Out-of-home advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry for a reason — it works.
Research indicates that companies earn an average of $5.97 for every $1.00 they spend on OOH ads.
With figures like these, your company may want to get started with OOH in marketing. If so, it can be useful to take a look at how other companies have used OOH ads effectively before you begin designing your own.
That’s why we’ve put together this article highlighting 7 great OOH advertising examples to give you a better sense of what might work for your company.
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What is OOH in Advertising and Marketing?
Before getting into the out-of-home advertising examples, let’s take a second to make sure we’re all on the same page about what is out of home advertising.
Out-of-home advertising is any type of advertising that a user only sees while outside of their home. Out of home billboards, digital billboards, public transportation ads and posters are all examples of OOH advertising.
Why do companies use out of home ads?
Companies often use OOH advertising because it allows them to reach their target audience at a unique point in their day.
Typically, someone’s mind is at its most occupied when they’re at home or work. This can make it difficult to share advertising that resonates with a person when they’re on their computer or watching TV.
OOH ads let you target your audience precisely when they have nothing else going on. This makes it more likely for them to engage with your ad and for you to get the follow-through that you want.
Distinguishing between digital and traditional out of home advertising
Digital-out-of-home advertising (DOOH) is a sub-type of out-of-home advertising.
It’s an important distinction to make because the OOH ads that you display on digital devices can be very different from the ones that you display through traditional mediums like standard billboards.
With digital out of home marketing, you can:
- Display high-resolution images
- Use animations in your ads
- Swap between multiple screens to tell a more compelling story
- Integrate your ads with other technologies, such as social media
These features can help companies to create OOH ads that are more engaging to their target audience than their non-digital counterparts. Additionally, DOOH ads are typically easier to install, update and manage than OOH ads that are displayed through analog mediums.
For example, you can use a digital signage solution like UPshow to manage your Digital Out of Home content remotely. You can also do things like create precise rotation schedules for your ads to make sure that you’re swapping from screen to screen at the right intervals to have the maximum impact on your target audience.
Of course, regular OOH ads can still be effective — you just don’t have as many options with them. As you read through the following 7 examples of OOH advertising, consider how the companies covered utilized the unique features available through DOOH ads.
7 Examples of Out of Home or OOH Campaigns
CVS
CVS recently ran a brilliant OOH (out of home) campaign in New York City’s Times Square. The campaign showcased a series of unedited selfies with the hashtag #BeautyUnaltered. People who saw the signs could then upload their unedited selfies with that hashtag to get them displayed in Times Square.
This ad is an excellent example of how to generate digital buzz (through social media) with an in-person campaign. CVS benefitted from the brand recognition and connection it got from everyone who stopped to look at the sign. And it also benefited from having its hashtag, #BeautyUnaltered, spread across social media.
This is one way you can get more out of your OOH ads–incentivize customers to interact with your brand digitally and benefit from both in-person and online impressions, while only actually having to pay for the in-person ones.
Twitter recently ran an OOH advertising campaign that had a similar effect to the CVS example shown above. The popular social media company started displaying certain tweets from users during the height of the pandemic.
This was a great idea because Twitter posts are something that a lot of people are familiar with and relate to, but you don’t often see them unless you’re browsing on your phone or computer. Sharing a Twitter post on a billboard was an instant way for the company to grab its audience’s attention and create a connection.
But on top of that, users who had their tweets featured in this campaign would almost always post about it on their Twitter accounts. These tweets would get lots of likes, retweets and comments. So, like CVS, Twitter also benefited from what amounted to free social media advertising thanks to the strength of its OOH ads.
HUN Wine
HUN Wine used its OOH ads to make light of a tough situation. The company was getting ready to launch its wine-in-a-can product just as things were shutting down due to the pandemic, so it wasn’t able to host its launch party event.
But HUN made it work by placing two OOH ads on either side of the entrance to the venue where it was going to host the launch event. The displays advertised the wine-in-a-can product while also joking about the cancelation of the event.
Hun also shared this post on its social media accounts, where it received a solid number of likes and shares. It’s an example of how OOH advertising offers the chance to use humor and creativity to make the most of bad situations.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s is one of the best-known brands on earth. That enables it to get a little more creative and cutting-edge with its advertisements when it wants to, and this Out of Home ad is a great example of that creativity.
The digital display features a close-up picture of a Big Mac and the company has cut portions of the display out to look like bite marks.
That’s it. McDonald’s doesn’t include a hashtag, a logo, a slogan or anything else on this ad. It relies on its brand recognition to create a connection with its audience while sharing an interesting image with the public.
This example highlights how impactful doing something unique with your OOH ads can be. By creating an ad that doesn’t look like other ads, you can make it more likely that people will stop and stare at it. Just keep in mind that, unless your company has brand recognition like McDonald’s, you likely will want to include some type of logo, slogan or hashtag on your ads.
Bumble
Bumble is another company that used the pandemic to create a pretty great series of OOH (out of home) ads.
The dating app made the text the focal point of this ad series, saying, “Might as well add falling in love to the list of mad things that happened in 2020.”
It’s a great example of how tying an ad campaign in with a current event can help its message resonate more with your target audience.
Another feature of this that’s worth pointing out is the yellow background that the ad uses. This is Bumble’s brand color and it gives rise to instant recognition in anyone who’s used the app before. It shows how sometimes simply featuring the right color can help your audience quickly connect with your brand.
The Guardian
The Guardian recently ran an OOH (out of home) ad campaign that shows how important imagery can be in helping an outdoor advertisement stand out.
The company used an abstract image with the slogan “The world is absurd”.
The left side of the image looks more like a piece of art than an advertisement. But then the right side shows a recent cover of The Guardian along with the company’s name and a call-to-action.
This shows how you can do a few different things with your OOH ads. Like the Guardian, you can use a portion of your ad space to display an eye-catching image. Then, once you have your audience’s attention, you can use the other part of your ad space to direct them where you want them to go.
Google ran a “Make the Most of Summer” OOH advertising campaign in the UK. The signs showed common summer-related Google search trends in the area and results for those searches, such as business hours and directions.
The idea behind this campaign was to connect the Google brand to something that people in the area were already excited about (in this case summer). By positioning Google as the go-to information source for summer, the technology company created a natural positive connection with its audience.
UPshow makes it easier to create and manage different types of out of home advertising
If you’re ready to start getting more out of your OOH ad campaigns, you might want to check out UPshow. Our platform makes it incredibly easy to create compelling digital outdoor advertisements and share them in dynamic ways.
With our service, you can manage the entirety of your OOH marketing efforts from a single internet-connected device. This makes making changes and tracking the efficacy of your campaigns a breeze.But don’t just take our word for it. Get in touch with us to schedule a free custom demo today and to experience the UPshow difference for yourself.
