Outdoor Builds Brand Equity, Drives Search

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

A new study has shown once again the tremendous power of Outdoor Advertising. Mike Baker, CEO, Outdoor Advertising Association told us “This work really moves our learnings on and gives us a whole new set of findings to present to advertisers and their agencies. It shows that you can measure a clear consumer response to branded messages on outdoor media, which in turn reflect positively on the advertised brand”.

According to research revealed yesterday from Mindshare for the OAA, outdoor media effectively builds brand power AND ‘offline’ campaigns on outdoor convert well to online search volumes. The research, which used Millward Brown’s BrandZ database of more than 300 brands across 20 categories since 2005, identified that brands which spend money on outdoor – at every level of expenditure – develop consumer familiarity with the brand, and build fame, or Presence.

Like a trampoline, Presence is the essential foundation on which brand relationships can be built and taken to a higher level. Research findings suggest that to build brand fame, the ideal share of outdoor advertising is 11% or more.

The findings also reveal that outdoor advertising is closely linked with brand dynamism and success. Rising and thriving brands (known as Little Tigers, Classic and Olympic brands) typically invest a higher share of their budgets in outdoor. Classic and Olympic brands include McDonald’s, Mars, Microsoft, easyJet, Lynx and Honda.

Furthermore, outdoor advertised brands score highly against positive brand attributes such as “confident”, “trustworthy”, “desirable”, “fun” and “sexy”, suggesting that outdoor confers a wide range of positive emotional attributes on the advertised brands.

The research also investigated the impact of outdoor on online search, across the categories of travel, insurance, automotive and mobile handsets. In all cases, outdoor campaigns drove an increase in search volumes for the brand. In three out of four categories (handsets being the exception), outdoor delivers a more cost-effective search increase, pound for pound, than TV. No equivalent effect was found from other media such as radio and newspapers.

Mike Baker added “Working with Mindshare, we have been able to identify the essential role outdoor plays in building brand equity. This is one in a series of initiatives by the OAA to prove the effectiveness of outdoor to advertisers.”


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