We have a long, rambling list of reasons why we love mobile billboards, and especially our mobile billboards. But you’re looking for hard facts, the evidence that declares, without a doubt, why mobile billboards are an essential medium to any media plan. So we’ve scraped the hearts off of our sleeves to look very objectively at this advertising solution. Here’s a bit of science behind why mobile billboards work.

Nielsen says mobile billboards over-index compared to almost every other OOH format. The Nielsen OOH Advertising Study, 2019 Edition, reports that mobile billboards have a high recall across many segments. Compared to all other OOH media formats, mobile billboards over-indexed to black, Hispanic and Asian audiences and to ages 16-49. Leading ad industry research suggests that this OOH media format can reach your specific audiences.

Moving advertisements are noticed quicker and are more memorable. According to a study by APN using brain scanning technology, an ad that moves has a 45% higher peak exposure than stationary advertisements. “Once there is a higher level of engagement with the brand, we found that this then results in a deeper level of memory encoding,” explains Liz Farquharson, MD. “Memory encoding can increase recall of a brand, and drive greater brand salience.”

Size really does matter. Bigger is better when it comes to advertising. When you’re trying to get noticed, a 10 feet high, 22 feet wide message will not be easily missed. Especially if it’s moving – and at eye level in the street. You don’t need a rocket scientist to tell you that you’ll be stacking the deck in your favor if you opt for a larger-than-life advertisement in a world full of clutter.

Highly targeting your advertisement to the right people in the right place at the right time results in more quality impressions. Because of the move-ability factor, mobile billboards go directly to where your audience lives, works and plays. A mobile billboard campaign can dominate an entire market or can narrow-cast down to a hyper-local level. Your mobile billboard creative should speak directly to your precise target audience where it will resonate the most. With intelligent mapping software, we can identify the most strategic route based not just on location but also demographics and additional location data insights. Mobile billboards can also target based on interest. For example, if you want to reach sports fans, a mobile billboard can run during tailgating hours on busy game days. If you want to reach the college-aged crowd, a mobile billboard can target a campus and visit popular student hangouts. Large events, such as festivals, conferences, Comic-Con or the Super Bowl are also great ways to target a specific type of audience. So not only will your reach and frequency rates be high, but you’ll be confident that those impressions were by the people you actually care about. It’s like Facebook advertisement segmentation, but real.

Mobile billboards are an effective geoconquesting tactic. Are you looking for ideas to steal market share from your competitors? Imagine your rival’s un-delight when you roll a larger-than-life advertisement near their store locations! For example, if you’re a new coffee shop in town, which would be most effective? You can either post a roadside billboard along a busy freeway or you can drive that OOH message directly to those coming and going from your competitor coffee chain with an exclusive offer.

Mobile billboards play nice with digital. According to NinthDecimal, pairing an out-of-home advertising campaign with a smartphone campaign can amplify the reach by up to 316%. With an integrated OOH + mobile campaign, a mobile billboard can be noticed by all the right people in the right place at the right time, and it can now also send a contextually relevant, proximity-based message directly to someone’s smartphone. Digital marketers like OOH, because media performance improves when you add OOH media formats to a digital campaign. OOH offers credibility and reinforces the digital message. That’s why an integrated campaign delivers better results. Plus, Nielsen’s study found that 66% of smartphone users took action (search or social) after seeing an OOH ad. OOH is producing more online engagement than most other ad channels. Do we really need to go on?

Mobile billboards are checked daily by a human being. With other OOH media, someone installs the creative and then doesn’t return until the flight is over. With digital, a programmer can set-and-forget the campaign until a report is auto-generated. A mobile billboard is driven by an experienced professional driver. Someone who looks at the creative every day the campaign is running to ensure your brand stays in tact. In addition, that mobile billboard is GPS tracked to make sure it’s delivering the campaign impressions along the correct prescribed strategic route. Mobile billboards have the latest fleet technologies to ensure your brand safety at every turn.

Mobile billboards are nontraditional and therefore exciting. The image above shows people jumping for joy at the sight of a mobile billboard. It’s not an unusual response. Fashion brand Celine was able to generate social media buzz by using a mobile billboard. And Popeyes used a mobile billboard for a PR stunt. It’s an exciting media format that people don’t necessarily see every day. This helps cut through the clutter better and not only grabs attention but also creates excitement.

There is a high value of mobile billboards for any advertiser, big or small. Mobile billboards go anywhere, anytime to reach and engage specific audiences at scale. Some of the leading benefits of mobile billboards include:

• Highly targeted, strategic and customized routing based on real marketing objectives and specific audiences
• Large eye-level visibility and curbside real estate that gets noticed and recalled
• Nationwide inventory with scalable solutions across one market or many
• 100% share of voice with fully dedicated, double-sided creative that spotlights only your brand
• Flexible flight lengths for short- or long-term campaigns
• Integrative, location-based opportunities for message delivery across two channels

We admit that we are biased, but we believe that when you look at mobile billboards squarely, as impartial as a professional referee or as equitable as Judge Judy, you, too, will see that the advantages are just too stupendous to ignore. It’s love.