Top 3 OOH Evolutions Impacting B2B Advertising
OOH advertising has a long history, evolving from ancient hieroglyphics to the lithographic prints of the 1400s. But let’s skip ahead to the present, where OOH has become a vital tool for modern B2B advertising.
When most people think of OOH advertising, Times Square in New York City often comes to mind. However, for B2B advertisers, the scope is much broader, including billboards, transit ads, street furniture, and posters. The advent of digital-out-of-home (DOOH) has further expanded this landscape to include digital billboards, elevator advertising, airport displays, retail media networks, EV charging stations, and more.
Traditionally, OOH was seen as a static, broad-reach medium with basic targeting. However, advances in technology and the rise of DOOH have transformed OOH into a dynamic, hyper-targeted, and measurable full-funnel channel, capable of supporting a wide range of campaign objectives. This evolution brings great opportunity for B2B brands aiming to target, engage, and drive measurable impact among business decision-makers.
Let’s explore the most important ways in which OOH advertising has evolved to meet the challenges of today’s B2B advertisers.
EVOLUTION #1: MASS REACH TO PRECISION TARGETING
OOH has always been a powerful medium for mass reach and geo-targeting, driving significant awareness and often a staple of in campaign launches. Historically, OOH targeting was limited to geographic parameters, offering little room for nuanced strategies. However, the emergence of digital place-based advertising, coupled with technological advancements, has revolutionized OOH, enabling specialized audience targeting by environment and enhanced geographic precision.
The birth of the digital place-based industry layered with technological advancements has broadened OOH to allow for more specialized audience targeting, as well as specialized targeting by environment and enhanced geographic targeting, to be more precise and contextual.
Now, OOH has evolved into a hyper-targeted, account-based marketing (ABM) powerhouse. The world of targeting is getting more and more complex. OOH has kept pace to deliver data-driven audience targeting solutions enabling B2B advertisers to precisely reach their most valuable target audience – without reliance on cookies.
OOH B2B targeting options to achieve the greatest efficiencies now include:
- Businesses of all sizes (employees or revenue)
- Audience Type (C-Suite, ITDMs, Lawyers, Financial Advisors, HR Professionals etc)
- Company to support ABM strategies
- Industry
And of course, tried and true geo-targeting by DMA, venue and more sophisticated strategies such as proximity to POI.
EVOLUTION #2: DYNAMIC, ENHANCED CREATIVITY & ENGAGEMENT
Traditionally, OOH was a static, passive medium, dominated by printed, non-video creatives viewed by busy passers-by in cluttered environments. Campaigns were purchased in standard 4-week flights with only 1x creative running for the duration.
The evolution in campaign and creative flexibility has been dramatic due to the opportunity that DOOH publishers bring to the table. B2B brands should now expect their OOH plans to include dynamic, full-motion video creative including a range of options to maximize impact with tailored, nimble and dynamic data-driven creative strategies. Need to adjust your creative based on stock market performance? It’s possible. Want a customized offer or CTA for the company you’re reaching on that screen for more effective ABM ROI? Look to OOH.
DOOH publishers also bring the benefit of offering distraction-free, low-clutter environments to the OOH space. Partners such as Captivate target B2B decision-makers in the elevators of premier office towers in top markets. These captive environments deliver 100% ad viewability and a lean-in viewer experience. The advantage is a higher quality impression and deeper audience engagement with and recall of the brand’s message. The combination of creatively dynamic & enhanced OOH engagement builds deeper context and connection with audiences leading to higher impact and ROI. The value that OOH can deliver to B2B campaigns has grown exponentially because of the options to execute engaging, contextually relevant strategies.
EVOLUTION #3: MEASUREMENT & ATTRIBUTION
OOH has always been a high-impact, mass-reach medium. However, measuring its impact beyond general awareness was once a challenge. Today, those challenges have been overcome, with OOH now offering a range of measurement and attribution solutions that make it a quantifiable driver of ROI.
Industry-leading attribution partners enable brands to understand campaign performance and impact. Factors like conversions, website lift, sales lift, app downloads are all within reach and on par with broader advertising industry standards. Many publishers also offer brand-lift studies to validate campaign outcomes including recall, effectiveness, and action taken. The best also offer the opportunity to tailor surveys to include custom questions and segment by target to ensure results are reflecting your target audience’s actions and opinions.
THE NEW ERA Of OOH: A Full-Funnel, Impactful Strategy for B2B Advertisers
As we’ve seen, the evolution of OOH has brought incredible new opportunities for B2B advertisers. No longer just a top-of-funnel awareness tactic, OOH now offers a full-funnel, creatively agile, and measurable solution. B2B brands should reconsider their OOH strategy and consider the multitude of ways OOH can more effectively target, enhance engagement, deliver contextual relevance, and & elevate strategies in measurable ways.
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