Digital mobile advertising is a growing trend among marketers. It can be hard to keep up with the trends and advertise yourself, but sites like Spark Outbound can help you with this. To amplify those results and improve media performance, pair your mobile advertising campaign with out-of-home media (OOH). As advertisers move away from TV, radio and print, they turn to an integrated media plan with out-of-home and mobile advertising at the core.

What is OOH + Mobile Advertising?

We’ve been spearheading the conversation of combining out-of-home media with mobile advertising for the past few years. We even brought together an expert panel to discuss OOH + mobile advertising. Today, it remains a hot topic in the industry.

And no wonder! An eMarketer report shows that we spend more time on our devices than we do watching TV. We’re spending over three hours a day in apps and on the mobile web.

At do it outdoors media, we made up our minds a while ago that going digital didn’t equal digital screens (although that too may be coming). It’s about integration, and engaging with consumers in both the physical world – and on their smartphones. By embracing the micro-moments and also by considering how technology can solve OOH’s attribution problem, we’ve been adding value to our out-of-home campaigns.

We currently offer enhanced media campaigns by serving mobile advertising displays to users’ devices when they’re near the OOH message.

The road to integration has been a five-year journey. We’re continuously evolving as technology advances and advertisers look for new offerings. First, it was partnering with apps to push notify users via beacon discovery. Then, it was device ID collection through beacons. For a while it was The Physical Web integration, but that was a bit disappointing (thanks Google). Then it was geofencing the mobile billboard route. Next came finding ways to retarget the OOH viewer, specifically.

We’ve been able to narrow our digital audience to match the OOH audience. We’re constantly optimizing our digital campaign spend at the exact locations where our OOH media is driving. And we’re blazing new trails as we go.

One thing remains constant: combining physical media with digital media improves relevancy, increases reach and drives better results. (Tweet This!)

Out-of-Home Media Amplifies Mobile Advertising

A USA Touch Points study once revealed that by adding out-of-home media to a smartphone campaign, the reach can increase by 316%. Consider that amplification rate, and ask yourself this… Can you afford to not support your mobile advertising campaigns with OOH?

In addition to amplification, OOH media is successful at encouraging mobile engagements.

In the Nielsen Out-of-Home Advertising Study 2019, Nielsen reported that 66% of smartphone users took some type of action online after seeing an OOH advertisement. This includes search and social media activity. OOH is driving people to their small screens.

In an earlier Nielsen report, out-of-home advertisements prompted more online activations than radio and print and closely compared to those of TV ads. Of U.S. adults who have seen OOH ad:

• 46% used a search engine to look up additional information
• 38% visited a Facebook page or posted a message on Facebook
• 23% posted a Twitter message
• 25% posted something on Instagram

OOH has a 26% share of search activation compared to TV, radio and print. It has the highest share for Twitter and Instagram activations across all media types.

But that only tells part of the story. As the study continues, when you look at the online activations indexed against media spend, OOH is the clear winner. When you compare the relative ad spend, OOH’s search activation index is 381 compared to TV’s 54, radio’s 159 and print’s 109.

Facebook commissioned a study by Accenture. This study looked at various media mix combinations. It found combining Facebook ads with out-of-home media was the strongest advertising approach. With this combination, the campaign increased reach and drove 6% incremental sales. It also lifted likelihood to purchase 13% more efficiently than expected.

Out-of-home (OOH) is the clear over-performer when it comes to prompting online searches and social media content. (Tweet This!)

We champion the idea of bringing out-of-home media planners and digital media planners together. We are no longer working in two separate fields. Both media formats are powerful alone, but they are even more powerful…together.

Mobile Geofencing

Mobile billboards are at the roots of our company. Why? Because we believe that when you take your message directly to your target audience, it’s less likely to be ignored. Our hyper-local targeting improves the impact.

It’s our way of thinking that allows us to advocate for mobile geofencing, especially when paired with an out-of-home media format. Now you can deliver corresponding mobile ads to your audience’s smartphones within the same hyper-local areas. You can serve them within the mobile billboard route or in close proximity to the OOH ad. You can serve them at retail locations, near competitors or within event spaces. You could target key markets or DMAs or around other key points of interest. You can also create a segment of OOH viewers to remarket against.

