Everything your DTC brand needs to know about OOH marketing

For DTC brands, out of home (OOH) advertising can often seem like a daunting marketing channel. 

But as you’ll see in this article, this ecommerce advertising strategy can provide some serious ROI. 

In this guide we'll give you everything you need to know about OOH marketing. From campaign planning to measuring the success of your ads, you’ll be ready to make a decision on whether to go ahead.

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What is out of home marketing? 

Out of home (OOH) advertising is an advertising channel that uses a broad range of media formats to reach consumers when they are out of their homes. It includes traditional methods like billboards, street furniture and transit ads, as well as new digital out of home (DOOH) formats like digital billboards and dynamic content displays. OOH is all about high visibility and creating connections with audiences by using precise geolocation data and audience demographics.

What are the benefits of OOH?

In a survey of 1,200 marketing professionals, four clear benefits to using out of home advertising were highlighted:

1. Optimise your ads: With both digital and programmatic, brands can launch and adjust campaigns at short notice, and optimise placements based on real-time conditions.
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2. DOOH is more economical: Digital OOH ads in particular can help cut costs compared with traditional OOH advertising. That’s because they only show up when the right audience is nearby, thanks to pre-set triggers. This approach helps cut down on ad wastage - meaning you’re not spending on ads that nobody can see. 
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3. Establishing trust with target consumers: Seeing brand representation ‘in real life’ helps to add credibility, which leads to enhanced trust.
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4. Delivering accurate location targeting capabilities: OOH ads are tied to physical locations—so you always know where your ad is being placed. THis means you can also create hyper-local campaigns.

I also interviewed ecommerce marketing experts about their experiences with OOH marketing. Mark Agnew, CEO of the eyewear retail store, eyeglasses.com, sees multiple benefits of OOH:

”For us, the benefits of OOH advertising are multi-faceted—it's not just about boosting the brand image, but also revolutionizing the purchasing process. We've seen a significant uptick in our brand awareness and customer engagement, showing OOH can still make waves in a digital-centric world.”

Mark isn't the only oner who notices increased brand awareness from OOH. Maris Laatre, CMO of specialised dog food brand Bully Max, said:

“For us at Bully Max, OOH campaigns have been fantastic in increasing brand visibility. The real power of OOH is in reaching a wide audience in high-traffic areas where people don’t expect to be targeted, which makes our brand stick in their minds. We’ve seen a significant uptick in online searches and direct sales when we’ve run OOH campaigns, especially in cities where pet ownership is high.”

Maris also highlighted positive results that can be directly attributed to the OOH campaign:

“We recently ran an OOH campaign in a few key cities, using both digital billboards and transit ads. We saw a 15% increase in website visits from those areas, and our conversion rate jumped by 10% within a month. ROI was very positive—our sales increased by approximately 20% in the cities where we targeted the OOH ads, and the feedback we received showed that the campaign had made our brand top-of-mind for many pet owners.”

It seems OOH advertising can be a fantastic way to increase sales and boost brand awareness. 🥳 

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Different types of OOH advertising

But what type of OOH advertising is best for your brand? Let's take a look at some options.

OOH advertising includes Digital, Programmatic Digital, and Traditional out of home campaigns— and they can be broken down even further.

Traditional OOH

Traditional OOH advertising is most likely what you first think of when it comes to this type of marketing. Think big billboards on the side of buildings and posters stuck up on tube stations and train platforms. You can also use:

• Decals on the sides of different vehicles including buses, trams, trains and signage being pulled by a bicycle. 
• Dedicated advertising vans (a little different from regular vehicles) for outdoor advertising.
• Ad walkers—which is literally just people walking around with displays attached to them. They're also usually handing out brochures.

This type of advertising has been around for a long time and it's getting increasingly popular. In fact, in 2029 these TOOH is expected to reach $38 billion. 🤯

Digital OOH

If you live in (or have ever visited) a city, chances are you’ve seen lots of digital OOH (DOOH) ad displays. You'll often find them in busy foot-traffic areas or near high-traffic roads. Essentially, they are digital screen versions of the traditional OOH ad methods.

