On July 22, Geopath and OAAA hosted a virtual seminar for independent operators in out of home (OOH) that was chock full of outstanding speakers and great content. Here are 10 not to be missed key takeaways about OOH that every independent operator should know to drive sales and improve results for customers.
Takeaway 1: OOH is Already Springing Back – OOH is one of the strongest forms of media, and it’s already springing back. As Geopath recently reported, new data shows that overall mobility across the US is now at 95%, on par with the first week of March numbers before COVID restrictions went into place. So consumers are moving about again – perhaps differently than before, but the data shows their activity is springing back. In fact, despite COVID, OOH is expected to only be down 17% for the year and MAGNA predicts that the industry is on track to return to record breaking revenues in 2021 with anticipated gains of 10%.
Takeaway 2: Businesses That Keep Marketing During a Recession Fare Better – What’s the key to business survival during a crisis? The key is to continue to invest in marketing your business. Whether it’s COVID, a recession or some other type of crisis, the key to surviving as a business is to keep up your marketing spend. Businesses that understand this will continue to thrive. In fact, some of the world’s most famous companies like Microsoft, Airbnb and Uber all launched during a recession.
Consumers still spend in a recession, and COVID is no exception. Whether it’s food, hand sanitizer or even new cars, consumers are spending again. In fact, 14% of people who have postponed major purchases are ready to purchase again! Don’t be left in the dust by your competition. Those that maintain or increase their marketing spend during a downturn while others are pulling back will have that much more opportunity to stand out from the competition. So there’s no better time to advertise with the right message than right now.
Takeaway 3: There Are Lots of Resources Available to Help You Sell More Effectively – Newsletters and knowledge sharing are two of the best ways for independent operators to improve their businesses. Both Geopath and OAAA provide vast amounts of valuable data and resources to help you sell better – whether it’s studies that show how to boost the effectiveness of an ad campaign by pairing mobile and OOH or incorporating new targeting and measurement techniques. Or, learning more about how the shift from static inventory to digital can drive revenues. Just read up and get more involved so you can boost your sales!
Takeaway 4: How to Keep your Customers During This Uncertain Time – Often the key to success in uncertain times is good old fashioned customer relations and back to basics sales techniques. You should be calling all of your customers now. Reach out. See what you can do for them. Visit people and get back to basic selling.
Takeaway 5: Remind Clients and Prospects About What Makes OOH So Unique! – OOH is really different. Whether they’re sophisticated about marketing or less so, everyone will appreciate the power of OOH to reach consumers in an era of increased audience fragmentation that’s been plaguing many other forms of media over the past decade. We can’t be skipped, blocked or turned off. Digital media can be blocked, other competitive media can be skipped or turned off. And OOH is safe.
What’s more, other kinds of media – whether it’s online, tv or radio — all of the ads are part of some other context and disrupt the consumer experience. Again this is where OOH is truly unique. In OOH the creative IS the content. This is one of the big reasons why OOH is rated at the top of other media by consumers in terms of favorability.
And let’s also not forget that OOH is also a proximity marketing tool! OOH assets are super close to point of sale and are often the last messaging a consumer sees before they arrive at the store. OOH is a very powerful place to be.
Takeaway 6: You Can Help Local Advertisers Up Their Game – Today’s OOH is about selling audiences – not real estate. Independent operators need to spend time educating local advertisers about what today’s OOH can do. Share with them what some of the national advertisers are doing. Talk to them about the latest innovations in digital. About how they can reach specific target audiences – OOH is now data driven. We can help customers identify a true audience that will see the ad all the way to point of sale.
Takeaway 7: Some Smart Ways to Convert New Customers to OOH – To convert new clients, you have to become an expert on your market. What do your clients’ businesses need? Every market will be different. Is their business near a highway? Near a trade center? What are their pain points? For those customers that have never tried OOH and need some convincing, try to get them to ease their way into it by diverting some of their media spend to OOH. Get them to try it out. Perhaps give away a bit of your extra inventory just so they can experience how effective the medium really is.
The most important thing is to provide value to the prospect right from the start by being a good marketing consultant. The first step is to show up and demonstrate sincere interest in a client’s business. Figure out what they need by conducting a formal needs analysis or an informal one. The next step is to remember that nothing sells like success. They’ll want to know what’s working for other similarly situated clients. Introducing them to excellent OOH creative or sharing a compelling case study is a great way to start a conversation. And lots of these tools are right at your fingertips – OAAA has great case study and creative libraries with thousands of examples.
Takeaway 8: Here are some great ways to address advertisers that say they prefer radio and newspapers –
We can’t be skipped or blocked because we ARE the ad.
We offer the flexibility and immediacy of digital ads. There’s really nothing that other traditional media competitors can offer that can compete.
We offer massive reach, so our CPMs tend to be lower so we’re a great value – what could be better in today’s economy?
We’re frequently the last ad that consumers see before the point of sale. Drive that home.
We can amplify other media in a way that no other traditional media can. The power of today’s OOH is as much about the synergy we bring with other channels. We complement other media in a great way.
Takeaway 9: Integrating OOH with online media plans improves results – Today’s OOH has lots of new tricks that make it so much more powerful for advertisers when combined with online media. In fact, it’s really hard for anyone else to come close when it comes to results and value. OOH drives online activation more efficiently than TV, radio, print or digital displays. Why? OOH assets are big screens driving consumers to small screens – we serve as a trigger and prompt. And, OOH increases the ROI of search advertising by 40% when added to a media plan.
OOH has a strong ability to influence consumer behavior and this leads directly into their online activity. Large portions of consumers are going to their devices before making purchase decisions. Last year a Nielsen OOH report showed that 90% of US residents 16 or older noticed some form of OOH inventory in the last month and that 66% of OOH viewers were prompted by an OOH ad to take some action on their smartphone.
We offer real planning and analytics that can drive home the value for your clients and it’s as good as the kind of analytics you can get with any other media out there. Targeting and measurement analytics? We got it. Integration of third party or first party data into our analytics? We’ve got that too! We can tell whether more people showed up at a store. You can track the lift in search engines; lift on social media; and demonstrate brand activation – like how many people showed up at store and made a purchase. Today’s OOH is exciting, audience-focused and results-focused and still an incredible value.
Takeaway 10: OOH is the Right Medium For This Year’s Political Advertising – OOH can play an even bigger role in this year’s campaign season. Here are 10 great reasons why political advertising presents an opportunity for the independent operator this election season:
- We’re always on and can help break through a cluttered media marketplace.
- We help build awareness and name ID.
- With highly-competitive CPMs, OOH provides more exposure for each ad dollar spent.
- We amplify social media and search ROI when it’s part of the media plan.
- We can target specific audience groups a politician wants to reach.
- We’re FAST and flexible.
- OOH ads prompt young people to take action on their mobile devices.
- We overindex with some of the most likely voters.
- We overindex with adults 18-34.
- We overindex with African-American and Hispanic audiences.
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