If you’re anything like, well, most businesses, you’ve probably been forced to adjust your strategy and revisit the channels you’re leveraging this year. Due to the huge shifts in the global climate — as well as the way people spend their time — the rulebook has essentially been rewritten. 

The goal now is to find out where your customer is in the ‘new normal’ and how you can best reach them.

While in the past this might have been the job of a single channel — like a Digital Out-Of-Home (DOOH) billboard or an online ad — advertisers are now having to think more creatively than ever before.

In a nutshell? Businesses are realizing that leveraging cross-channel marketing campaigns can amplify messaging and supercharge return-on-investment. 

And if you want your multi-channel campaign to have the most impact, DOOH advertising needs to be part of it — yes, even in a post-pandemic reality. Why? Because DOOH acts as the perfect complement to social media marketing, PR, and other forms of brand communication.

Interested to hear more? Then let’s jump in...

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Why 2020 might be the best time to amplify your messaging

There’s no need to sugar-coat it: 2020 has been a rough year for everyone.

With the global situation more unstable than ever, and a push for more folks staying at home, you might be asking, just how do advertisers make the most of technologies like Digital Out Of Home?

We’ll dig into some very specific examples around social media and press campaigns shortly. But first let’s zoom out and consider the macro factors at play — the ones that mean DOOH is a very powerful tool in 2020 (and beyond):

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• Online channels are now more saturated than ever. Yes, consumers are spending way more time online, but your business’s chances of cutting through are getting slimmer and slimmer.
• And with less budget to spare — as of June 2020, 69% of brands said they planned to decrease ad spend in 2020 (chances are, you will too) — you want your messaging to have maximum impact.

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Now, at first glance, these stats might not seem too encouraging. But if we scratch a little more below the surface, we also find that:

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• 74% of businesses are posting less frequently on their social media accounts.
• And only 25% of companies plan to increase ad spend during 2020.

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So with fewer players in the market and less budget being spent, that means one thing: opportunity.

What’s more, the global pandemic has meant that consumer attention is more focused than ever before — especially in real-world scenarios where DOOH works best.

Can you see where we’re going with this?

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The perfect pairing of social media and DOOH

Some things were just born to be together.

Like peaches and cream, or peanut butter and jelly.

Another perfect pairing — at least in our humble opinion — is social media and Digital Out Of Home advertising.

This might, at first, seem a little odd. After all, how can a pure play digital format like social media correlate to a real-world experience?

The answer is, quite beautifully — increasing the impact of paid-social by as much as 56% (and search by 80%!). But how?

From an advertiser’s point of view, social media offers a very attractive proposition. Beyond the sheer reach of social channels like Facebook and Instagram, social media also offers a range of targeting options; dovetailing exceptionally well with DOOH.

Consider the following criteria for targeting on Facebook alone:

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• Location (countries, cities, or even specific “geofenced” areas)
• Demographics (age, gender, job title, etc.)
• Behavior (which device a person is using, etc.)

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In this context, it should be clear to see how a well-designed Digital Out Of Home campaign could boost a social media campaign.

The possibilities are practically endless, but DOOH can readily serve as a catalyst for overall campaign performance. And it works particularly well when you’re promoting a call-to-action. In one study, when a CTA was seen on both DOOH and social platforms, buyer participation increased by 86%.

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So let’s get more specific with an example of how social media and DOOH could complement one another in the real world.

Imagine that you’re running a social media campaign and you want to target young professionals who live in a certain area of a certain city. You might use geotagging to promote specific sponsored posts, or push traffic generating content related to their neighborhood — and you might have some success.

But now think about bringing DOOH into the mix, to reinforce your message via social media. 

By replicating or echoing what you’ve pushed out online in real life, you can target that same demographic with large-scale billboards, subtle reminders on the subway, or limited-time promo messages while they ride the elevator. You could reiterate the value proposition or even double-down with a bigger, better offer. This is almost exactly the same as digital retargeting — but in real life.

But social media and DOOH don’t only complement one another via targeting metrics, there are plenty of ways you can introduce interplay between the two. Here are some of our favorites:

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• “Host” a hashtag to invite stories or experiences from passers-by, then display them via Digital Out Of Home installations and across the world via social media.
  
  
• Invite people in the vicinity to share a video of themselves (or even live-stream it) and display it in specific locations via DOOH.
  
  
• Take inspiration from a brand like Walkers Crisps in the UK and create an entirely interactive DOOH installation — one that encourages social sharing (and has the potential of going viral).

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Supercharging marketing campaigns with the help of DOOH 

It’s not just social media that has a catalyzing effect when paired with Digital Out Of Home tactics. In fact, some of the most traditional forms of media in existence — PR, press, TV, radio, and word of mouth — can also be amplified with the use of DOOH, too.

What does this look like in reality? 

Imagine your brand invests in a prime time ad slot on national TV. At best, your audience is only partly paying attention — we’re all so used to ad-free streaming services, or being able to block ads online. So maybe you go for radio, but a large number of your buyers either only listen to radio turned down low in the background or put on a podcast instead.

Even with PR and press, you’re relying on potential customers picking up a newspaper or magazine, and really reading it.

But with DOOH, your brand’s got a second chance to grab them as a captive audience.

