Billboards and Out of Home advertising could be considered the grandparents to today’s modern forms of advertising, like social media. But they aren’t ready to retire. In fact, billboards seem to be working in sync, even expanding their reach into the social media arena, despite their age difference. A 2017 Nielson study found that 1 in 4 Americans has posted an image of an outdoor ad on Instagram, which is higher than almost any other traditional media, including print and TV. The report goes on to say that outdoor ads on Instagram are seen by three times as many people, all for the same price as other forms of advertising. It’s happening so much that the industry has invented a term for the phenomenon of getting unpaid coverage on Instagram called “earned media.”
Although new, it’s not a trend that is surprising to those in the industry, because some say the two platforms have a “natural synergy.” Kym Frank is the President of Geopath, an organization that uses audience location data and media research to analyze out of home advertising. She says, “Technology is changing the game for [outdoor advertising], and with social networks being everyone’s go to media for trends, it’s no surprise that Instagram, the place for all things photo and visual, is making waves. She goes on to say that despite the smaller ad share outdoor advertising gets, it was still the “top advertising platform to drive Instagram posts across all offline media and banner ads.”
Big brands were some of the biggest spenders on out of home in recent years, and it looks like that trend will continue. McDonald’s restaurants are still strong users of billboards and other forms of out of home advertising. Cossette is the ad agency behind some of their campaigns. Chief Strategy Officer Wes Wolch says although outdoor is still a reliable form that will reach consumers, Instagram is changing the game. Wolch says nowadays people are going out of their way to avoid advertising with technology like streaming services and ad blocking. “Creating a great outdoor campaign is no longer about devising a way to get a strong key message out in 7 words or less. As we think about how to use out of home space, we need to think of it more as an art installation than an ad.”
Admittedly, there’s really no way to get a hard and fast measurement of the effectiveness of outdoor advertising when shared on social media. Frank says that much of it is done manually by monitoring hashtags or keywords, but she says “many in the industry are investigating image recognition technology to better measure lift.”
Either way, the battle rages on about how to continue to create imaginative campaigns that are worth a share to “earn” some extra media coverage. Despite the age difference in the media platforms, content is still key.
Rewritten from Jeff Beer’s Fast Company article
