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Each month on these pages, we will Showcase THE most attention-grabbing campaigns on the streets of Ireland. Click below to see what’s been turning heads recently.
Kantar’s Media Reactions 2023 study is based on insights from some 16,000 consumers and 900 marketers around the world. All the channels in the top consumer rankings carry advertising that you need to go out and experience in person.
There is a 90% correlation between media channels that consumers claim capture their attention, and those in which they prefer seeing advertising.
In-person media channels should not be underestimated, as many bring consumer receptivity and attention. This can bring more brand impact for ad campaigns with the right content and customisation.
OOH media is a physical, real world channel that is part of our daily lives, communicating with us at key touchpoints in our day – commuting, working, socialising, shopping etc.
Who knows better what grabs their attention that the audience themselves? PML Group recently collaborated with independent research agency Ipsos B&A to directly engage Dubliners to discover what the best media is to capture and hold their attention. The study showed OOH as the most consistent medium for delivering attention across various audience demographics.
The desire for attention prompts a fundamental rethinking of how OOH spaces can be crafted—not as mere channels for messages, but as platforms for engagement and experiences. It is a call to create advertising that doesn’t just occupy space but enriches it, inviting the passerby to engage with the world around them.
OOH that will thrive in the attention economy will be that which understands attention not as a commodity to be exploited, but as a dialogue to be engaged with.
In a world where our attention is pulled in countless directions, OOH that breaks through the noise will be that which offers not just a message, but a moment of genuine engagement.
A pioneering cross-industry collaboration between Clear Channel, JCDecaux UK, and Posterscope in the UK demonstrated the power of relevancy in Out of Home to increase consumer brain response, ad recall, brand / creative rating, and sales response.
Neuroscience was used to demonstrate the correlation between relevant content and the brains response (attention) of the consumer.
Our Liveposter platform gives advertisers the opportunity to maximise the full potential of Dynamic DOOH and create communications that can change depending on the moments that matter in the real world.
The commercial opportunity around improving your OOH attention techniques are profound. The Point of Search research shows that searches conducted outside the home are more likely to lead to actions such as a purchase and the same study also shows that searches are more likely to be conducted out of home in the first place. According to TGI, more than 1.2 million people who have seen an OOH ad in the past week have responded by researching a product or service on their phone.
That moment of attention could be the most telling and valuable exchange between the consumer and the brand.
People want advertising to be entertaining and interesting and the sheer scale of a billboard or the malleable nature of on-screen digital display offers brands an unmatched canvas. It’s a pure advertising medium that cannot be skipped, paused, or blocked, and powerful OOH creative has the ability to move minds.
OOH is THE location marketing channel and can be relevant to location or to environmental factors such as weather or live events, adding resonance and increasing likelihood of capturing coveted attention.
Because of the pure nature of the medium, OOH thrives on quality creative. Creating powerful messaging is the first step to winning consumer attention. Here are 5 OOH creative tips that will help win the battle for attention.
1. Use a simple design for your OOH creative
Great design in OOH is always beautifully simple, and always uncluttered.
The core ethos of simplicity in design is summarised by advice from Coco Chanel; “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off!”
2. Employ minimal but striking copy for OOH ads
Wherever possible, aim for five words or less within the design.
The success of this principle is evidenced in almost all recent Cannes Lions Outdoor Winners, with global giants including Pepsi, Heinz, McDonald’s, and Cadbury all stripping away everything but the absolute essentials within their OOH creative.
3. Use bold colours and high contrast to make out-of-home campaigns stand out
Use colour to distinguish between critical elements within the creative.
Be bold! Because being subtle with colour will not provide the impact you need to attract the attention of the on-the-go audience you’re trying to reach. And colour is how you highlight the key areas, elements and details that will emphasise the message.
4. Make your OOH ads entertaining
Don’t underestimate the delight of clever discovery.
Often we forget that audiences loves to be entertained, and in Outdoor environments, that is easily achieved by making space for the viewer to think for themselves and appreciate the details within a creative.
5. Add data for more impactful Outdoor ad campaigns
When using Digital OOH, explore what data could enhance the advertising concept.
The connectedness of DOOH and its dynamic capability has opened up a wealth of creative opportunities, allowing different data to be incorporated into the Outdoor execution.
The dynamic nature of consumer attention has been identified as strategically important factor as we move into 2024. For Out of Home, the timing and placement of campaigns will rely on attention in order to maximise impact.
Our latest Mind research series, conducted with Ipsos B&A, sets out to identify the time, place and consumer mood allowing advertisers to plan OOH to achieve the optimum consumer connection.
In this first instalment, we look at commuting environments.
Across all five activities / locations people rank ‘open minded’ as one of the top three moods they generally feel indicating that they are more open to external stimuli – including OOH messages. It is interesting to see how feelings change throughout the course of a day. On the morning commute respondents tend to be more focused. For example, our OCS research found that they are more likely at that time to be thinking about their personal finances.
Lunchtime, meanwhile, sees a more relaxed demeanour which reappears on the commute home when thoughts turn to family, entertainment, and evening meals.
A third of drivers report being focused when behind the wheel, while over a quarter say they are open minded and relaxed. A lack of distraction and receptivity points to the potential attention attributes of OOH. Those travelling by public transport feel even more at ease, suggesting the passive nature of the activity. Over a sixth of them describe being bored. This is not necessarily a negative for marketers as station and in-carriage advertising can help fill this apparent ‘dead-time’.
These findings echo the latest Kantar Media Reactions study which found OOH & DOOH occupy two of the top five preferred media causing the least interruption to consumer lives. Furthermore, Classic and Digital OOH are ranked in the top three channels by consumers when it comes to capturing attention.
Attention is the hot topic heading into next year. Many research studies have proven that it helps build brands and drives sales. It is related to ad preference too: there is a 90% correlation between media channels that consumers claim capture their attention, and those in which they prefer seeing advertising. There is also a strong negative correlation of 97% for preference with “ad formats they try to ignore.”
So, we can conclude that ads that are positively engaging are in a much better position to capture and retain attention, and will, therefore, not be avoided.
The recently released Point of Search research study showed consumers more likely to search and purchase on mobile when out of home. It found that mobile searches out of home have a wider variety of triggers, particularly location needs, the senses, and feelings while people are more impulsive and looking for inspiration when out of home.
Turning to behavioural science, Richard Shotton recently advocated not just targeting an audience, but targeting their mood. When people feel positive, they are positive about advertising, so brands should be targeting – or, better yet, creating moments of happiness and relaxation. He reports that positivity boosts attention, noticeability and trust. For him the take-home message is clear. Both media and creative would do well to target, and create, joyful moments.
Next week, in the second part of this study, we will be looking at how consumer feel across retail, travel and leisure environments.