Elonex News

Out of Home Advertising: Our How-to Guide for SMEs

November 10, 2021

Courtesy of Talon Outdoor

 

For SME’s when it comes to finding customers, increasing brand awareness and generating revenue, there may not be a “one size fits all” approach – but Out Of Home (OOH) can adapt and cater to reach these incredibly valuable audiences.

Whether they’re driving from A to B or hitting the shops, as one of the worlds oldest advertising mediums OOH has evolved to become a dynamic, adaptive, innovative and interactive medium.

Here are 5 reasons why SMEs invest in Out of Home. 

1. Out of Home packs an impact

Firstly, OOH is a broadcast medium that can quickly make brands “famous,” which is perfect for SMEs who have something to shout about and want to attract customers and generate interest in their product, service or brand. Unlike other advertising mediums, it cannot be avoided, blocked or switched off – thus helping brands to be seen and, more importantly, to be remembered.

Out of Home reaches 98% of the UK population at least once a week, proving time and time again that it effectively and consistently reaches audiences within their local communities. Being visible in urban locations such as bus stops, roadsides and malls raise the profile of your company, making it famous and helping it to stand out from the crowd.

2. Out of Home influences actions 

In this day of age, with more people owning a smartphone than a toothbrush, OOH generates quick call-to-actions with consumers snapping, searching and shopping within a short space of time after seeing the advert. According to a study by Outsmart, OOH drives an average uplift of 17% in smartphone brand actions. Millennials are most likely to be persuaded to purchase a product after seeing an OOH advert, with 66.4% saying they are extremely likely/somewhat likely. This is closely followed by Gen Z at 60% and Gen X at 60.7% (Ubimo).

 

3. Out of Home is relevant 

There’s nothing worse than being targeted with an advert that is irrelevant to you, right? With OOH, and more specifically digital OOH, data and technology now enable more efficiencies with audience targeting with the ability to dial-up or down campaign spend based on when your target audience is most likely to see your advertising.

4. Out of Home brings your campaigns to life 

There’s something different about seeing an advert on a laptop or phone screen versus on the street. OOH is the ultimate creative medium. With digital OOH, SMEs can ensure their advertising creative is bold and delivers cut through by using animation, video content, or optimising messaging depending on the location, time, audience, or even the weather!

OOH provides impact, memorability, and a wealth of creative opportunities to engage with audiences.

5. Out of Home is a trusted medium

OOH is a public medium and research has shown this makes the medium’s messages more trusted. According to Work Research, people are +17% more likely to feel confident in a brand using OOH, +15% more likely to feel it is a successful brand and +14% more likely to trust that brand.

Further research shows that audiences welcome the advertising in OOH and 40% of people are more positive towards OOH compared to 16% for online ads. Our own Talon Benchmark data also demonstrates an average uplift of +26% in trust when OOH is part of the media mix, measured for key brand campaigns using OOH.

How can we customise Out of Home to fit your SME’s needs? 

There’s not a “one size fits all” approach when it comes to advertising for SME’s. Effective campaigns are ones that deliver a relevant message to your audience at the right time, in the right location.

One such platform that facilitates this is Atlas. Through Atlas, advertisers can optimise a digital OOH plan based on the audiences you are already targeting as part of your digital strategy – e.g. Business commuters, families or shoppers. Alternatively, Atlas has a selection of its own audience templates, such as “environmentally-conscious” or “frequent film fans.”

Examples of SMEs using Out of Home advertising 

HUN Wine 

Due to launch its new wine-in-a-can product at several festivals cancelled by lockdown, HUN Wine had to completely rethink its strategy. With UK OOH audiences declining, many brands cancelled OOH campaigns – but not HUN Wine. Rather than following suit, HUN Wine decided to launch an outdoor campaign for no one to see.

With light-hearted tone and tongue-in-cheek messaging, HUN Wine mocked its decision to launch their brand with OOH during lockdown. The lack of footfall around London as well as 10 other cities, fuelled the campaign’s punchy and humorous messaging, “Look everybody! We’ve just launched a new wine. Anybody? Anybody? Anybody?”

Using OOH as the launch platform was a risk that paid off. The campaign generated a huge amount of interest and despite the challenging circumstances, HUN wine managed to successfully launch their brand whilst the country was in lockdown.

Tipi

In a fiercely competitive rental market, the stakes were high for Tipi to cut through the noise and reach those considering renting. Tipi needed to be smart with its campaign strategy to reach London’s commuters.

Their multi-phased campaign utilised anonymised mobile and SDK data to focus on its target audience down to an individual poster level to ensure minimum wastage. Tipi’s OOH ads produced large gains in brand awareness of over 17% and allowed them to take the lead within their competitor market.

Fineco Bank

Fineco’s ‘Trade Without Compromise’ campaign was its first UK OOH campaign, encouraging trade investors to consider returning to the UK market post-Covid. The campaign aimed to raise awareness and consideration within Fineco’s target audience.

Through Atlas, Talon’s intelligent automated digital OOH platform, Fineco was able to identify their target audience based on real and recent audience behaviours, Atlas booked the campaign to run on digital OOH sites with the geofenced areas to best reach the target audience, with the right message at the right team. The strategy paid off, with the campaign outperforming against all KPI’s and key OOH benchmarks.

 

talonoutdoor.com