In a world where users are fixated on their screens, consuming every possible piece of content and online behemoths tracking their every move, several important questions arise.
Is outdoor advertising or out of home marketing still relevant?
Can outdoor advertising work together with digital marketing?
Is there a way to use synergies between the two forms of marketing to create the perfect campaign?
What is Outdoor or Out Of Home (OOH) Advertising?
Outdoor advertising quite simply put, is all forms of advertising that you see outside of your home, away from your mobile phones or laptops.
Outdoor or Out Of Home (OOH) advertising is the same. It is the oldest form of advertising and had been the premier go-to option for companies to reach consumers before digital advertising became the dominant force.
OOH advertising includes but not limited to giant billboards, digital billboards, posters on public transport systems, transit shelters, benches etc.
Is Outdoor Advertising Still Relevant?
Digital marketers often ponder on this question when they are so used to creating online campaigns within days reaching their targeted audiences almost instantaneously.
However, the answer to the question is without a doubt.
Outdoor advertising is actually growing and is still one of the mainstays of overall marketing campaigns globally.
Let us look at some simple statistics.
As per Statista, in 2019, outdoor advertising had a revenue generation of US $8.56 billion in US alone.
Since 2009, the revenue generation from outdoor advertising had steadily grown and is continuing to show an uptrend for the current and coming years.
World over, out of home advertising has only grown and there have been further avenues for advertising with posters on cars, taxis, trains, all forms of public transportation etc. New highways, commercial constructions and infrastructure development has created more space for billboards as well as digital posters.
In short, outdoor advertising isn’t going anywhere and needs to be a part of a company’s overall branding and marketing campaign.
How Outdoor Advertising and Digital Marketing can work together?
Now that we have established that outdoor advertising is still highly relevant, let us look at how it can work together with digital marketing.
One of the biggest issues marketers are facing with digital marketing is how do they stand out from the crowd.
You have a limited real estate on mobile or desktop screens and there are hundreds of thousands of companies fighting for that space at any given moment.
Users are being bombarded with ad after ad and most users simply scroll through the screen completely disregarding the advertisements.
Now imaging if someone comes across an ad on Facebook while sitting in a bus, then looks out the window and you see a billboard or poster of the same company. The company name or brand will immediately register within the user’s mind. The ability to recall a brand that you have seen both online and through offline advertising is much higher than just digital marketing.
This is the main synergy between digital marketing and outdoor advertising. The ability to stand out of the crowd and create strong brand recall amongst potential customers.
Outdoor advertising can also help with higher audience engagement. Those who have seen a poster or billboard and then come across an ad of the same company online is likely to click on that ad.
Therefore, the two forms of advertising can work together to build a campaign that reels in the target audience and builds a strong bond with them.
While outdoor advertising can be expensive, you do have various forms of out of home advertising that do not break the bank. You have benches, buses, transit shelters, posters on public transport etc.
Of course if you do have the budget or you are a startup with funding secured, you can spend on billboards and digital posters to complement your digital marketing strategy.
Final thoughts
To quickly recap, outdoor advertising along with digital marketing can help companies with:
- Strong branding abilities
- Standing out from the crowd
- Higher audience engagement
Just remember, outdoor advertising is not just surviving, it is thriving. Hence, budget permitting, it is advisable to complement your digital marketing campaign with a strategic out of home advertising strategy.
