Throughout human history, the advertising industry has seen rapid growth opportunities flourish with each new leg of human invention.
With the introduction of digital media and online advertising, targeting demographics, behaviours and interests has never been more precise. Yet actually reaching your audience is getting harder.
According to Digital at HEC Montréal, 91% of social media users ignore or mentally disconnect from in-feed ads and engagement rates are rapidly declining.
Ad blockers, algorithm changes, rising prices, increased competition and a heavily saturated market mean brands are fighting harder than ever for consumer attention. Your ad typically has less than a second of screen time between kitten videos and podcasts reading Reddit stories.
That’s where out-of-home advertising (OOH) comes into play. Despite popular misconception, ‘old school’ doesn’t mean ‘obsolete’.
From digital billboards to street furniture to shopping centres and leisure spaces, out-of-home advertising has the advantage of presence in the real world. No kittens (unfortunately). No juicy Reddit gossip. No distractions.
Presence beyond algorithms
Online advertising sounds straightforward in theory, but in the end it’s the platforms that decide who gets to see your ads, in the same way they get to choose who sees your organic content. It all comes down to ‘The Algorithm’.
Social media feeds change. Search rankings evolve. Trends become a thing of the past. Paid advertising becomes a continuous game of cat and mouse, chasing the same customers.
Instead of squeezing into an endless doomscroll of entertainment, a strong digital out-of-home advertising campaign finds its target audience without disrupting behaviour. Shopping malls, gym venues, transit hubs and even simply walking down the street are all routines that your consumers make regularly that become an opportunity as a contact point.
Seeing the same message on a digital billboard regularly is the repetition that creates brand recognition. When it comes to making choices, customers often trust familiarity first.
Reach people before they search
Digital advertising often relies on existing demand. Searches, clicks and third-party cookie history are used to build a consumer profile based on recent behaviours. The process is automated, calculated and precise. However, it doesn’t account for timing.
By relying on past behavioural data, digital ads frequently miss the decision moment. If your car brand advertises to a person who searched for and purchased a car recently, you’ve lost a chance.
Unlike digital channels, out-of-home and digital out-of-home media don’t rely on consumer online behaviour for targeting.
Instead of waiting for the target audience to tell you who they are, out-of-home advertising has the advantage of introducing a business before the decision moment. Before the customer knew there was a problem to solve, digital out-of-home advertising has the opportunity to spark the thought: ‘I should look for a new car.’
Not only is your business a contender in the decision moment, but you’ve made contact before online ads do.
More flexible than you think
One of the biggest deterrents for out-of-home advertising comes from the rigid booking systems and contracts that were once only available for big brands.
A single billboard would need to be booked well in advance, months at a time and with high up-front costs. That old perception is no longer accurate.
With the industry shift into digital out-of-home, new formats have expanded the media buying experience to meet the modern age of marketing.
Media buying and programmatic options like CAASie allow businesses to tailor their campaigns, including scheduling specific times, booking specific locations and even offering budget flexibility. There is no negotiation, no contracts and no concrete campaign plan.
Like digital online marketing, digital out-of-home advertising offers live reports and campaign tracking and supports real-time optimisation. Something that wasn’t possible with static print media.
Creating a stronger channel mix
The reality of marketing is that neither online advertising nor out-of-home advertising are enough alone. The strongest advertising campaigns use both forms of media to achieve the best results.
Real-world advertising often leads to digital action. Rather than replacing search, social or other digital channels, digital out-of-home advertising helps them perform better by introducing your brand before a customer is ready to click.
When people recognise a business, they're more likely to notice it again online. A 2024 Harris Poll commissioned by the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) found that 76% of recent digital out-of-home viewers took some form of action after seeing an ad, while 74% used their mobile device to learn more, search or engage with the brand.
The effect doesn't stop there. Research has found that seeing an out-of-home advertisement first can increase attention to later mobile ads by 52%. When people are already familiar with your brand, they're more likely to notice it again when it appears on their phone, giving your digital campaigns a stronger foundation to build on.
Out-of-home doesn’t replace online advertising; it strengthens your marketing mix.
Final Thoughts
When digital campaigns begin to plateau, out-of-home advertising adds another layer to your marketing mix. By reaching audiences throughout their daily routines before and alongside online advertising, it creates more opportunities for brand recognition, strengthens existing campaigns, and helps keep your business front of mind when purchasing decisions are made.
