8 Mistakes in OOH Advertising You Should Avoid
You have only a few seconds to capture a potential customer’s attention. It’s just a brief glance, but in that time, a critical eye can quickly spot mistakes or decide to never look at your ad again. As an advertising agency, we have created many ad projects. We also know what mistakes to avoid.
In this post, we want to steer you away from the 8 most common mistakes we’ve encountered in the history of OOH advertising.
1. Mismatching Content to Target Audience
You speak one language to the youth, and another to seniors. Therefore, it’s very important to specify who your target audience is. If you’re planning to create an advertisement for baby products, then young mothers are your audience. Here, it’s important to evoke emotions, so the words should be emotionally charged, instead of being conveyed in, say, scientific language.
2. Poor Advertisement Location
If you choose OOH advertising in the form of a billboard, its location is a major component of success. Going back to the example of baby products, the advertisement should be placed near nurseries or kindergartens where most mothers can be found. If you want to expand the reach of your ad, consider placing it on public transport vehicles.
In our portfolio, you can find campaigns on buses for Coventry University. This advertisement was targeted at students and young people planning their studies. That’s why we made sure it appeared on those bus lines that pass through Warsaw’s Krakowskie Przedmieście and Nowy Świat – places most frequented by students and young people.
3. Too Much Content
A poster, billboard, or DOOH media likes short content. It’s not a flyer or a website where you can put all the information about your product or service. Don’t transfer the content from a flyer to a poster. Use short slogans, concise messages. Remember: the viewer only has a few seconds to engage with your ad. Allow them to see the entire content in that time.
4. Boring Content!
Want to stand out from the crowd of other ads? Then create an interesting project! Let your advertisement surprise, let it truly be different from others. Anyone can write: ‘the best mineral water in town’. But that doesn’t lead to anything. Remember about the form of the advertisement (2D and 3D ads, coming out of the billboard). A good example is the Energy advertisement, which, besides the company name, has only 2 words, yet you know what they do.
5. Avoid Spelling and Stylistic Errors
Unless it’s a deliberate tactic, avoid spelling and stylistic errors! Yes, it can happen. Therefore, before the project goes to print, have it checked by language specialists. People like to point out mistakes and don’t forgive them. Sometimes, one error can haunt you for years. Of course, you can also make deliberate errors, but it must be a very well-thought-out project.
6. Poorly Chosen Font and Its Color
Too bright a font, too bright background colors, or dark font colors on a dark background – all this makes it harder to receive the ad. The font should be simple – without unnecessary twists, turns, and other fancy decorative lines turning the letter Z into a letter Z. Simple form=easy reception.
7. Poor Arrangement of Elements
Designing an advertisement should be tailored to the medium on which it will be displayed. If it’s a billboard, focus on the center – that’s where the viewer’s gaze usually goes. In the case of an ad on the back of a bus, it’s important to take into account the place of cuts. Don’t place texts or any important elements there.
8. Lack of Purpose in the Advertisement, i.e., Not Knowing Why You’re Doing It
An advertisement has a clearly defined purpose: either to sell or to build brand awareness. Keep this in mind when planning an advertising campaign. This is the foundation on which you build the content and design the graphic project.
At Be Media, we have been creating OOH and DOOH & City Transport advertising campaigns for many years. If you’re planning your first campaign but don’t know how to rent an advertising medium, or how to design an ad well, contact us. We provide comprehensive help so that your advertisement brings measurable conversions. We tailor projects to the media and create everything from scratch. We help you save time so that you can focus on developing your business by creating new products or services.”