For example, when TV Land wanted to promote the premier of their show, Nobodies, they selected key locations in LA to target, including Access Hollywood, TMZ, LA Times and LA Weekly. We deployed three mobile billboards to effectively target these locations, while also geofencing those areas in order to deliver mobile display ads to the same audience. What resulted was a mobile campaign that outperformed industry standards by 293%.

Other campaign examples include:

• Drinkfinity reached those aged 24-35 who are enthusiasts of the environment, social issues and health/fitness with a combination of mobile billboards, field marketing (for product sampling) and also targeted mobile display ads to these specific segments (view case study)
• Simon Malls took advantage of the Super Bowl to attract visitors to Atlanta to also visit their shopping locations with a mobile billboard and mobile advertising (view case study)
• Sam’s Club used a mobile billboard and personalized mobile display ads to reach people within driving distance to a new location by segmenting based on their existing database: current members v. new potential members and business devices v. personal devices (view case study)

When you target the same audience with both physical media (mobile billboard) and digital media (mobile ads), you’re increasing both reach and frequency. Plus, by planning the media together, you’re ensuring a consistent message which will have higher resonance and recall.

The improved relevancy of the mobile ads encourages higher click-through-rates. In fact, when paired with an out-of-home campaign, we’ve seen CTR increase up to 56%.

There are many options available with mobile geofencing:

• Audience segmentation – targeting devices to target audiences based on demographics, browsing behavior and location
• Geoconquesting – targeting devices who visit competitor locations
• Geofarming – targeting devices who have visited specific locations in the past
• Attribution – measuring the devices that were served an impression and later entered a physical location
• Retargeting – delivering additional messages to a device that was served an impression or engaged with an ad previously

By pairing the out-of-home campaign with a mobile ad campaign, you’re able to reduce your spillover and reach the right people at the right time in the right place!

Location-Based + Segmentation

Mobile marketing is always evolving, so having a good marketing dashboard can go along way to helping improve your marketing strategy. To get the most out of our mobile marketing, we need to find a way for it to work in our favor. Luckily for us, we’ve found a sweet spot. We layer in audiences based on both location and intent, then reinforce a personalized message with both OOH and digital.

“Today’s innovative OOH medium reaches consumers on the go as they interact with their mobile devices,” said OAAA’s new president and CEO Anna Bager when talking about the OOH is Real campaign.

OOH is a trusted media format that can engage audiences as they move throughout their days. After all, we spend 70% of our time out of home. We’re always on the go, and we’re always with our phones. An OOH + mobile campaign engages us better, because that’s where we are. It’s visible.

Location can become a segment factor. You can build first-party audiences based on where they’ve been or if they’ve seen the OOH ads. Location helps build predictive intent, as well, such as if an audience is more likely to go to one store over another based on how close they live or work to it.

For example, if you’re a dog walker, you can geofence veterinarian offices, pet stores and dog parks to begin building an audience of likely pet owners. Location data can be a powerful signal, and marketers should take note.

Location can be a terrific cue for creating contextually relevant ads that really resonate with someone in the moment, right when and where it matters most.

Digital Calls-to-Action

Our mobile billboard creative is a great location to place a call-to-action. Remember the stats above regarding OOH prompting mobile action? Put it to the test with one of these other digital calls-to-action:

• Include a QR code, Snapcode, Instagram Nametag, Amazon Smilecode, Spotify Playlist or other mobile tag on your OOH creative
• Use an augmented reality trigger graphic to create an augmented experience
• Partner with Shazam to create a Shazamable mobile billboard experience
• Offer a text-to-get campaign, displaying the call details on the creative (view case study)
• Deliver campaign content through NFC/QR opportunities
• Include a campaign hashtag and encourage social media mentions for a reward

Add out-of-home media to your next mobile advertising campaign and see what happens! The results will wow you. Let’s move your message in both channels.

Originally published May 17, 2017. Updated.