By creating complementary Digital Out Of Home ads to coincide with the go-live date of the above-the-line campaign, you can increase visibility, reach a larger audience, and boost ad recall. More importantly, your actual sales proposition will be delivered more strongly and more effectively.

Don’t believe us? We get it — without hard numbers, how can we be so sure? So, let’s look at a concrete example of this precise strategy in action.

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Download our media kit to find out more about our elevator advertising platform.

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With stores in over 20 countries, Aldi is one of the most recognized names in European retail. While it’s perhaps best known for its pocket-pleasing prices, it’s also known for its innovative marketing practices (ever heard of the “middle aisle”?) and willingness to try different promotional tactics.

This willingness to experiment includes an exploration of the amplifying effect of DOOH, and is the perfect example of the type of cross-pollinated strategy we’ve been discussing so far.

Here’s what happened: with the circulation of newspapers in decline, the supermarket decided to test out what would happen if they combined the press campaign with DOOH. On a single day, the brand ran a special sales message in national newspapers with a very specific offer. It then used Digital Out Of Home signage to signal-boost this same offer — not just to encourage those who may have seen the press ad, but to reach new market segments, too.

The results were fascinating (and pretty hard to argue with):

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• 80% of people who saw the DOOH campaign had not yet seen the press ad, meaning the campaign was reaching a new audience.
• Brand awareness was 35% higher with the DOOH ads than the press campaign, likely because of the lower prevalence of supermarket advertisers in the DOOH space.
• In cases where people had been exposed to both the Digital Out Of Home ad and the press ad, the intention to visit the store increased by 9%.

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This example from Aldi is an excellent case study of how two seemingly disparate forms of marketing can work together to deliver better results across bigger audiences. As the results show, it’s not all about re-engaging those who’ve already engaged with one channel, but reaching new ones as well.

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The old adage that “print is dead” simply doesn’t hold true when you combine it with a powerful high-touch channel like DOOH — used correctly, of course.

If you’re considering pairing up press activity with a DOOH campaign, here’s our top tips to keep in mind:

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• To maximize the amplifying effect, you should always ensure that your DOOH campaign is aligned perfectly across both channels. That means your messaging, the creative, and the core proposition should match. Disparate messaging does no one any favors.
  
  
• One of the best things about DOOH is its geo-specific nature. Likewise, if you’re focusing on local press, you should be able to work out the circulation of that paper and the geographical areas it covers — then deploy your DOOH assets in areas where readers are more likely to see it.

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How to boost your next cross-channel campaign, powered by Vertical Impression

It should be crystal clear at this point that DOOH can be a powerful tool in your marketing mix — especially when it’s used to strengthen other channels like social media or print.

But let’s get a little bit more specific about exactly how this can be done using elevator-based DOOH via our very own Vertical Impression platform. 

Why are elevator ads just the thing to magnify your next campaign?

And how can Vertical Impression help in the context of 2020, social distancing, and the impact of the global pandemic on consumer behavior and campaign impact?

Here are the headlines:

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• In most places, elevators have seen several restrictions applied to them, meaning that they should now be occupied by one person (or one household) at a time. What does this mean for advertisers? Pure, canned attention. Elevators have always been a great place to source focused consumer attention, but now the effect is amplified.
  
  
• Another reason elevators work so well for DOOH placement is that, well, they’re kind of boring. Most of us will welcome a distraction, especially an eye-catching, animated, or even interactive digital display. And, of course, in 2020, the effect is (and here’s that word again) amplified because occupancy is restricted to one person.
  
  
• With Vertical Impression, we don’t simply provide small, easy-to-miss screens — we go big. In fact, we offer the largest advertising space of any digital elevator screen. This, in combination with the factors we discussed above, means that your campaign will be laser-focused, delivered to an audience who wants to engage with it, and it’ll make visual impact, too.
  
  
• Lastly, when you partner with Vertical Impression, we’ll give you highly detailed and actionable reporting — packed full of meaningful metrics and insights to help boost ROI. We’ll even tell you what ROI you’re achieving today, then help you take that number higher.

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Now let’s talk about cross-pollination.

The power of Vertical Impression doesn’t end with the in-elevator experience.

Because of our digital-like targeting and real-time ad-serving, you can sync your DOOH campaign perfectly with other channels — whether that's PPC, display, or social campaign. What’s more, we can combine our network with mobile-retargeting to convert even more elevator riders into customers for you. By combining our smart approach to elevator advertising with the power of other advertising channels — both digital and real-world — you’ll be able to supercharge your campaign performance, reach a larger audience, and discover the power of synergistic advertising.

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Ready to take your business up a level?

Let’s face it: nobody was prepared for the paradigm shifts that 2020 has brought with it.

That said, there’s no use looking backward — it’s all about the future. 

And to survive (and thrive) your business needs to take full advantage of opportunities across the marketing mix. If you’ve always been a single-channel type advertiser, it might be time to discover exactly how amplifying your message with elevator advertising could transform your results.

As we’ve discussed, DOOH can be the catalyst you need to take your performance to the next level. So, if you’re tired of seeing the same old results from your marketing campaigns, why not give elevator DOOH a try? It might just be the turbo-boost you need to elevate your business.

Want to know more? Get in touch with our friendly team now and we’ll help take your business to the next level.