Consumers more likely to search and purchase on mobile when out of home

A joint study commissioned by Clear Channel UK, Global, JCDecaux and Posterscope has revealed consumers are 62% more likely to search on mobile when out-of-home (OOH) campaigns use location messaging.

The Point of Search report examined consumers’ search behaviours, including why, where and how people searched and purchased products and services based on location, specific attributes, and priming factors of OOH sites.

The study found consumers’ mobile searches were more diverse across varied products and services and these searches were 38% more likely to lead to a purchase than those conducted at home.

It also revealed that people who spent more time out of home searched on average 58% more on their smartphones than those who spent less time out of home.

Mark Bucknell, chief commercial officer at JCDecaux UK said: “Out-of-Home advertising has been shown to amplify engagement with digital Online and this new Point of Search insight now shows the powerful effect it has on Search, prompting people to purchase when they are outside the home. With 83% of people now visiting a city every month and the increased investment in digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) across the biggest UK cities, the opportunities for brands to get the best from the public and private screen grows ever stronger.”

How to optimise OOH search and purchase behaviours

The report offered further takeaways for brands on how to “maximise the search effect” through the use of outdoor sites and creative. For example, the number one motivation for consumers to carry out a mobile search while outside of the home was to fulfil a location need, like finding a destination address.

Additionally, mobile searches in OOH locations were more likely to happen between Monday and Thursday, and home searches at weekends. More than eight in 10 out of home mobile searches took place between the morning and 7pm, with less than four in 10 taking place post-7pm.

OOH advertising across classic and digital sites which used dynamic and contextually relevant messaging, like location, weather and time, and/or were tailored to consumers’ needs and motivations using specific creative, prompted more people to search.

Additionally, people were more likely to search for something on their mobile phone when outside when with company, compared to at home.

In terms of need states, people were found to be “more impulsive” and “looking for inspiration” when outside the house.

Senses like sight, hearing, and smell also acted as triggers for search, and search itself “adds value and enhances consumers’ activities and experiences”.

Lindsay Rapacchi, research & insight director at Clear Channel UK, highlighted that Les Binet recently demonstrated that increases in share of search lead to increases in market share, and said this latest research proved OOH environments prompted a huge volume of search.

She added: “[OOH is] clearly a target location for any brand wishing to grab hold of their share of search as and when it happens.”

The Point of Search study combined findings from desk research into needs states and search typologies, an online survey of 1,100 consumers to understand why people search, and a bespoke search diary completed by 1,100 respondents which created a database of almost 10,000 mobile searches.

Mobile searches conducted in “out of home locations” were then compared to mobile searches conducted “at home”.

There was also an online survey of 1,100 consumers using visual stimulus and videos to understand OOH creative best practices to encourage search.