People Are Heading Outside Once Again; Should Your Brand Be There?
Households are emerging from their cocoons. People are tentatively venturing outdoors to exercise more, socialise responsibly in open spaces, go to work, and thereby interact with out-of-home advertising. Business leaders should be paying attention.
This behavioural change has important repercussions for any CEO, and senior leaders are already asking their CMOs and marketing teams how their brand should capture attention in this brave new world.
The key question to assist this decision is: with lockdown easing, where do you think consumers will be over the coming months? Artjom Jekimtsev, founder and CEO of Adverttu, shares his thoughts with CEO Today.
A Breath of Fresh Air
Screen fatigue, streaming over-binging and constrictive home environments mean many of us will be hitting the streets. Spurred on by warmer weather and this newfound freedom, out-of-home advertising is poised to capitalise on this reclaimed mobility, and as a result, primed to continue the growth it was experiencing before all this sudden change.
Prior to COVID-19, OOH advertising was on the cusp of eclipsing newspaper advertising. A year earlier, the same trend was evident with TV advertising. Broadcasters were seceding revenue to digital’s relentless march, yet OOH continued chugging along due to its memorability, creativity and ability to capture attention at scale.
Naturally, there’s no skirting the fact that OOH audiences have softened the past three months, but this temporary decrease will fade as society and local communities define a more open, ‘new normal’ way of life – and temporary it will be, when considered within OOH’s 185-year-heritage.
Spurred on by warmer weather and this newfound freedom, out-of-home advertising is poised to capitalise on this reclaimed mobility, and as a result, primed to continue the growth it was experiencing before all this sudden change.
Resilient Streets
In fact, it is important not to forget that people, and therefore consumer eyeballs, have been on the streets throughout lockdown, whether that’s doctors and nurses commuting, delivery drivers keeping the economy flowing, public services or households shopping for groceries.
Evidence of this can be seen within transit media, an ever-popular sub-sector of OOH. The public and private transport that adverts adorn has continued to flow.
As recent research found, two-fifths of cars have still been on the road, influenced partly by the significant number of people who cannot work from home. We see this every day with the government’s briefing too, as ministers run through transport’s daily change.
It’s safe to say transit media as a medium certainly hasn’t gone away. In some cases, it merely entered hibernation as brands dealt with the immediate fallout of lockdown, though as that initial shock passes, addressable audiences on the street are creeping up once again and so are brands.
Focusing in on What Works
Campaign refinement may be the name of the game at the moment, though at the same time, creating an effective go-to-market strategy for all eventualities is vital to outperform your competitors during the next stage of society’s transformation. Dynamic marketing and preparation are crucial to success.
Finally, it’s worth bearing in mind that once freed from their home environment, people will be acutely alert to the sights and sounds of outside. We are sensory creatures after all. Audiences are likely to therefore become even more receptive to OOH advertising.
Many of us will feel rejuvenated, taking note of our surroundings. Once back home, we will then recall what we saw and return to our favourite brands, especially as some latent consumer spending is released and the economy starts to slowly spin up again.
