The brand building power of outdoor
Outdoor advertising strengthens brands and drives online search, according to new research from the OAA and Mindshare.
Mike Baker, the OAA’s new CEO, unveiled the research at an event in London this morning. The ‘Brand Building Power of Outdoor’ study shows that brands which spend more on outdoor develop greater presence and ‘fame’; are seen as more confident and drive online search.
Outdoor currently makes up 9.1% of display advertising spend but Baker forecasts a double-digit figure “soon”. Speaking this morning, Baker said outdoor generates £1.40 for every £1 spent and advertisers should consider boosting their share of outdoor ad spend.
In an attempt to prove the effectiveness of outdoor to advertisers, Jim Jarrett, business director at Mindshare, explained the research, which used Millward Brown’s BrandZ database of more than 300 brands across 20 categories, monitoring their progress over a five year period.
The key findings, according to Jarrett, are that outdoor brands are more confident; outdoor drives search; outdoor builds brands by establishing strong foundations; and it grows younger brands and sustains existing brands.
In basic terms, “the more you spend outdoor, the more consumers notice your brand,” he said. The average advertising campaign spends around 10% on outdoor but brands which spend 11% or higher generate stronger brand ‘personalities’, and therefore influence consumers more. The research says that “to build brand fame, the ideal share of outdoor advertising is 11% or more”.
In addition, the research shows that ‘rising and thriving brands’ such as McDonald’s and easyJet typically invest a higher share of their budgets in outdoor. Baker said he doesn’t think this is a coincidence.
Outdoor ad campaigns also encourage people to search for brands online (particularly across the categories of travel, insurance, automotive and mobile handsets, which were monitored). In all cases, outdoor campaigns drove an increase in search volumes for the brand, according to the research.
In three out of the four categories looked at, outdoor delivers a more cost-effective search increase, pound for pound, than TV. Apparently, no equivalent effect was found from other media including both radio and newspapers.
Baker believes outdoor is a successful way of building brand equity because it is a very “visual medium… and brands have visual quality,” he said. In terms of the findings related to driving search, he said that is a “bonus” and something they were unaware of. He related some of the findings to behavioural economics – saying it is easy for advertisers to overlook how brands make people feel.
The research does not cover mobile search, but the speakers at this morning’s event said Google is very keen to release mobile search data, so watch this space. They also confirmed that a media mix wasn’t looked at for this particular study, although they all agreed that the link between TV and outdoor is “strong”.
After aiming to convince a cinema full of industry delegates, Baker finished the presentation trying to persuade advertisers to increase their outdoor spend to 16% or more.
To view the Brand Building Power of Outdoor presentation, click here.