What OOH Marketing Means and Why It Matters

You’ve probably seen brands advertising their products and services right in front of you in some form or another — like a billboard on top of a building or ads on the park bench where you enjoy your morning coffee.

This form of advertising is literally in your face, so you can’t miss it. This is all by design — and it starts and ends with what we in the business call out-of-home marketing, or OOH.

OOH refers to businesses using outdoor media to market their brands in public areas. It’s an effective marketing strategy that helps brands stay in consumers’ minds for longer (because they can’t click away from it).

In this blog, we’ll explore OOH, including how it works, the most common types, metrics and how it can fit into your brand’s multichannel marketing strategy.

How OOH Marketing Works

While OOH marketing often makes consumers go “Ooh!” when they see it, it actually stands for out-of-home marketing or out-of-home advertising.

Digital displays and other marketing mediums in public spaces give businesses a broad reach to raise brand awareness and engage directly with their target audience.

You may have already heard the term “outdoor advertising,” which is essentially the more traditional version of OOH. It uses static, paper displays for ads. Nowadays, digital out-of-home marketing (DOOH for short) goes beyond your average roadside billboard or bulletin placement. DOOH uses concise, high-visibility messaging to reach larger audiences in busy areas.

The Most Common Types of OOH Advertising

OOH advertising is everywhere you can think of. You’ve probably walked or driven by different versions of it in your daily life.

Here are some common types of OOH advertising you’ve most likely come across before.

Billboard Advertising

Once considered an expensive form of marketing, many brands today use billboard advertising.

Available in both printed and digital formats, billboards can maximize visibility by promoting high-impact campaigns that build broad brand awareness and continually reach consumers.

You can see these large-format advertisements across highways, major roads and busy city streets.

Transit Ads

Transit advertising includes ads on buses, trains, taxis, subways and within transit stations.

Commuters follow the same routes every day, and transit ad and urban panels offer repeated exposure to help reinforce marketing messages and keep brands top of mind.

Bus Shelters

Bus shelters are another common form of OOH marketing that reaches pedestrians and commuters while they’re waiting for public transportation. These placements typically feature printed posters or digital displays positioned at eye level, making them well-suited for increasing local visibility and attracting attention in busy urban areas.

Street Furniture

Street furniture refers to advertisements placed on public fixtures such as benches, kiosks and bike racks.

Found throughout shopping districts and downtown areas, these placements allow brands to connect with pedestrians in locations where people naturally pause or gather. You’ve probably come across this particular OOH marketing example while doing some shopping or taking a breather between running errands.

Place-Based Media

Place-based media delivers advertising within specific venues, including airports, gyms, malls, restaurants, health care facilities and office buildings. This is an effective OOH advertising strategy because audiences encounter these ads in relevant settings, helping marketers better align their messaging with consumers‘ surroundings and activities.

Digital Screens

Digital screens and digital billboards use electronic displays to feature static, animated or rotating advertisements that capture consumers’ attention.

Commonly found in shopping malls, airports, stadiums and retail stores, digital screens allow marketers to deliver timely messaging, update creative quickly and schedule campaigns throughout the day.

Digital displays usually appeal to consumers — maybe like you — who’ve been eyeing a new clutch purse from a high-end designer or that new juicy menu item from your favorite restaurant.

Traditional OOH vs. Digital OOH

While both traditional OOH and DOOH reach audiences outside their homes, there are important distinctions between the two.

Traditional OOH uses static mediums and physical placements, such as printed billboards, bus shelter posters and transit advertisements. Once they’re installed, these types of ads stay the same until they’re manually replaced.

With DOOH, businesses do programmatic buying through demand-side platforms (DSPs) to secure digital placement, then use digital screens to display their advertisements. Unlike static displays, these screens can rotate through multiple ads, update messaging remotely and display dynamic content based on the time of day, location or other scheduling criteria. 

Because you can quickly update these programmatic ads, DOOH gives marketers greater flexibility to tailor messaging, schedule campaigns more efficiently and respond quickly to changing circumstances — often at the same time.

Examples of OOH Marketing in Real-World Environments

People encounter many forms of OOH regularly. From building brand awareness to promoting a local event, different placements can help businesses reach specific audiences in targeted public settings.

How Marketers Measure OOH Performance

Unlike digital advertising, OOH performance often can’t be measured by clicks. Instead, marketers use different key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success. One example for measuring how effectively an OOH campaign reaches its intended audience is to estimate how many people might be exposed to it over time. This measurement strategy has a few different names, according to the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), including Likelihood to See or Opportunity to See.

Other common metrics include:

• Impressions: The estimated number of times an advertisement is viewed.
• Reach: The total number of unique people most likely to see the advertisement.
• Frequency: The average number of times someone is exposed to the same advertisement.
• Foot traffic: Changes in visits from consumers to physical locations after an OOH campaign drops.
• Location data: Anonymous mobile location data collected from smartphones of nearby consumers, which marketers can use to estimate audience movement and advertising exposure.

Measurement approaches vary depending on the campaign, advertising format and placement, but these metrics can give marketers a better understanding of how well their OOH campaigns are performing.

How OOH Fits Into a Multichannel Strategy

OOH works best when blended with an integrated marketing strategy instead of as a standalone advertising channel. By increasing visibility in the real world, OOH reinforces messaging that consumers may also encounter across various digital channels.

For example, let’s say you notice a billboard during your morning commute on the train, then see the same brand again in an ad on your social media dashboard. This consistent exposure can promote and strengthen brand recognition across multiple touchpoints while supporting a broader multichannel content marketing strategy.

OOH also demonstrates how marketing and advertising work together. While OOH advertising builds awareness in public spaces, other marketing channels bridge the gap by nurturing interest and encouraging customers to take action.

Bringing OOH Marketing Into the Real World

Out-of-home marketing is still one of the most valuable ways to build brand awareness by reaching people where they live, work, shop and travel.

From traditional billboards to dynamic digital displays, OOH offers businesses a variety of formats for connecting with their target audiences in public spaces.

When combined with other marketing channels and strategies, OOH advertising has the power to create consistent, memorable brand experiences across the board.

OOH Marketing FAQs

What Is an Example of OOH Marketing?

Common examples of OOH marketing include static billboards and digital billboards, transit posters and bus shelter ads. These advertisements often appear in public areas where people are commuting, shopping, traveling or spending time outside their homes.

What Is the Difference Between OOH and Digital OOH?

Traditional OOH uses static physical mediums like printed billboards, posters and bus shelter ads. On the other hand, DOOH uses electronic displays that can show dynamic creative, rotate multiple advertisements and update messaging remotely. This flexibility allows marketers to schedule campaigns more efficiently and deliver timely content while still consistently reaching audiences in public spaces.