What’s next for OOH?
[12 June 2020] The oldest form of advertising is resilient and resourceful, with brands employing the mix of formats year after year. Even when we were advised to stay at home, except for essential journeys, OOH delivered key messages to thousands of people every cycle. As restrictions continue to ease, the role Out of Home can play in brand building is huge.
New research from Ebiquity Marsh reports that while brands in Ireland are likely to spend less on advertising this year, 60% of marketers are placing more value on maintaining share of voice (SOV).
This echoes researcher Peter Field’s standpoint that maintaining or even increasing SOV during a downturn is extremely important in helping brands recover from such crises.
The same Ebiquity Marsh study found 80% believe data insights are “very or extremely important” at this time.
Approval for Running “Normal” Advertising Campaigns
GlobalWebIndex has found that internationally there is widespread – and growing – approval of brands advertising as normal. Across the 20 countries surveyed including Ireland, only 12% of consumers disapprove of brands running “normal” advertising (which aren’t related to coronavirus). Conversely, there are small but consistent decreases in approval for coronavirus-related advertising. Although overall approval for this remains very high in all countries, the numbers have successively ticked down in over twelve of the seventeen countries where there is trended data available across March-April. When asked about brands and businesses returning to normal (e.g. opening shops, running regular advertising, etc), it’s 9 in 10 globally who think this is important.
For all campaigns, there’s a huge role for Out of Home to provide, and the strengths of the formats remain evident.
So what’s next for Out of Home?
With audiences on the move, and shoppers queueing around the block to make long-awaited purchases, brands and retailers have an opportunity to stand out amongst their competitors. Brands need to embrace Out of Home and be brave with their creatives, giving audiences the taste of normality that is so craved. Out of Home is well placed to deliver key messaging to aid the rebuilding of brands and the re-education of consumers. As we all venture out of our homes, OOH should be the focal point of every media plan.