For instance, in the UK OOH industry, there are two major DOOH ad space providers—Clear Channel and JCDecaux. Both of which specialise in:

• Bus shelter displays
• Roadside displays
• Airport displays
• Railway displays
• Outside retail stores

The major difference between traditional and digital OOH displays is obvious—digital displays have moving images or video. They also offer more flexibility and it's easier for advertising companies to switch out ads quickly.

Programmatic Digital OOH

Programmatic Digital OOH (prDOOH) is similar to DOOH, the difference being that programmatic uses an automated process of buying and selling outdoor ad space.

The purpose of prDOOH is to use smart data to find specific audiences at specific times and at precise locations. You can then deliver personalised messages to your target audience in real-time.

For example, the weather conditions, time of the day, and even the football scores could affect where and when you advertise. The options for prDOOH can be pretty advanced and, if it makes sense for your brand, it can offer excellent ROI. Speaking of which...

How much does OOH advertising cost?

The short answer: it depends. There are different factors that come into play when buying OOH ad space, including:

• Location
• Timing
• Duration of the campaign
• The physical size of the ad space
• The type of OOH campaign you want to run

The ecommerce experts I spoke to about OOH for this article were spending differing amounts on OOH:  from $2,800 per month all the way up to $50,000 for mid-sized campaigns. James Wilkinson, CEO of a family-owned supplement brand BalanceOne Supplements, said they ran a smaller campaign:

‍“We placed a digital billboard at a transport hub where we knew our target audience frequented. For our digital billboard campaign, we paid approximately $2,800 a month. In just six months, we observed a 68% brand awareness increase – clearly, the OOH initiative put BalanceOne on the map.”Maris from Bully Max, on the other hand, invested more into their OOH campaign:“

The cost of our OOH campaigns depends on the location and scale, but for a mid-size campaign, it typically ranges from $20K to $50K. This includes digital billboards, transit ads, and placements in high-traffic areas. We’ve learned that the investment is worth it when you see measurable results in customer acquisition and brand recognition.”

‍With a specific time and location in mind, Josh Neuman, founder of the t-shirt brand, Chummy Tees, said his team spent $25,000. This included design, printing, and a month-long billboard rental during a music festival in Austin, Texas:

‍“We strategically chose a high-traffic site where festival goers would pass by regularly, despite the exorbitant cost. Our website traffic increased 40% in the first week of the festival, and direct conversions from the campaign earned $18,000 in revenue, not including branding benefits."

‍These ranges show there's most likely an OOH campaign opportunity suitable for your budget. You may just have to get extra creative and strategic about it.

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How to plan an OOH strategy

Ready to get planning? Here's some tips on how to plan your OOH marketing campaigns, from pre-launch through to measuring the success of your strategies.

OOH campaign pre-launch planning

Most of the work will happen in the lead-up to launching your OOH campaign. Here's what it should include:

Define the campaign goal 🏆

In most cases, the primary objective of an OOH campaign is to boost brand awareness. However, you can tailor your goals to be more specific based on your brand's needs. For instance, if you're planning to open a new physical store, an OOH campaign can generate buzz and awareness within the local community before the grand opening. This approach ensures that potential customers are already familiar with your brand by the time your doors open.

Alternatively, if you've recently secured a partnership with a retailer and aim to drive sales through their outlets, strategically-placed OOH ads near the retailer's location can enhance visibility and attract foot traffic. This tactic can increase sales but and also help you build a good relationship with your new retailer.

You can also use OOH advertising to introduce a new product or service. It can create excitement around a limited-time offer or promote a seasonal campaign.

By understanding your specific objectives, you can craft an OOH campaign that matches your marketing goals for maximum impact and return on investment. 

Part of defining your goals also includes researching your target audience and the potential ad locations, as well as ad space providers. These can both have a big impact on the campaign budget.

