Harnessing data-driven creativity in OOH campaigns
Creativity has always been the key to producing eye-catching, influential Out of Home (OOH) advertising campaigns. But, with the continuous evolution of technology and the developments being made by data-driven marketing, colourful creativity can definitely be optimised through insights and analytics.
OOH advertising always embraces technological advancements, and can definitely benefit from creativity that has been informed by carefully collated data. For marketers looking to boost campaign optimisation and improve the reach of their brands, harnessing this power is crucial.
The Power of Data in OOH Advertising
Data is the fuel in the engine of modern advertising campaigns, OOH included. With so many sources to collect data from, marketers can gain valuable insights into consumer behaviour and buying trends with the click of a button. This data can inform every aspect of an OOH campaign, from helping with audience segmentation to influencing copy and design.
How can data have such a big impact on marketing?
Data can support that a decision is strategic and can boost confidence in your campaign from an internal standpoint.
Data can allow you to pinpoint specific audience targets for your marketing, allowing you to improve your personalised advertising.
Data can help you to choose the perfect location for your OOH advertising by analysing things like traffic patterns, footfall and visibility.
These are just a few of the ways in which data can be used to optimise your marketing efforts. Armed with this information, you can confidently unleash your creativity.
Understanding Audience Segmentation
Audience segmentation is easier the more data you have to hand. By analysing demographic, psychographic and behavioural data you can identify specific audience segments, create buyer personas, and tailor your OOH campaigns to target each group.
Being able to segment your audience in this way is vital for personalisation - and personalised marketing is always more likely to resonate with your audience. Personalisation increases the likelihood of engagement and conversion, and allows you to really get into the psyche of your ideal buyers. Focusing on the segments that are the most likely to convert reduces the risk of misusing your marketing budget, and means that you can maximise your ROI.
Leveraging Data Insights for Creative Ideation
It’s a common misconception that you can either be logical or creative, but not both. Logical data collection can absolutely spark creativity, and being able to make the connection between the two is a skill that it’s vital to hone.
Think of it this way - data provides the building blocks for marketers to place in creative configurations. For example, data might tell you that the majority of your customers prefer shopping on the highstreet than in retail parks, and that they respond more reliably to digital OOH than static posters. You know where to engage these customers and the format to use - deciding how best to leverage these insights is where the creativity comes in.
Personalising Content for Targeted Engagement
We’ve already mentioned the power of personalisation for effective advertising. Data-driven OOH campaigns offer lots of opportunities to use highly personalised content. Personalised advertising improves a brand’s chance of being heard over the “noise” of all of the advertising people encounter on a daily basis. Not only are people more likely to respond to advertisements that they feel are relevant to them, their interests and their problems - they’re more likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family.
Overall, using data to personalise content allows brands to create a more cohesive and integrated strategy, even spanning across different channels. All of this comes together to create an experience for your customers that feels as though it’s been designed to speak directly to them - surprise; it has.
Optimising Campaign Performance through Data Analysis
Analysis is the cornerstone of effective data-driven marketing, and therefore OOH advertising. When you’re looking to increase the chances of achieving your desired outcomes, why wouldn’t you use every tool in your arsenal? Data allows marketers to identify patterns and pull actionable insights out of your tracked campaign metrics.
Here is an example of how you could use data-driven marketing analytics to optimise a billboard-based OOH campaign advertising skincare products.
Collect relevant data on the demographic of your target audience. In this example that could mean busy young professionals who don’t have time for extensive skincare routines.
You decide where to set up your campaign. If you’re targeting young professionals you would want to focus on urban, office-filled areas and commuter routes they might frequent.
For your campaign you create two different billboard designs - one with a model with realistic, blemished skin, and the other with an airbrushed model. Each creative is tagged with a unique identifier that will help to track its performance. You plan to use A/B testing to see which billboard performs better.
You gather more data, this time through impressions, engagement, surveys and focus groups. You discover that the billboard with the unedited model attracted more attention on social media, but that the edited model prompted more conversions.
With this data-driven insight you have a strong case for allocating more of your budget towards the airbrushed creative for your OOH advertising, but you also know that unedited, more authentic advertisements might perform well on your socials.
Partnering with Clear Channel for Data-Driven OOH Campaigns
At Clear Channel we know how to utilise data and creativity to the limit to create unstoppable OOH campaigns. We like to inspire our collaborators, and our solutions and suggestions are all supported by research - the perfect examples of data-informed creativity. To see what resources we can share with you, get in touch today.