Because consumers are becoming more segmented and splintered across media channels every day, one type of advertising is actually expanding. Nearly 100% of the population can be reached through out-of-home advertising. Here are 4 out-of-home media products that are growing fast and rising to the top in terms of popularity, innovation, and effectiveness.
1. Outdoor Wallscapes
Larger than life, wallscapes are a rising advertising platform, strategically located in areas with a high influx of traffic, dominating the most trendy areas in major urban centers. Wallscapes can be wildly creative and come in a variety of sizes and materials.
For example, take a recent Spotify campaign. The digital music provider tapped into listener data archives to produce eye-catching and hilarious wallscape ads. They then used aggregate data, along with individual data, to come up with hyper-local headlines like:
- “Dear person in the Theater District who listened to the Hamilton Soundtrack 5,376 times this year, can you get us tickets?”
- “Dear 3,749 people who streamed ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It’ the day of the Brexit vote, hang in there.”
They focused on out-of-home advertising, according to Spotify CEO Seth Farbman, because “it has the ability to really drive clever copy home that other media can’t always do as well.”
2. Double Decker Bus Wraps
Bus wraps cover municipal buses in bold, full-color advertising designs. Two different vinyls are used: one for the bus body and one for the windows, so inside passengers can view out windows while the overall outer design remains continuous. Consumers are engaged by these fully wrapped buses — both sides, front, and back panels.
Double-decker style buses effectively drive both brand recognition and sales. Your message will reach both consumers that drive as well as those who ride the bus.
Bus wraps are effective during event appearances (such as clothing lines during fashion events, and sporting goods during marathons), and complement digital advertising platforms with a bold, interactive, physical presence to your specific target market.
3. Truckside Advertising
Truckside ads have specialized adhesive-backed masking films or non-adhesive, stretched vinyl banners affixed to special frames on the sides or rear on trucks running regular routes in metropolitan areas.
Using truckside advertising can broaden the reach of a national, regional, or local campaign. With bold designs, they add variety, frequency, and value to a broadcast campaign or standalone campaign. And they work best penetrating markets with restricted or limited outdoor advertising, as well as in saturated markets.
4. Gas Station & Convenience Store
Today’s busy gas stations and convenience stores are ideal locations to advertise your products or services because consumers are a captive audience while fueling up their vehicles.
Gas station and convenience store (C-store) advertising encompasses a wide variety of formats that are specially located at the fuel islands and both outside and inside the store. It’s an excellent example of the everyday trend of Place-Based Media — which creates the ability to tap into your desired audience at exactly the right location and time.
Products like Frozen Billboards — fully wrapped ice boxes outside gas stations and C-stores — are impossible to ignore. Front and center, eye-catching, they’re wrapped in brilliant 3-D images incorporating clever design and bright, bold colors that are visible from up to 50 yards away.
One Sheets are large 30” x 46” posters strategically located on the outside walls near the entrance. These highly visible signs provide impactful brand awareness and send the message at the right time — ensuring your message is interpreted rather than ignored.
Use of out-of-home media continues to grow among digital companies, such as Google, Snapchat, and Uber, as well. For example, Google’s “OK Google” campaign brilliantly links common search requests at innovative out-of-home venues to highlight both their brand and the hosting venue’s brand.