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Define the scope of the campaign 🔭

Campaigns can be simple and run for a short amount of time. You might place an ad on  a static billboard in a high foot traffic area to increase brand awareness. Alternatively, they can be more complex and use targeting data across multiple sites for precise ad delivery. The scope depends on your budget and your goals.

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Decide if you want to work with an agency. 🤝

Working with an agency has its ups and downs. On the plus side, working with an experienced agency like CNS Media and Evolve means you have a team of experts to manage the nitty gritty of your OOH campaign. They’ll handle everything from strategy and creative, to media buying and performance reporting.

But agency fees can be costly. You’ll need to work out if your budget can cover the extra costs of working with an ad agency, as well as the ad spend.

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Figure out the tools you need. 🛠️

Whether you're working in-house on your campaign or collaborating with an agency, having the right tools is crucial for the management of your OOH campaign. Here’s a more detailed look at some tools you might consider:

• Creative design tools: Crafting compelling ad creatives is essential for any OOH campaign. You'll likely be working with a designer to create these types of OOH campaigns—so make sure to take their lead when it comes to investing in the right tools.
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• Tracking and analytics tools: Understanding the performance of your OOH ads is essential for assessing ROI and making future data-driven decisions. For example, QR code generators means you can easily create a link from the ad itself. Analysis tools can help track engagement and conversions directly from your ads. Additionally, using advanced tracking tools such as Google Analytics can provide insights into website traffic fluctuations during the campaign period.
  
  
• Social listening tools: Monitoring brand mentions and sentiment on social media platforms can offer real-time feedback on your campaign’s reception. Tools like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or Brandwatch enable you to track conversations, identify trends, and engage with your audience.
  
  
• Digital asset management: Managing a large volume of creative assets, especially in a programmatic DOOH campaign, requires some serious organising. Luckily, a digital asset management tool like Dash is just the solution you need. 😇
  
  Dash is designed to help brands find, organise and share their visual content. By having all your creative assets in one centralised location, your team and external partners will be able access the most up-to-date and approved content ready to drop into design files or send to agency partners.
  
  
• Campaign management platforms: For programmatic campaigns, platforms like Vistar Media or Broadsign can help you buy, manage, and optimise digital OOH ad space. These tools use smart data to target specific audiences and increase the effectiveness of your campaigns.

OOH campaign performance analysis

After the campaign launch, you'll want to plan how you'll measure the effectiveness of your campaign. 

Josh explained how their Chummy Tees OOH campaign had benefits long after launch:

“It elevated brand awareness for months. Three months after the campaign, 22% of new buyers remembered seeing the billboard and visiting our website. Traffic and conversions were important, but OOH improved our brand's identity, which is tougher to assess in fashion ecommerce. People tagged our billboard in Instagram stories, which we didn't expect but eagerly profited from.”

This proves how OOH marketing can have an impact long after your campaign has ended.

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How to measure your OOH campaigns

The big piece of the puzzle is figuring out what and how to measure OOH campaigns.

Rather than figure that out for yourself, borrow these methods that our ecommerce experts use: 🤓

• Measure the percentage sales increase of the advertised product.
• Use a coupon or QR code to track direct purchasesPut in place a mix of online tracking, such as web traffic, social media mentions, and search terms related to the campaign.

Let's take a look at what some of them said in more detail. For example, Josh from Chummy Tees used a mix of the coupon tactic and tracking social media engagement:

‍“We needed metrics to measure success. Direct campaign URL visits and discount coupon usage were tracked. We made $24,000 from those alone, over a month-long ROI. However, the long-term data showed that repeat consumers who found us on the billboard added $35,000 in sales over six months.The campaign also increased our social media following by 15% due to organic billboard shares on Instagram and Twitter.”

‍Similarly, Maris from Bully Max measures social media engagement and location-specific sales data:

‍“For OOH success, we rely on a combination of online tracking (e.g., website traffic, social media mentions, and searches) and in-store promotions. We also track direct sales increases in the areas where the OOH ads were displayed.For example, if we target a specific city or region, we analyze sales data from that area to see if there's a spike after the campaign launches. Furthermore, we monitor engagement on our social media to see if the campaign creates a buzz or conversations around our products.”

