According to WARC, successful brands allocate 13% of their media budgets to out of home advertising.

The Outdoor Advertising Association of America’s (OAAA) 2018 report shared that big brands are increasing their OOH budgets. The study also found that OOH increases the success of digital search by over 40% and print by over 14%!

That’s right, out of home media makes your other marketing campaigns more successful!

WARC’s Data Editor, James McDonald said, “Out of home is an industry staple, attracting a consistent share of successful brands’ budgets over the long-term. The channel delivers affordable reach with CPM routinely below the all media average.”

Smirnoff Vodka | Bus Shelter Advertisement

OAAA also shared that while brands are increasing their OOH media allocation, they can receive an even greater return on investment by allocating more! Below is a chart OAAA shared with current spending versus optimum spending for OOH.

Even completely online businesses are going offline to promote their products and services.

You might think that an increase in out of home media is only possible for large brands. Think again! Transit Advertising, Inc. offers a variety of campaign mixes that help small businesses saturate their local market and dominate the competition.

Transit advertising provides brands of all sizes with the opportunity to take over a platform without competing for space with competitors. Complete domination of a platform without competitive pressure is essentially unheard of with any other platform.

In 2018, the experience is everything. Out of home media, ensures your audience doesn’t swipe past your ad. Instead, creative transit advertising encourages pedestrians to share photos on social media and engage with your brand on a personal level!

Take your brand where no other advertising platform can reach. Transit advertising carries your brand message throughout the city influencing digital activity, supporting other marketing efforts and increasing brand recognition.

Next, to digital, OOH is the only medium that is expected to grow its market share in 2018. Isn’t it time you utilize transit advertising to grow your own marketing share?

Burger King is finding creative ways to showcase their competitive advantage against competitors.

Burger King uses flame grilling to cook their burgers, unlike other burger chains which use a flat grill. The fast-food chain is highlighting their flame grilled patties by using attack ads that show a grill in the backyard of former McDonald’s executives. In other words, not even their competitor’s top management can resist Burger King style patties.

Burger King is part of a saturated industry, meaning they have many competitors and price competition is intense. Rather than competing on price, where the lowest cost always wins, Burger King is finding a way to illustrate why they are better for consumers.

Have you wondered if attack ads were the right choice for your business? There are significant factors to consider before promoting an ad that goes after the competition.

Essential questions to ask before running attack ads:

Does the message align with your brand voice?

You may have never considered the voice of your brand. A brand voice is a guide when writing advertising copy. It conveys the feeling that you want connected with your brand. For example, The Honest Company’s brand voice is Mom’s.

If you are creating an attack ad, it is essential that the message still align closely with the feeling you want consumers to have about your brand.

Are you in a highly competitive market?

Attack ads are typically useful when you are in a competitive market. One way to evaluate if you are in a competitive market is to evaluate your competitors. If you have many competitors, it is likely price competition is strong. Attack ads might be a creative way to break through the clutter and display your competitive advantage.

Are they smart or derogatory?

Derogatory messages are typically not received well by consumers. It is important that attack ads are clever or funny without a derogatory or bullying type message. There are degrees of attack ads. For example, Burger King’s ads are direct and state their competitive advantage. Wendy’s digs a little deeper with their attack ads. Wendy’s instigates interactions between themselves and competitors online. You’ll see in the example below that they call out their competitor and show images of McDonald’s soggy burger for National Frozen Food Day! This is more intense than Burger King’s ad.

If you throw the first punch, it’s likely your competitor will fight back. When you choose attack ads, remember the message you are trying to convey and stick to it. We do not recommend going down a road that ever compromises the integrity of your brand. Remain clever and use messages that ingeniously show your competitive advantage.

Transit advertising leads the pack in out-of-home media in 2018.

Transit advertisements receive up to 350K impressions per week. Unlike other forms of out-of-home media, transit ads are not constrained to a single location. Transit advertisements take ads to major areas of town at no additional cost. They also allow advertisers to capitalize on location-based marketing strategies. Location-based strategies mean bus ads can reach consumers at relevant times and places around town.

According to Google, 76% of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day.

Transit advertising helps to drive this behavior as consumers see these large moving billboards during their commute. Drivers intersect with transit ads every day. This level of high interaction builds interest and helps drive digital or brick-and-mortar engagement.

Nielsen’s Ads Driving Online Activity 2017 report shared, “While OOH media accounts for 26 percent of gross search activations generated by television, radio, print, OOH combined, but it only accounts for 7 percent of the total combined advertising spend.”

Combine the location-based strategy with personalized messages and transit advertisements have the power to influence response. Personalized brand messages allow your brand to connect with the needs of potential customers. Transit ads take personalized ads on the road to reach potential customers during their commute and influence purchasing behavior.

The large visual presence of transit advertisements aligns with today’s phone-focused consumers. Major brands seek creative ways to reach consumers in order to break through the clutter. Transit advertising offers a large canvas for brands to design. Imaginative bus designs cannot be missed and trigger consumers to search for more information, seek out a brick-and-mortar location or share on social media.

Transit advertisements allow today’s digital consumers to feel connected in a physical way. Consumers often take photos with creative bus ads and share this content to social media, providing brands with spikes in online traffic.

Get up close and personal with today’s digital consumers with transit advertising.

For many small business owners, advertising feels like flushing dollars down the drain.

The key to strong advertising results isn’t a good plumber. It is giving buyers the information they need to make a decision. Advertising messages that convert highlight a problem and show how your product or service is the solution.

Advertising does not have to be an elusive process. While creativity plays a role, common sense messages go a long way when bringing in new customers. When prospects understand how your product or service meets their need, they will seek you out to discover more.

Source: AdSoft Direct

Advertising messages that address a problem can be creative and catchy.

Do you remember Wendy’s ad, “Where’s the beef?”. This ad targeted competitors and addressed a common issue faced by consumers. The ad featured tiny burgers and large buns. Wendy’s creatively pointed out that they offer better burgers with more meat than the competition. For businesses that are in a competitive industry, pointing to value allows you to compete on issues other than price. Wendy’s targeted what mattered to customers with creative messaging that worked.

Exterior of a Suburban House — Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

Words aren’t the only thing that matters when it comes to problem/solution advertising.

Febreze’s “Get your home back” campaign featured a large dog in a home. The strong imagery immediately makes the problem clear to pet owners… Febreze keeps your home from smelling like a dog house! The advertisers didn’t use the words “pet owner,” “dog house,” “smell” or any other obvious language. The creative imagery captures the viewer and the slogan, “Get your home back” showcases Febreze as the solution.

Febreze’s “Get your home back” campaign targeted a specific consumer group, pet owners. Similarly, Delta and Tinder partnered to create an ad that targeted a particular consumer group within their shared target audience…singles.

Source: Ad Week

Delta and Tinder, created an ad that addresses a problem for singles, being “swiped right.” For anyone not familiar with the dating app, Tinder, “swiping right” means you are interested in someone. This creative problem/solution ad used the message “World travelers are more likely to be swiped right” along with images of unique destinations around the globe. The advertisement shows that when singles travel with Delta, they are more likely to find a partner.

Not every small business has a marketing genius at their fingertips. However, common sense tips can help you create adverting messages that convert. Identify a specific problem that your product or service can solve for your target audience, then get creative.

Transit advertising allows businesses to take their creative brand messages to the streets. These rolling billboards help unique ads make a significant impact. Whether you provide an advertisement or need one created, our team will optimize your ad for this large format medium. Transit ads are more cost-effective than other large format ads. Businesses can receive multiple transit ads for the cost of one billboard along with no premium for targeting key areas of town.