• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, 10 hours ago

The results of a five-year collaboration between Clear Channel Outdoor and Kantar shows how out-of-home (OOH) can increase performance for campaigns to fill gaps in other media channels.

“We’ve worked so closely with Kantar over the years that we have the data to compare results,” said Dan Levi, CMO at Clear Channel.

Levi said the comparative set between the media surprised him, especially when it came to connecting the brand with the message and changing people’s perceptions about the brand in a positive way.

OOH not only filled gaps to reach consumers, but measurability improved in terms of how it outperformed connected television (CTV), TV, and digital channels in key metrics such as ad awareness, brand favorability, and purchase intent. The data shows a combination of performance media and awareness drove success.

The strategy reached "unreachable audiences," consumers who pay for ad-free streaming, and the years of data shows it improved conversion intent while building long-term brand loyalty.

The Kantar benchmark showed OOH matches linear TV in driving favorability and purchase intent, demonstrating its ability to deliver TV-like impact at a more efficient prices as marketers struggle to connect the dots between marketing spend and return on investments (ROIs).

Levi views OOH as a performance media, rather than a nice-to-have type of media, but brands must decide whether the goal is to drive behavior at the top of the funnel to build awareness, at the middle to drive consideration, or at the lower part of the funnel to drive conversions.

Thousands of measurement studies were conducted through Clear Channel’s campaign performance attribution RADARProof tool. Kantar supported the studies in a variety of advertising categories.

The data showed the OOH campaigns delivered superior brand lift compared with digital, and significantly outperformed digital media in all measured metrics.

The campaign had stronger message recall boosting brand visibility, favorability and intent. It drove higher brand awareness, at 13.3%, as well as engagement compared with digital media, TV, and CTV.

“Specialized agencies typically pick boards based on the location of the industry, but with pharma we start with the audience to get a deep understanding of targeting across digital media and CTV, and bring it into our data platform,” Levi said. “We use the same audience segments, bring them into our data platform, and identify the boards most likely to reach people.”

Targeting continues to evolve. Location-based media has improved through the years with the ability to identify high-impact geographies and audiences to support digital campaigns.

Clear Channel measures a variety of markets like automotive as well as pharmaceutical. Pharma is not an industry the company has talked about too much. Consumer product goods (CPG) is a market that has not taken advantage of billboards in the United States as much as it has in Europe.

Some management studies show CPG brands, with the integration of information from Circana, which aggregates shopper loyalty and other data, could change that as consumer behavior evolves.

Mobile ad IDs identify locations. Individual devices emit a signal -- geofencing -- when passing one of Clear Channel's billboards. The company has used geofencing since 2016, when it introduced CCO Radar, but has not talked about its advancements. The mobile ad ID is used as a proxy for groups of audiences.

The data enables Clear Channel to send Kantar audience data collected through data-matching technology with LiveRamp and other companies.

Kantar then finds the exposed audiences to find in its panels to integrate into campaigns. It creates a greater likelihood Clear Channel can serve surveys to people who have seen the ads seen on the roads.   

Brands bet on consistent journeys to create successful campaigns and allow consumers to consume the ads on their own terms.

“You don’t get up in the morning and take your kids to a different school or go to a different job,” he said. “Most people drive a consistent journey to destinations each day.”