Storytelling in Out of Home

85% of adults see out of home ads at least some of the time. It’s big, it’s bold, it’s everywhere – it's out of home. 

How can you tell stories using nostalgia? What creative testing is in place? How do you look at every location as an opportunity?  

Lluc Martinez, Global OOH Media Manager, and Marc Redl, Head of OOH, share their expertise on the topic. 

This is only a snapshot of the chat so make sure to watch above or listen to the whole episode (link below!)

Q: What challenges and opportunities do you face when using nostalgia as a storytelling device in out of home campaigns? And do you think this makes it resonate differently with your target audience based on the size or history of your brand? 

Lluc: I think nostalgia is a very powerful device to use because it's connecting from an emotional standpoint with the viewer. Now, it's also quite difficult to do correctly. I think one of the biggest things for any advertiser really, including us is a deep understanding of your consumer demographic, your target audience, exactly what it is that's going to resonate with them from an emotional standpoint. It's also an opportunity because if you do have that data to back it up, then you can really use that to your advantage.  

Nostalgia has got to sit well with your brand. You can't just attempt to use it. It's got to be used in the correct way. So not only a deep understanding of your target audience, but also, a deep understanding of your brand, your brand identity and who you're trying to be and how you're trying to get that across to the viewers.  

As long as you've got the data to back that up and to be able to make informed decisions, then you're on the right track. 

Marc: When I think about nostalgia, I think about how personal it is and how difficult it is to walk that line. The nostalgia can remind you of good things and it can remind you of bad things. And ultimately, do you want to tie your brand to something that is potentially super risky and could be divisive?  

What's interesting is that since COVID, nostalgia has part of a generational identity with certain types of nostalgia. Think of shows like Friends, for example, which for a long time was defined by an elder millennial, but now it's being adopted by a much younger generation. Brands and campaigns can tap into that. If you leverage nostalgia too heavily, I think that can fall off a cliff quite quickly. think, you know, you've got to be really careful. So yeah, I think it just takes someone really skilled and the right brand to do it well. 

Lluc: It's a very, very difficult device to use, especially in out of home, because you've got to remember in out of home, you've got a very short space of time to convey that emotion.  

Q: How do you build continuity in your out of home storytelling campaigns over time to ensure that each campaign continues to add the long -term narrative of your brand? 

Marc: It all boils down to knowing who your consumer is. If you absolutely know who that person is and what their profile is, any creative, you come up with any copy content, whatever it is you're thinking of doing, whatever like levers you're thinking of pulling, you're able to of look back and you can have this pillar, the steadfastness in this consistency, through having a really clearly defined end viewer in mind.  

Any business that has consistency across the different teams and departments, everyone's bought into the various different, methods and methodology. Then you need to look at every area, every touch point, because it's not just the ads. Have that long -term narrative really nailed and Oatly is a great example. You can go to Oatly anywhere they turn up, anywhere they show up any, products, the way they do their POS, the way the team talks about the products. It's very consistent.  

Lluc: We have multiple brands so it's a bit more complex because it's not necessarily one product type, but it's very different categories and each category has its own consumer. Each consumer has its own profile. 

I'm in the travel retail team and we essentially borrow consumers from the local markets for a short period of time within airports, for example. We need to tap into that shopper profile in a completely different environment to what they're used to in their daily lives.  

Your storytelling has always got to be in line with building a relationship with the production process for each of those brands. Think in terms of longevity, there are certain elements that one has to include in their creative development, then you can filter down into the more detailed versions of what that particular product offers. You have to have a bigger picture view on continuity across the brand rather than breaking it down into particular products. 

Q: What are the advantages and limitations of out of home when it comes to evoking emotions compared to other forms of advertising specifically? 

Lluc: You're able to tap into your target audience for a much longer period of time and at different touch points. They're going to be experiencing, different emotions throughout the day, using escapism in situations where they're commuting, for example, is very, very powerful. 

We do that in airports a lot. Business travel is a good one because we know that people do it frequently. That's actually a nice segue into frequency. A lot of things are sold in networks. You can target, people across the country in multiple environments throughout the day. They could be roadside bus stops; they could be standalone screens in pedestrian retail areas. They could be standalone screens in shopping malls. You can have that continuity throughout the day and tap into them, reach them frequently at different points. So that's also definitely a big advantage of out of home.  

Not being able to swipe so it's not being able to just cancel out your screen, turn it off or move on to the next ad, whatever it may be. You're on and they can't take you off. It's a great way of evoking emotions cause it's going to be there and there's nothing you can do about it.  

In terms of limitations, the biggest one, what is this series called? It's the game of attention. It is the attention span. It's not always the case that you're going to have someone sitting in front of a screen or a poster ad for 20 minutes on the tube, you know? The last time that I checked the average attention span in out of home was two seconds. You've got to engage in two seconds and you've got to lock them in. 

Marc: Not trying to achieve too much, I can't help but think of that. There are examples we've given British Airways, Specsavers, the copy is so simple, right? So simple, you think about it. Maybe you see it for a couple seconds, but you think about it afterwards. You've transported yourself into that creative.  

Q: Do you see the constraints of out of home like size, location or time as a creative limitation or as an opportunity? 

Marc: You have to view everything as an opportunity. Out of home is all about size, location and time. Depending on what you're trying to achieve, with the campaign and knowing your consumer profile, knowing what is authentic and inauthentic to your brand, knowing all of these things that we've talked about, I think size, location and time can be really effective.  

Most of the time you're able to take that and say, okay, how do we, how do we make this person's journey? 10 seconds of this platform, how do we make them engage with what we want them to engage with? how do we transport them? How do we use the tools at our disposal?  

Ultimately, it should sharpen your creative wheel, so to speak, or your creative pen, because ultimately, those things aren't going to change. I see them as an opportunity more so than as a as a limitation or as a constraint. 

Lluc: We haven't seen it as a constraint, it's the constraints and the creative limitations of out of home, this size, location and time have actually helped us to create new ways of working within the business to be able to utilize those things like size to tie them to our campaign objectives and the metrics that we use internally for campaign effectiveness.  

That then filters down into the creative development process as well with our content designers because we have five pillars of effectiveness and what metrics we use. Think of it as a marketing funnel, essentially.  

Q: What is your creative testing process before it is up there?  

Lluc:  I know what they look like. I've been there before. I know the passenger journey; know how long they might be looking at it and so on. It's not always easy to convey that to all the stakeholders because not everyone understands, everyone's got different views on what they want to achieve with the campaign and product awareness and brand awareness means something different to each different level.   

Our insights team tap into platforms we can put the creatives through. Using AI, they tap into data and previous creatives used and eye tracking. It's a very efficient way of testing creative, which I think is key, definitely. 

Marc: As a smaller brand, our brand marketing, our, our trade activations, our experiential, marketing and out of home, activities are all very related and pretty closely aligned. We have brand guidelines, brand objectives that we look at each piece of content and create of it. They have to line up.  

Is this making someone think of what we want them to think of? if the team and myself feel yes, then, you know, it's a go. 

Out of home is such an exciting space and it grabs so much attention out in the world. It was so insightful hearing from two very different brands on their approaches to getting the creative just right and how they navigate challenges! 

Listen here. 

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