Back before the dot com meltdown of 2001, “it’s all about eyeballs” was a popular catchphrase that summed up the “of the moment” measure for online success. As it turned out, eyeball counting was not the ideal gauge for measuring the viability of an online enterprise. However, there’s much to be said about the value of counting “eyeballs” as a metric for successful brand visibility.
In fact, counting eyeballs is central to an underrated but hard to miss form of mobile advertising…billboards. Yes, I know that the politically correct term for billboards is Outdoor or Out-Of-Home (OOH) advertising. However, I dispute the conventional notion about what qualifies as “mobile;” the handheld devices we carry are mobile only because our lifestyles are so mobile. If you leave your smart phone at your desk when you run out on an errand, is it still a mobile device… or is it now a desktop device?
Billboards, phone/bus kiosks, railroad platform and in-car ads, street furniture, buses, mall signs, taxicab and elevator videos “Jumbotrons”… there are so many different forms of OOH ads we come into contact with in our mobile lives. In fact, a recent study compiled by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America revealed that during an average week, 99% of adults (18 years+) are reached by OOH ads versus about 75% of the same group being reached by online ads (out-of-home as well as at home).
While digital mobile ads have an admitted advantage in more precise audience targeting, OOH advertising offers many targeting features too: 1) proximity to point of sale, 2)geo-targeted location visibility (hard to miss seeing a 40-foot wide banner ad out on the highway) and 3) lifestyle positioning (at malls, on commuter trains, in stadiums).
While you can skip over a mobile banner on your phone, you had better not close your eyes while driving on the road or walking down the street… or you might bang into that OOH ad in front of you.
We live in a mobile society. So keep your eyeballs open to the value of OOH advertising as part of your media mix. As always, juxtaposing your media mix and finding the combination that maximizes your ROI is what we do best. For a free consultation fill out the form here.
Written by Ira Lieberman || Brand Solutionist