As strategic planners, our job is to consider the most effective and creative approaches that we can bring to market based on our clients’ goals, maximized budgets and, hopefully, a mix of genius creative spin.
As an out of home and experiential marketing strategist, my job is to ensure that media planners, buyers and strategists are considering the often-overlooked channels that I work in throughout the year. In that spirit, here are 10 reasons why you should be taking a deeper look at Out of Home media and Experiential marketing.
-
Successful brands use more Out of Home (and Experiential).
According to a recent study of global brands done by WARC (the international authority on advertising and media effectiveness) more successful brands allocated an average of 13% of their budgets to out of home from 2008 to 2016. In contrast, out of home’s share of global advertising spend has averaged only 6% since 1990. Is this 7% disparity the secret strategic sauce for these successful brands?
-
Out of Home is just below your competitors’ radars.
The advantage for you as an account strategist, when only 6% of media allocation is dedicated to Out of Home media budgets, is that the market is ready for your brand to take over. Chances are good that you could own the OOH channel for your category in multiple markets.
Aren’t you looking for a better share of voice than you get on first-thought, saturated media channels like digital / online?
-
Out of home and experiential launch a whole new realm of “creative”.
You’ve seen them: those amazing OOH and experiential campaigns that make you say “WOW!”. Are you considering how you can do this for your brands? There are palettes as large as whole DMAs waiting for your brand’s bold, creative stance. There are events waiting for your transformation via experiential engagement strong enough to be shared across whole social media networks. These channels could be the new creative edge you’ve been seeking. Besides, when was the last time someone told you about an amazing online or mobile ad?
-
Out of Home + experiential offer an underutilized, multi-pronged approach.
As a strategic consideration, Out of Home and Experiential marketing can be combined for better messaging and engagement on two separate levels. As a broad sweep approach, most OOH spaces will be rock-solid advocates for your brand 24/7 during your flight. They will broadcast continually to all that pass, providing deep reach and market penetration—never taking a break, and only asking for your best creative ideas to be the strongest they can be.
On the flip side, experiential strategies and activations will provide consistent short bursts of 1-on-1 engagement —deep engagement beyond static media— while gobbling up large numbers of valuable impressions from those viewing the engagement and supporting experiential media at the footprint, like cool wrapped vehicles.
-
Out of Home and Experiential amplify your additional media strategies.
The truth is, Out of Home + Experiential equals more than a 2-pronged approach. They also amplify digital, social and mobile. Did you know that 98% of consumers create digital or social content at events and experiences? (EventTrack 2016) Out of Home and Experiential live robust second lives online, especially via these valuable social media shares.
Isn’t a more robust punch to your social, mobile and digital on your 2018 bucket list? If so, consider this: according to the OAAA, OOH can amplify other media channels by up to 300%.
-
Experiential marketing deeply reflects brands’ needs for engagement over traffic.
At a recent digital strategy seminar that I attended covering Online Ad Fraud, (we OOH specialists are always trying to round-out the learning), the digital specialists on the panel were advocating for deeper engagement as their #1 target goal. The days of “just get me more traffic on my site!” are long gone. Quality traffic and engagement are the new baseline. This engagement with quality traffic is also available IRL via experiential activations.
As an account lead, excellent consumer engagement is a major goal for you. Experiential marketing has proven time and again that it is an amazing channel for people engagement, translated into strong social media engagement during and after an event.
-
Out of home is data and demographic driven.
The new Out of Home has completely adopted the power of data to reach your specific target demographics. OOH spaces are now providing very specific profiling data about who passes and sees structures, providing deep levels of demo precision and granularity.
In addition, experiential allows you to cherry-pick events that are crafted to attract and engage specific demographics. These events happen throughout the year, and experiential marketers know how to reach them, or more specifically, engage with them 1-on-1.
-
Out of home and experiential marketing address the Audience + Location + Data delivery like no other.
The beauty of Out of Home and Experiential is that you can deliver the right message, to the right audience, at strategically opportune times to delight, surprise and engage them. Like any tool or instrument, smart brands are “earning their chops” around this idea by practicing, tweaking and refining their OOH and Experiential work. This practice is done at the hyper-local level where different strategies are used in different environments and for different audiences (i.e. urban vs. suburban, San Francisco vs. San Antonio, college-bound students vs. C-level execs). The highly-targeted approaches are as limitless as the number of brands and target demographics in the USA and beyond.
In addition to smart media planners knowing the DMA media topography and various approaches to reach target audiences, location and behavior-driven data from the devices that audiences carry in their pockets is helping Out of Home and Experiential to accelerate in attribution and targeting. With the voices of clients demanding better targeting and attribution in their ears, OOH and experiential are entering the passing lane and accelerating with urgency. If you only consider Out of Home for “broadcasting” to a wide swath of multiple demographics, or experiential marketing for a “hit or miss” approach, it’s time to update those areas in your clients’ and brands’ playbooks.
-
Out of Home is one of the only growing media channels, experiential adoption is up, and people are spending more time away from their homes.
There is a convergence of growth and human behavior outside that is placing Out of Home and Experiential at a nexus of opportunity for marketers. It’s a secret in plain view: as people spend 70% of their time away from their homes, they are in the proximity of more OOH strategies and experiential activations.
This, in addition to more digital networks, has been driving growth for Out of Home for 10 consecutive years. According to MAGNA, “OOH has been the only ‘traditional’ media category to show consistent growth in the last ten years, while TV and radio have stagnated and print sales have declined.” MAGNA predicts continued growth of 3% to 4% per year in the next five years to reach $33 billion by 2021.
The growth is also felt by Experiential activations, which are particularly popular in the eyes of Millennials, a group who, studies show, favors experiences over things. This preference spills over into the type of marketing strategies they do not ignore or block. As Millennial consumers’ influence grows in the market, so will their preference for more Experiential marketing. Are you ready for this boom? Smart strategists will position themselves around this convergence of OOH, Experiential, and outside activity, where brands maximize delivery efficiencies and minimize waste.
-
Out of Home and Experiential marketing only reach humans.
You are being paid to reach people. It’s sounds so simple, but that is your broad target demographic. Unfortunately, some media channels provide a lot of non-human traffic. (Yes, we are talking about bots.)
Consider this very simple, but incredibly compelling truth: OOH and Experiential reach only humans. In a world of increasing client demand for correct attribution, this is a refreshing statement that on its own should compel any account strategy professional unfamiliar with OOH and Experiential to look more deeply at the strategies and creativity they facilitate.
There are many more reasons to take a close look at OOH and experiential, but I’ll stop at ten for now. If you’d like to pick up the conversation offline, I’d love to hear from you, and discuss how they can positively impact your brands and accounts! Email me at jerry@emcoutdoor.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrybuckley
Want to learn more about how to integrate OOH & EXP into your existing plans, contact us to set up a webinar:
