Creating Impact: Creative OOH Ideas and Strategies
At Grand Visual, we ensure creative Out of Home (OOH) advertising delivers maximum impact to bring brands to the front of consumers’ minds. In this post, we’ll cover creative OOH campaign ideas and provide actionable tips to help you enhance your campaign.
From interactive elements on a billboard to weather-responsive online ads, you’ll discover strategies that can engage your audience and elevate your brand’s visibility. For your OOH campaign to be attention-grabbing and engaging, we implement the following techniques which can bring your innovative ideas to life.
The Essentials
Simplicity and clarity are fantastic for creating effective OOH adverts.
Audiences are clouded by a fog of digital and physical worlds. Therefore, simplicity has become a very powerful strategy to break through and target people. Simplicity will be able to cut through the loud noise to capture attention and allow the outdoor advertising campaign to resonate.
Strong visuals and compelling messaging significantly improve engagement and lasting impact.
An impactful OOH ad requires a strong visual to elevate the campaign above the competition. This goes hand in hand with a compelling message that creates control, focus and intensity in influencing your audiences.
Contextual relevance and brand consistency enhance the connection with the audience.
With an OOH ad campaign, contextual relevance is key and with Programmatic Advertising, adjustments can be made to ads in real time. Campaigns can adapt to variables such as weather, date and time to better connect the brands with the right audiences.
Interactive elements and unexpected visuals make OOH ads more memorable
Interactivity allows audiences to get involved and be a part of the campaign in real life. Providing an experience alongside the advert helps with audience engagement and in turn brand recall. Creating a surprise effect is a great way to build strong emotions with audiences and makes it more likely for the advert to be shared online.
Trends like digital integration, sustainability, and AR are shaping the future in the world of OOH
These industry trends can cause a challenge if you don’t keep up to date. Integration of digital infrastructure is important to help maintain the strength of your brand positioning. Adhering to new sustainability goals ensures that you stay relevant with clients and future prospects.
Key Creative OOH Considerations:
Simplicity and Clarity: Ads should be straightforward and easy to understand at a glance. Using bold fonts, high-contrast colours, QR Codes and minimalistic designs can enhance readability and impact.
Strong Visuals: Eye-catching visuals are essential to immersive experiences. High-quality images and creativity that resonate emotionally with the audience can significantly improve engagement and memorability.
Compelling Messaging: The messaging should be concise and impactful. Strong headlines and benefit-oriented copy can encourage consumers to take action or learn more about the brand.
Contextual Relevance: Ads should have creative ways to be tailored to their environment, incorporating local references or seasonal themes to establish a connection with the audience.
Brand Consistency: Maintaining consistency with the overall brand identity across all creative elements ensures a cohesive experience for consumers.
Creative OOH Ideas:
Interactive Elements: Incorporating interactivity, such as touch-sensitive displays that illuminate when engaged, can create a memorable experience. To promote Pepsi MAX, we launched an activation featuring a Pepsi MAX vending machine that surprised passers-by by inviting them to grab a can and scan it at the custom vending machine to receive a Pepsi-branded football. Once a football is dispensed, a laser display would project a 2v2 pitch outline onto the street, commencing the start of a 10-minute, match session.
Unexpected Visuals: Using familiar brand phrases in unexpected and creative ways can capture attention. We wanted to continue Specsavers famous tagline of “Should’ve gone to Specsavers” in a new and unexpected environment. A Specsavers van was parked on a rising bollard in front of a “no parking” sign and the moment went viral. The marketing stunt gathered over 6M social media views and 20 national press titles picked up the story.
Dynamic Content: Leveraging digital Out-of-Home capabilities to display real-time updates or personalised messages can enhance participation. To help promote Google Maps new feature Explore, which encourages people to discover new things locally, we used real-time data. The DOOH activation was displayed across a variety of New York neighbourhoods and the message would evolve based on the location, time, temperature and day.
Creative Use of Space: Transforming traditional advertising formats into something bolder is a great way to subvert expectations and grab the audience’s attention. That is exactly what we did for Budweiser as they responded to the backlash over female and non-binary artists being snubbed at the Brits Award. A billboard was transformed into a stage and a selection of up-and-coming artists were invited to perform for music lovers.
Weather-Responsive Ads: Utilising real-time weather data to tailor messages can significantly increase relevance. For Quaker Oats we utilised dynamic OOH and created interactive ads on a bus shelter to display real-time temperature data, encouraging audiences to scan the QR code and claim a discount on their next purchase of Quaker Oats. Discounts are based on UK average temperature data – the colder the weather average, the bigger the discount.
Trends in OOH Advertising:
Digital Integration: The shift towards digital OOH is allowing for more creative and dynamic campaigns. This includes the use of programmatic advertising which enables real-time optimisation and personalised messaging based on audience data.
Sustainability: There is a growing emphasis on eco-friendly materials and practices in OOH advertising, appealing to environmentally conscious consumers.
Engaging Your Audience with Interactive OOH
Explore how interactive elements can captivate audiences and create memorable experiences for brands. This section covers the benefits and examples of successful interactive campaigns on static billboards. Learn how Grand Visual leverages cutting-edge technology to create engaging content.
Touch-Sensitive Displays: Ads that respond to touch or movement can engage passers-by and provide a unique brand experience. This can be seen in the Lego campaign, which used 3D motion sensors to make an interactive screen and give passersby the chance to get involved.
Social Media Integration: Encouraging social media interaction through hashtags or live feeds can extend the campaign’s reach. Especially when using sampling to increase attention, as in the campaign from Sony Pictures where they gave out samples of the book and bouquets of flowers.
Leveraging Digital OOH for Real-Time Engagement
Digital billboards provide advantages, including real-time updates and personalised messaging to users. How can brands use digital billboard technology to enhance their campaigns? Grand Visual’s expertise can help you maximise these benefits and break through to your audience.
Real-Time Updates: Displaying current information, such as weather or news, can keep your ad relevant and engaging.
Personalised Messaging: Using data to tailor messages to specific audiences or locations.
Programmatic Advertising: Automating ad placement and optimisation based on real-time data.
Partnering with Grand Visual for Your OOH Campaigns
Learn how Grand Visual can help you create and execute innovative OOH marketing campaigns for advertisers and brands. We make it happen. This section details our services and expertise in the OOH advertising industry.
Creative Development: Grand Visual’s team of experts can help you conceptualise and design an impactful OOH ad.
Technological Integration: They provide advanced technological solutions, including augmented reality, AR and digital displays, to enhance your campaigns.
Campaign Management: From planning to budget to execution, Grand Visual manages all aspects of your OOH campaigns to ensure success.
So, Lets Get Creative!
Creative OOH advertising can significantly enhance brand visibility and engagement. By incorporating these innovative ideas and strategies, you can create impactful advertisements that resonate with your audience. Grand Visual’s expertise in OOH tech can help you bring these concepts to life, ensuring creativity and your ad campaigns’ ability to stand out.