‍Mark from eyeglasses.com focuses on brand recognition as well as sales data:

‍“As for metrics we use to measure OOH's success, we focus on brand recognition, customer inquiries, and an increase in both online and offline sales.”

OOH inspiration from DTC brands 

Now you’ve got the planning and processes in place, it’s time to think about the fun stuff - your ad creative. Let's take a look at a few examples of ecommerce brands seeing success with it.

Surreal Cereal 🥣

The breakfast cereal industry has been monopolised by the same key players for decades. Insert: Surreal. This challenger brand uses its unique, mischievous, tone of voice to get attention. Take this campaign for example:

Source: The Drum

This billboard is one example of a series of fake ’celebrity’ endorsements for the product. At first glance, it looks like THE Dwayne Johnson (i.e. The Rock) has endorsed their surreal. Then you spot that asterisk and see it's actually endorsed by Dwayne Johnson, a bus driver from London. They brand used this format for other celebrities like Serena Williams and Michael Jordan. The campaign got a lot of attention on social media, and those users clearly took to Google to find out more about the brand: 

In the Google Trends data above, you can see that the brand name reached its highest-ever popularity until that point with this campaign.

MOTH 🍸

Next up we have MOTH, which offers pre-made cocktails in a can. MOTH launched an OOH campaign with Clear Channel, which provided the brand with DOOH ad space. The campaign was titled ‘Take me with you’ and highlighted MOTH’s cocktail-in-a-can with the idea that you can take it with you, anywhere you go.

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Source: Clear Channel

While MOTH has a strong online presence, the goal of this campaign was to increase brand awareness and drive in-store retail sales. Samuel Hunt, MOTH's co-founder, said:

“With a multi-channel campaign heavily supported by OOH with Clear Channel, we had our best month’s sales ever.”

For MOTH, the increased sales proved OOH to be a great investment for them.

Crackd 🍳

Crackd make vegan egg replacements, and created an OOH campaign with the help of CNS Media.

Given what the product is, Crackd's key trading periods include Christmas, ‘Veganuary’, and Pancake Day. To help them build brand awareness ahead of these periods, Crackd and CNS Media used prDOOH to find their target audience. From there, they used mobile phone targeting to get ads back in front of their audience after they had been close to the billboards.

Source: CNS Media

Through running the multichannel campaign, CNS Media was able to help them reach 5.5 million ad impressions—resulting in a significant uplift in brand awareness and consideration.

Improving your marketing strategy with OOH

 Out-of-home marketing campaigns can be a great tool for  boosting brand awareness and sales. Maybe you're feeling so inspired you want to create and launch an OOH campaign for your brand right now (you’re welcome).

But before you rush off, remember this: your OOH campaign strategy is only as good as how well you plan it. 

Planning your ecommerce marketing strategy requires tools for managing and sharing your creative content with the right people at the right time.

If you’ve ever tried using a cloud storage solution like Google Drive or Dropbox, you’ll be familiar with how frustrating it can be when managing your brand assets. It's impossible to trawl through thousands of images and videos,or to work out where the latest versions of your assets are. 

That’s why you need Dash. 

Dash helps ecommerce brands organise, manage, and share visual content with the people that need it. 

When you have easy access to creative assets, you can save time launching new campaigns because you’ll be able to find and deploy them fast. If you decide to work with agencies, you can put your OOH creative in a Dash portals, where your agency can download them and launch your campaign.

If you'd like to find out more about how Dash helps brands manage their creatives, take a look at some customer stories:

• RevAir shares content with agencies and saves 20 hours a month 
• COAT launches products faster now they use Dash
• RJ Living gives their partners a premium experience by using Dash portals 

If you want to try Dash for your brand, sign up for a 14-day free trial — no strings attached.