ATTENTION SEEKING OUT-OF-HOME
“ In many ways , Out-of-Home has become the TV of the digital age . It ’ s a powerful way to guarantee numerous eyeballs see your brand on a mass scale .”
Zak Mroueh
Chief Creative Officer and Founder , Zulu Alpha Kilo
It ’ s not easy to get my attention . So for years , my wife has suspected I must have Attention Deficit Disorder . My guess is most creatives do .
But what ’ s more difficult than getting a creative person to focus ? Trying to get a consumer to give you their full attention . With today ’ s media onslaught , all consumers suffer from an affliction I call Advertising Deficit Disorder ( or ‘ Ad ’ for short ). ‘ Ad ’ is not something to take lightly , especially if you ’ re a client spending millions of dollars on advertising .
Whether through traditional media or the latest digital platform , most advertising simply fails to gain consumers ’ collective attention .
Out-of-Home ( OOH ) is the ultimate quick fix for this problem . It has to work in an instant and requires minimal brainpower on the audience ’ s part .
When I was a copywriter , I always found OOH offered instant creative gratification . Even as just a scribble on a notepad , you knew whether it was good or not . With TV or video , factors like casting , direction or budget can affect the final outcome . With OOH , you can imagine it produced as soon as you come up with the idea .
As a creative director I love reviewing OOH campaigns . Although it may seem counterintuitive , I insist our teams don ’ t explain the concept to me or set it up . I figure , since the consumer doesn ’ t get an explanation , why should the creative director ? As a result , creative reviews happen quicker than any other medium – which pleases my assistant no end .
As much as I enjoy the medium , my biggest pet peeve with OOH is poorly crafted typography that can ’ t be read from a distance . Years ago , I saw an execution that impressed me with its clarity and readability . Every day , I would drive past this billboard and notice its seemingly perfect font size . One day , I decided to calculate its character count . The magic number ? 22 . Ever since , I ’ ve imposed this simple formula in our studio . For a standard 10 x 20 ft . billboard , if you count a maximum of 22 characters across from left to right , including spaces , it will always be readable . All the better if even shrtr headlines and BIGGER type are used .
If mathematics isn ’ t your strong suit , there ’ s another technique that never fails : whatever the art director designs , make it 25 % bigger . Seriously . Works every time .
Despite being one of the oldest forms of media , it ’ s shocking so few practitioners can execute OOH effectively . It ’ s too often a creative afterthought . The basics of the craft seem to have been lost as more young creatives gravitate towards digital media . This may explain why today we don ’ t see enough brilliant executions in our cities .
There are other factors we inherently know , but conveniently ignore , that can also ruin a great OOH execution . Like art directors who design billboards as if they were print ads , complex visuals that don ’ t register from 300 feet away , and creative briefs with a long list of mandatories that are all expected to appear on one billboard .
However , these barriers to great work create an incredible opportunity for marketers . When crafted flawlessly , OOH can be a potent marketing tool and a brand can rise above a sea of billboard mediocrity . Brands and agencies that become masters of the medium and its basic rules can enjoy an incredible return on investment .
With so much media fragmentation today , how often have we all worked on substantial media campaigns that we never see because we ’ re not the ‘ target ’? But with OOH , everybody is exposed to the work . Once we ’ ve taken off the latest Virtual Reality headgear , put down our video game controllers and iPads , eventually all of us have to go outside for some fresh air . Or to buy groceries . Or walk the dog .
This means the original mass medium has , once again , become one of the best ways to reach pretty much everyone . At Zulu Alpha Kilo , we ’ ve had many clients who built their brands using OOH versus other traditional media channels to gain mass reach . And long after the campaign has run , consumers surveyed in post research often swear they saw the brand on TV – even when we didn ’ t run any commercials .
In many ways , OOH has become the TV of the digital age . It ’ s a powerful way to guarantee numerous eyeballs see your brand on a mass scale . As a creative person , there ’ s no greater joy than passing a brilliant , larger-than-life OOH idea in the real world . Seeing great work in a book such as this just can ’ t match the breathtaking impact of experiencing brilliant OOH advertising in the flesh . We just need to see more of it out there . After all , a brilliant idea can leave an indelible , impossible-to-ignore mark on our collective consciousness – even among those of us with low attention spans . Which these days is pretty much everyone .
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