Out-of-home (OOH) ads present a genuine opportunity to get your brand in front of a large, diverse audience, yet brands often overlook out-of-home ads in favour of a digital-only strategy. Paired with your digital efforts, OOH advertising can be a serious performer in its own right. Here’s how to create OOH ads that get your audience to take notice.
What are the benefits of OOH ads for my business?
Out-of-home advertising is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness across a large and diverse audience, commuters, pedestrians, and travellers among them. Since OOH ads typically sit in high-traffic areas, you’ve got a genuinely better shot at capturing attention. They also open up audiences your digital strategy alone might never reach.
OOH ads also pull their weight alongside your other channels. According to the Outdoor Media Association (OMA), OOH ads lift TV campaign performance by 15%, and TV plus digital campaigns by 23%.
How do I get started with OOH ads?
Know your audience
Designing an engaging ad starts with knowing exactly who you’re designing it for. Data analytics can sharpen your understanding of your audience and help you deliver an ad that genuinely resonates. Collecting and analysing that data puts you in a much stronger position to build campaigns your audience will actually connect with. Researching past OOH ads that have performed well is also worth doing, since there’s often something useful to borrow for your own.
Where your ad is placed matters just as much as what it says. An OOH ad placed near a point of sale, a retail store, for example, acts as an extra sales push, one that can turn someone’s intent to buy into an actual sale.
Keep it simple
The most memorable OOH ads tend to be the simplest ones. One of the most iconic examples from last year was IKEA’s Frakta bag ad, bold in concept but simple in execution, using the brand’s signature bag to announce a new store opening in London. Just a blue background and a handle draped over the front, and it still made a real impression on passersby.
How much time you have to make that impression depends heavily on where the ad sits. A roadside billboard might only get a glimpse from someone driving past, while a bus station ad reaches commuters who are often bored and waiting, giving your message much longer to land. That extra dwell time opens the door to more visual elements or text, since commuters have the time to actually get to know your brand while they wait.
For ads with lower dwell times, roadside billboards and bus-side ads included, keeping things simple, uncluttered, and built around one clear, compelling message matters most. For ads with higher dwell time, there’s more room to add visual elements or text so viewers can learn more about what your brand offers.
Embrace creativity
Simplicity doesn’t mean sacrificing creativity. In fact, creativity is often what separates your ads from blending into the background versus standing out from your competitors. That said, creative and legible aren’t mutually exclusive: bold fonts and high-contrast colours help your ad catch the eye even from a distance.
Colour choice deserves particular attention, both to make your ad stand out from its surroundings and to genuinely catch your audience’s attention. Studies show colour alone can boost brand awareness by as much as 80%. Bold colours help, but stick to no more than three, since piling on too many can overwhelm rather than engage.
Your call-to-action (CTA) should give your audience a clear idea of what to do next, whether that’s buying a specific product, googling your business name, or visiting your store or location. If you’re working with a roadside billboard, keep the CTA light: drivers can’t jot down a phone number or address while behind the wheel. That level of detail works far better on ads placed somewhere with a higher dwell time, where people actually have a moment to take it in.
Get started with OOH advertising with OMDIGI
Ready to get started with OOH ads that people will remember? OMDIGI’s team of design and marketing experts can help you achieve OOH ads that get your brand noticed. Get in contact with us at hello@omdigigroup.com to start your journey towards OOH ads that people will remember.
