengths of OOH advertising to reach your ideal customers? Please explore our arena advertising opportunities or contact Rec Media today, so that we can help you make the most of your advertising budget.
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