Ever since we opened up our platform last month, we’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of local advertisers and businesses both here in New York City and across the country. Along the way, we started to see some common themes and want to share them with you:

1. OOH is so much more than just billboards!
While billboards are with a big part of outdoor advertising, don’t get hung up on a particular medium - each has its own benefits. Phone kiosks, bus shelters, and other street level media attract eyeballs during morning and evening commutes. Digital OOH video networks in cafes, retail stores, and health clubs keep viewers engaged by placing ads alongside relevant and entertaining content. Airport media is a great platform to get your message in front of high income business travelers and mall placements target consumers right at the point of purchase.

2. Location! Timing! Activation!
The old adage says that it’s all about location, but we think timing and activation are equally important. In order to promote a sale or an event, you’ll want to start your campaign 2-3 weeks before your event. OOH media is usually sold in 4 week increments.

A strong activation or ‘call to action’ can dramatically improve your ad’s effectiveness. A great piece of art is just that - art - but it won’t necessarily bring people to your event, store, or sale. If you want customers to come to your store or buy something in particular, tell them that in your ad! Be creative and get users interested in your business. Tell them where you are, what you do, and how to get in touch with you. A phone number, QR code, or URL will direct users to you. The best outdoor advertising starts a conversation and builds a relationship. Reward customers that engage with your advertising.  

3. Never underestimate the post-sale!
Signing a contract secures your ad space, but you aren’t done yet. You still have to finalize, produce, and deliver your art to the media operator who will install it. Most operators ask you to deliver your materials 7-10 days in advance. Even the best media agencies can find themselves in a time crunch because of last minute changes - so remember to plan ahead! In order to avoid rush fees or missing your start date, we recommend signing a contract after your art is finalized.

At ADstruc, we’re eager to show you how easy it is to promote your business using Out-of-Home media. Stay tuned to our blog and visit ADstruc.com to start your next campaign! 

So you might be wondering, "Why should I get involved in outdoor advertising?"  Aside from the fact, that having your photo or brand on a billboard in your town is celebrity status, it is a highly effective medium when you approach it correctly.  We live by these steps to help our clients build successful advertising campaigns.

Who is your target audience? 

• Who is your customer? How old are they, what is their demo breakdown, etc.? Understanding these questions help you prepare the next step of "Where are they located" but also starts to build the mood of your ad campaign. Nailing these two points helps lay the structure for building a successful outdoor advertising campaign and in setting various performance-based metrics.

Where are they located? 

• Is your target customer in urban or rural areas? Do they travel in and out of the city on a daily basis? What's the major highway in the area? Understanding these questions ultimately narrow down the most targeted areas to start searching for outdoor advertising locations.  From here, you start to get a sense of the type of ad mediums available in that area and begin determining what is the best medium for your message. Street Furniture? Billboards? Bus Ads?  Maybe your target audience actually lives outside of the city but drives in every day - a billboard heading into or out of town makes sense. For example, a client recently used our platform to target wealthy individuals going into the city to shop at their stores - billboards on the major highway heading into the city was an effective approach.  Understanding where your customer is located, how they travel, and in what location is best for the ad, helps in communicating most effectively with them. 

What's your message and call to action? 

• At this point in the process, you should have a good sense of who is your target audience and where they are located. Now is the fun part. Get their attention and make sure your message has a call to action. Whether that be a keyword, a unique web address or phone number, a coupon or QR code, an augmented reality app, whatever, just make sure the message has a reason why somebody should interact with it, and most importantly, receives a reward for doing so. This reward is the gift to the customer for answering your call to action. There is reason location based companies like Foursquare have success and it's because we keep winning things, free coffees, badges, etc. The message needs to be exciting enough that the audience remembers the ad and interacts with the message on their mobile device or when they get home. For example, maybe your customers are mothers. Your message should maybe be focused on solving a problem that they can identify with and they get a bonus item for following that call to action. Creating a strong message with a call to action helps drive attention both online and offline. For example, our client Gary Vaynerchuk did a campaign where he put his cell phone on NYC ads - over 250 people called, he spoke with nearly all of them directly, and built great relationships with his community. 

• Understanding your call to action is extremely important. By understanding the desired outcome of your ad campaign, it will help you structure success metrics of which to monitor closely. What do you want? More customer registrations? Transactions? Press? Partnerships?  Do you want X amt of signups for every $Y spent on outdoor? It's easy to determine your metrics, but important to monitor them closely over the course of your campaign.

What other ad campaigns are you currently running? 

• It's always important to align your advertising budgets with respect to time of year and metrics. Are you about to launch a new product? Are you currently running outdoor ads and thinking about following up with online ads?  The beauty of advertising is how targeted it can be.  The call of action in outdoor could lead to bringing a consumer online and converting them through online ads, or vice versa. Reminder advertising is an interesting thing to think about. Always being present, not being able to be turned off, with witty messaging and in great locations, helps to keep the brand top of mind. Especially, if you are preparing to launch a new product or open a new retail establishment.  This also creates great Word-of-Mouth buzz. 

When outdoor advertising is done right, it's actually not about "advertising", it's about initiating a conversation and building a relationship.  Stay tuned for more insights on outdoor advertising and check back for some case studies on some recently successful campaigns launched through ADstruc.