Outdoor advertising, being the oldest medium of advertising, has gloriously survived the test of time. OOH advertising began when lithography, a method of printing, was invented in the 1790s. This made the creation of posters possible which started being used more and more in high traffic areas with time.
In comparison with posters, billboards were a little late to make their appearance. The first billboard that was rented for advertising was recorded in 1867. But things escalated fast from there as you can see billboards still keeping up with their reputation when you drive past a high way or a busy traffic signal.
This is the question we all are here for. And the short answer to this is - Yes, it does.
With the development and expansion of digital marketing media with hyper-focused targetting, OOH can seem like a shot in the dark. Most people these days seem to be glued to their digital devices instead of looking around, don’t they?
Instead of these situations, both large and small brands keep investing a huge amount of their advertising budget on outdoor advertising and keep getting a much higher ROI than digital marketing media.
One might wonder why that is happening and the answer is the division of advertising into either digital or outdoor is, in many ways, wrong. It is not an either-or scenario. OOH is flexible and versatile in that it can be effectively integrated with any of the other media of advertising.
Every human being is drawn to the outdoors by nature. No person can live their lives confined within the four walls and that is why outdoor advertising will never lose its power. We spend about 70% of our time out of our homes. During all this time, we are exposed to various advertisements that place their footprints on our minds.
People all over the world are growing at an exponential rate increasing population density and traffic everywhere. Especially for Bangladesh, the effect is severe. Population of Dhaka city is estimated to be 20.628 Million and 57% of them spend their time on the road every single day! This is definitely the largest ratio of potential audience any advertising medium can give you!
Another reason OOH will never get old is the fact that it has so many angles to spread into. Outdoor advertising has grown and expanded into a massive OOH industry since the 1800s and it keeps growing!
In addition to billboards, out-of-home advertising is now possible in many other locations such as transit and many more! The constant need for extraordinariness of the advertisers has given rise to many fun and creative trends in OOH like mobile billboards, on-car stickers, different street furniture, etc.
Nowadays, any place that is out of somebody’s home can be rented for advertising and this gives the opportunity of targeting audience for your campaign. Cinemas, the waiting room at a doctor’s chamber or different club hang-out places can be good examples of it.
Many brands are integrating outdoor campaigns with digital ones. A great example of using this strategy in Bangladesh is RFL Bijoyer Golpo campaign. RFL group not only put together catchy colorful paintings on a transport medium but also placed QR codes on them that’ll increase web traffic on their micro-site.
There have been other examples of this highly effective strategy. Many businesses put coupon codes on their billboard ads so their ROI from the specific advertise can be measurable. Moreover, people often feel a special connection to the business when they are treated with a coupon or discount.
After all this time, OOH seems to not only have survived the journey but also have become stronger and way more powerful in the process. The way OOH works, it is much less likely to get expired any time soon. Outdoor advertising is here to conquer the advertising world for decades and more!