Going Hyperlocal with OOH Political Advertising

The stakes are high in every political race. After all, there can be only one winner. As a candidate or ballot measure proponent, you have to reach every voter possible to tell your story and win them over. In order to do that, you have to target locally. Hyperlocally.

That's why 88% of 2022 political advertising budget will be directed toward local and in-state races.

Out-of-home advertising is a campaign essential.

Just adding billboards to your digital campaign can boost your reach by a sizzling 340%. Not surprising when you consider the fact that 96% of state and local voters drive by a billboard once a week.

Out-of-home gives your campaign a hyperlocal boost with impressively precise targeting based on voter location. You can reach people at the Friday night ball game, the grocery store, the gas station, downtown and the hippest night spot in town – wherever census and local voter data and your own research tell you they will be.

Static ads deliver your message 24/7. With programmatic digital OOH you can target time of day, too.

Local races rely on OOH

With its tremendous reach and frequency and outstanding ability to amplify social media marketing, hyperlocal OOH is a life-saver for community-based candidates whose budgets are as limited as their drawing area.

While your billboards and other broad-stroke outdoor media are building awareness, hyperlocal OOH ads can get more specific, displaying messaging relevant to the audience at hand.

Hyperlocal ads are ideal for street furniture, posters and banners and kiosks that sit at eye-level and offer longer dwell time as passengers and pedestrians approach and pass them. Pedestrians can pause to take in your content and respond to connect with you online.

And mobile OOH is the definition of hyperlocal, transporting your campaign messages around town in real time to whenever and wherever you want to be seen.

Content that speaks the local language

Whether your campaign is strictly local or you're a statewide or Congressional candidate, you can really grab voter attention by tailoring your ad content for localized contextual relevance.

This is a tremendous messaging advantage. It personalizes your candidacy and can stimulate greater engagement with local voters, even those who already know you. You can:

• Use post campaign breaking news on social media and run clips as digital OOH ads
• Address issues that matter only to local voters
• Share video of your town hall meeting
• Drive your mobile OOH unit out into the neighborhoods to chat with residents on the weekends when families are around and outdoors, instead of trudging door to door with traditional canvassing
• Set up scheduled listening posts at key locations, advertising them with OOH

Ask supporters to turn their vehicles into mobile ads for you, then use photos and video of them in your social posts and digital OOH ads. Zoom drove around Denver neighborhoods with wrapped cars for two months and generated 18.5 million impressions within their geotargeted areas. That's a lot of re-targeting opportunity.

Promotional activities like these build trust as well as awareness. And, let's be honest, they're a lot more fun than the usual stump activities. You're not only informing your friends and neighbors, you giving them experiences they will remember when they can't remember your opponent's name.

Meanwhile, candidates for wider office and ballot measure campaigns also benefit from more granular, hyperlocal opportunities to sell yourself or your position in hotly contested areas. Tweak your content for local relevance and you'll break through the noise to connect with the voters you need.

In a recent nationwide survey of marketing professionals 60% of respondents said they believe consumers are paying more attention to their surroundings, now that they're able to re-enter the real world. People are more actively engaged with their communities. That means they may be paying closer attention than in the past to local candidates and issues that affect them most directly.

With out-of-home, you can tell your story the local way. And, affordably.

Have an upcoming political campaign that you are looking to enhance with OOH? Download Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of our new political playbook series to help keep you ahead of your competition.