Outdoor advertising – types and characteristics

Advertising is becoming increasingly important as a tool to increase sales of companies’ products or services. One of the most successful types of advertising is outdoor advertising, because it has a very effective impact on potential customers, which is why it should be part of a company’s marketing and communication strategy.

Every day we are impacted by advertising in outdoor spaces, whether consciously or unconsciously. This can be on bus shelters, billboards, screens, posters, vehicles…

Outdoor advertising is defined as any type of advertising placed in public places , ideally at strategic points, busy areas, but it can also be even on business exteriors, and has the purpose of attracting the attention of consumers.

In this article we are going to talk to you about this type of advertising and the advantages it can have for your company.

Features of outdoor advertising

Outdoor advertising must meet 3 characteristics:

• It must be shocking. It must have a strong visual impact, stand out in the environment and attract the viewer’s attention.
• The designshould be simple and easy to understand, so that the viewer can quickly associate it with the product or service being advertised.
• The textshould be brief , direct and easy to understand, in addition to being related to the image to effectively convey the message.

Advantages

Outdoor advertising has some important advantages that we detail below:

1. Easier to remember:

This type of advertising allows for endless possibilities of innovation and creativity , which, when used well, manages to capture the public’s attention and be remembered more easily. In this type of advertisement, the person who pays attention and reads it, focuses all their attention on it, and this makes it much easier to remember an advertisement in this type of media than in a banner on a website, for example.

2. Longer exposure time:

The exposure time of outdoor advertising is much longer than other types of advertising, it can be 24 hours for days, weeks or months. In addition, it can be seen by hundreds of people at any time .

3. Greater coverage:

This type of advertising allows for great reach and the message will be seen by all types of people, of all social classes, ages and nationalities.

4. Greater credibility:

People tend to trust the ads they see on outdoor advertising media more than those they see on websites or social networks, for example.

5. Lower cost per impact:

The number of impacts that this type of advertising generates on the target audience is very high, so its CPM (cost per thousand impacts) is very low .

Disadvantages

Outdoor advertising also has some drawbacks that you should take into account and they are the following:

1. Location:

The first drawback is the difficulty of finding the most appropriate place to place the advertisement.

2. Segmentation:

This type of advertising is massive , so it cannot be targeted at a specific segment of the audience.

Classification of outdoor advertising

Depending on the structure or medium on which the advertisement is placed, we will have the following classification:

   1. Fixed outdoor advertising:

This is a type of outdoor advertising, so it is located outdoors, in which the place to place the advertisement is selected based on the type of users who pass by that place.

Among the media most commonly used by different brands, we can find: billboards, monoposts, street furniture, bus stop shelters, illuminated signs, digital screens, totems, building facades, mupis in kiosks, opis (illuminated panels installed on sidewalks), banners, vinyl, posters and advertisements in the subway, airports…

The type of support we should choose will depend on the product or service we want to advertise, the budget we have, the type of promotion we are going to do, the objectives we want to achieve and the audience we are going to target.

Spectacular / large format:

This is the name given to large-scale advertising media with unusual creative designs.

These types of ads impact and capture the attention of viewers almost immediately and at great distances, so they can attract potential customers . They are very effective , have a massive reach and also a high recall rate , so their main purpose is to increase brand awareness  and increase its recall.

To utilize the full potential of billboards, ads must be creative and eye-catching.

Over time, this type of advertising has evolved and can range from a simple canvas to a giant LED screen on which to broadcast images.

The latest development in this type of advertisement is to broadcast augmented reality images on a giant LED screen , causing an impressive effect and an immersive experience for viewers. There is also the possibility of creating participatory experiences, in which the user can interact with the advertisement through the camera of their mobile phone, which, when pointed at them, triggers a digital experience. This is very interesting, since it has been proven that, through interactive experiences, viewers get actively involved with advertising and a deeper connection with the brand is created.

2. Mobile or moving outdoor advertising:

This type of outdoor advertising uses vehicles as supports , and has become a widely used option for companies. These can follow specific routes and pass through specific places in order to impact the target audience.

Among the most commonly used vehicles we can find: buses, vans, trailers, airplanes, light aircraft, trains, subways, cars, taxis and bicycles. In addition, we can find advertising vehicles, which are vehicles specially designed for advertising in motion.

Some companies turn these means of transport into scenarios, offices, simulators, immersive spaces… which is even more innovative.

Is it effective to put a QR code on outdoor advertising?

It is essential to connect our outdoor advertising with other elements, such as the Internet, that allow the public to interact with our brand.

One of the easiest options to use for this is QR codes, which when scanned with a smart device take you to a website, social media, or allow you to discover a hidden message.

There are many opportunities to contact customers through this medium, and they also offer the possibility of measuring the number of times it has been scanned.

Here are some tips to get your QR code working in these types of ads:

• • Appropriate size: If you choose a very small size, the QR code may go unnoticed.
• • Location: It is very important to choose the correct location, which will depend on the design of your ad, and it should be in a place that attracts attention.
• • Check that it works correctly:If the code does not work well and gives errors, it can ruin your advertising campaign.
• • Offer extra value for scanning the code:This is what will make it a good experience and make the audience interact and remember your brand (for example, offering them a discount)

With all this information, you will have been able to see that outdoor advertising is very effective in impacting the public because it attracts a lot of attention , so using it as a complement to the rest of your marketing and communication strategy is a very interesting option.