Striking the Perfect Creative Balance with DOOH

Published: September 14, 2023

When assessing the efficacy of an advertising campaign, both agencies and brands consider a range of factors. These elements may include the cost of creative, the messaging context, and the strategic decision between precision target and broader reach.

However, within the realm of advertising, one aspect often overlooked is the delicate art of achieving the perfect balance in creative content. Talon's research, as presented in "Unlocking the Power of OOH: There Is No Creative Effectiveness without Media Effectiveness," brings this critical consideration to the forefront. This equilibrium is essential not only for capturing and maintaining your audience's engagement but also for preventing them from succumbing to ad fatigue.

In their research, Talon found campaigns with strong creative effectiveness drove 5.8x stronger uplifts in brand consideration and were nearly 3x more effective at driving purchase intent compared to low-performing creatives.

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising remains an effective channel in delivering highly contextual creative that captivates mass audiences' attention! Here are a few strategies brands can use to leverage DOOH effectively, enhancing their creative output and ensuring sustained audience engagement:

Frequency:

Optimizing DOOH creative involves careful consideration of frequency. While it's crucial to maintain a presence in your target audience's view, overexposure can lead to diminishing returns and, ultimately, ad fatigue. Striking the right balance between frequency and variety is essential. By swapping out ad creative, you can actively avoid becoming a visual "noise" in your audience's environment.

If you are going to show the same ad, it’s imperative your ad doesn’t look the same - colors, logos, placement, and messaging should be different. For instance, consider HP's 'Work Happy' campaign, which saturated major cities and motivated hybrid remote workers to use HP products for work in any location. Despite the widespread presence of their ads on billboards, urban panels, gyms, and more, HP maintained audience engagement by presenting a diverse range of content. This approach not only prevented viewers from becoming disinterested but increased brand opinion and purchase intent by 30%!

Variety:

Variety is essential to showing audiences the brand’s multitudes and keeping them engaged! With DOOH, you can run multiple ad creatives simultaneously, allowing you to showcase different aspects of your brand, products, or services. This variety not only prevents ad fatigue but also helps you cater to different segments of your target audience.

Thorne’s ‘Redefined’ campaign serves as another prime example of utilizing DOOH to refresh the creative elements while maintaining consistent messaging. Thorne’s narrative came to life on over 3000 screens, including roadside billboards along bustling highways, cartop ads on vibrant city streets, and kiosk screens at high-traffic intersections. The dynamic campaign kept audiences engaged with fresh creative and drastically improved brand opinion and purchase intent!

Relevancy:

Relevancy is paramount in DOOH advertising. To keep your audience engaged, tailor your creative content to the specific location and context in which it's displayed. Leverage real-time data and insights to adapt your messaging to current events, weather conditions, or local trends. The more relevant and timely your content, the more likely it is to resonate with viewers and leave a lasting impression.

For example, Moe’s Southwest Grill aimed to boost visibility for its 70+ locations across the Greater Atlanta area. This fast-casual chain harnessed various venue types to connect with consumers on-the-go within a three-mile radius of each location. Moe’s activated a relevant and targeted campaign on specific days, strategically pushing messaging like 'Kids eat free on Sundays', ‘Giving Back Wednesdays’, or ‘Thank You Thursdays’. Leveraging the dynamic capabilities of DOOH, Moe's crafted a campaign that seamlessly resonated with the appetites of Atlanta's residents, effectively engaging their attention throughout the entire week!

Thanks to programmatic technology in out-of-home advertising, it is the perfect medium to deeply connect with consumers through its unmissable, showstopping creative without worrying about ad blockers and bots. Programmatic DOOH campaign creative makes it hard for consumers to avoid. So what are you waiting for? If you haven't already, make DOOH a part of your marketing strategy today. Contact us at concierge@adomni.com to get started today!

Written By: Julia Cramer

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