– Top 5 OOH advertising tips

Imagine you’re at a party with lots of people. Some of the guests there are your good friends and some are new faces. You recognize a few of the newer faces but you can’t remember who they are. Some are faces you are seeing for the very first time. 

Now imagine that each of those people are a brand.

Your good friends at the party? Those are the brands you know well, the ones you buy all the time. Maybe it’s your favourite flavor of chips or the jeans that make you feel your best.

The faces you’ve seen before? Those are the brands you might recognize, but they don’t leave much of an impression. Maybe you’ve even bought them but haven’t paid much attention. Like the toothpaste sitting on your counter, is it mint? Spearmint? Cleanmint? You don’t really care right?

What about the faces you’re seeing for the first time? If you’re a new brand on the market, you’re making a first impression with every piece of communication. Will you be the life of the party and dazzle the crowd or make a quiet connection in the corner? Whatever you do you are communicating and your goal is to get noticed.

There’s a lot of different ways you might converse with people. When it comes to marketing, OOH is your opportunity to make a first impression. Successful OOH marketing is like locking eyes with someone across the room and making an instant connection – Easier said than done!

If you’re a new brand out there looking to connect with an audience, we’ve got 5 party etiquette tips to make sure your OOH marketing hits the mark with consumers.  

Tip #1: Dress to Impress

You’re meeting someone for the first time. It’s loud, crowded, noisy, and you only have a few seconds to get noticed. Are you going to wear your old gym clothes? No way! 

You’ve got to look your best. When it comes to OOH marketing, your design is as important as your words. People are driving by at high speeds or walking by with their head in their phone. 

Imagine a beautiful stranger walking by in a stunning red dress – you’d probably take a second look. 

Like deciding on your outfit, think about where your ad is going to appear and what is going to help it stand out. 

You might think you need bright, bold colors, but sometimes unexpected simplicity like this South Park ad gets noticed for going against the grain.

Tip #2: Introduce yourself

If you’re a new brand, OOH is the perfect medium to get on people’s radars. It’s a big, bold way to say, “hello world! We’re here”. 

Think of out of home as your grand entrance to the ball. You’re walking down the stairs and for a moment, all eyes are on you. 

This is a reminder of the real purpose of OOH advertising. Out of home is a great medium to build awareness and generate hype.

Even if no one has ever heard of your brand, when they suddenly see it everyday on their commute to work, they’re going to think, “wow, this brand is the real deal”. 

Nothing says you’ve made it like a 10 foot tall billboard. 

Tip #3: Don’t do all the talking

There’s a real art to out of home advertising. You’ve got the biggest canvas available, but there’s very little room to talk. 

Think about getting to know someone new. You don’t want to hear the other person talk about themselves the whole time right? Discovering a new brand is the same. 

You don’t need to tell your whole story in one piece of OOH. You want to intrigue the person, or better yet, show them what you can offer them, or how they will benefit from your brand. 

Check out this example from Hello-Products that only suggests to people that they can “slay dragon breath”. Instead of talking about themselves, they are using very few words to offer an emotional benefit to the consumer. 

Tip #4: Skip the details

As a new brand, you probably have lots of things you want to tell people. Like what makes you different, your story, or where to find you. Getting new customers is important, so you might want to make sure they know your website, your phone number, your address, maybe even your hours?

It’s tempting, but there’s usually no need to include any contact information on your OOH content. If you have an easy to remember name or slogan or something people can search, then you don’t need to include any additional details. 

Keep in mind, OOH marketing works best as part of a greater marketing plan. OOH plants the seed, but it’s great to combine it with digital marketing or coupons and mailers to get consumers to take action. 

Also remember that people are driving or walking past your OOH content and they likely will not have time to stop and take a picture or write down your number.

You also don’t need to include any social icons, people know they can find your brand online.

There are some exceptions to this rule. Sometimes it can be a great idea to use directions for location specific billboards. McDonalds famously did this in the example below. 

The other reason you may want to include a website or relevant contact information is if your brand name is generic, like “Apple” but doesn’t yet have the established meaning, and therefore it can’t easily be searched online. In this case your website name might be different than your brand name and hard to search. 

Take for example “method”. Method is a recently created line of soaps. It doesn’t yet have established equity to be able to stand on its own. 

In this example, method is showing a picture of the product (the soap dispenser upside down as a lamp) and grounding the consumer in a physical place (Target Market) to drive action.

This is a great example. They are showing they are clean and simple ingredients, simply by featuring their clear bottle and liquid. They don’t tell you everything you need to know about the product, just that it’s a “bright” idea (because it’s just a clean lamp), and where to find it.  

Tip #5: Start a conversation

You can’t say everything in an OOH ad, but you can start a dialogue with your audience.

If your OOH is successful in getting people’s attention, you want to make sure you are using it effectively. Get them to take a next step, or make your OOH work even harder for you by making it so unique and interesting that the ad is actually worth talking about. 

This OOH ad for a new Dracula series did just that with an OOH that had a hidden message after dark. During the day it looked like a bunch of bloody stakes, but by night, an image of a vampire appeared. Spooky. 

Spending a little extra time and effort on creating an incredible ad helped this new series gain extra media coverage and PR. 

As a new brand, getting your first billboard is a big deal. 

You will want to say more than you could ever fit. But remember the party etiquette. You want to get noticed. Once you have someone’s attention you want to leave them feeling good about the connection by not overdoing it. 

OOH is your conversation starter. Be simple, be clear, and open the door to a deeper connection with your audience.