Posters, wall murals, enormous digital billboards, you are impressed by the colossal panels displaying your favorite drink, a brand of sports shoes, or even your idol. The big city lights are no other than advertisement panels with the main goal of attracting you, the consumer, into recognizing and preferring certain products or services.
Finding the right method of advertising your service and product can become a rather tiresome activity since the industry is studded with countless marketing campaigns, ads, and generally revolutionary ideas that have already been put into practice. In recent years, there has been reported an outburst in the use of advertising which has significantly decreased the favorable perception it once had in the mind of consumers. Understanding the methodology and business of marketing is a first step toward discovering the endless possibilities of exposing your services and products to the public eye without becoming another dull effort into changing the game rules of the advertising technique.
Probably one of the most substantial forms of marketing is OOH or Out-of-Home advertising. You see it everywhere, and it’s happening regularly, almost religiously, whether we are talking about the traditional ad panels or billboards you see on the street, in malls, or in airports.
Understanding the Out of Home Advertising History
Out-of-home advertising is also one of the earliest techniques of communication and information are known to man. While the United States has experienced the same process of development in the marketing industry as its European counterparts had, everything happened at a much slower pace as a result of the strict restrictions on printing newspapers and, implicitly, the regulations of ads. Only when government control was eased did the newspaper industry grow quite rapidly and open new doors for the advertisement market.
Outdoor advertising has started small, with the tavern-inn heraldic signs, and eventually expanded to other businesses, such as coffee shops and libraries, which eventually gave birth to the signboards and posters regarding different cultural events taking place in those locations.
First to use the billboards as we know them today was P.T. Baurnam, an American showman and businessman who has revolutionized out-of-home advertising using large illustrated posters to market Barnum’s American Museum and, later on, the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Reforming the way circuses would advertise themselves as a crucial step that initiated a practice that was carried out over the next many decades: displaying posters and boards on barns, windows shops, and wooden sidewalks.
For several reasons, the year 1870 is considered to be the dividing line between old and modern outdoor advertising, thanks to the development of printing and lithography. The beginning of the 20th century was marked by new values and alternative advertising, which has reached a bigger potential. A fast-growing industry meant new business ideas. Lamar billboards were the trend since the 1910s and eventually became the biggest and longest-running American advertising company in North America. The distribution of OOH on the American territory increased as it has supported sales all over the country. From billboards in Los Angeles to the well-known Times Square in New York, you can only wonder what is the secret behind the success of this industry?
The magic behind OOH
The ordinary advertiser’s motto refers to the level of creativity and uniqueness that he should have in order to deliver the most innovative ideas. But, as stated by several studies, creativity alone may not be enough to draw the initial attention of the consumers since the main objective of the marketing specialist is to increase brand recognition. The great majority of the target audience has an increasing attention deficit, making creativity in its purest form inefficient. Planning a billboard advert now requires knowledge of human behavior, theoretical aspects about visual attention, social and political contexts in which you’re marketing your brand, and the visual saliency of the panel in the consumers’ eyes.
You might wonder how all of these are influencing the marketing industry and why, in the era of technology and fast-speed internet, outdoor advertising is still thriving in American society. The simple answer is because it delivers the message when the consumers are doing simple tasks such as driving to work or walking to school. The only way the viewer could ignore the panel is by simply looking away, yet the ad is and will still be there; you can’t skip it. Meanwhile, in the digital world, you could simply click and dismiss it. It also has the advantage of reaching a far larger audience without imposing a specified limitation, resulting in a considerably higher amount of exposure than digital media.
OOH is a method of supporting the brand recognition and sales of your product or service. Meticulously planning your billboard ad, keeping in mind the location, context, and behavior aspects of the consumers are the main factors that make the difference between an ineffective panel and a successful one.
