Why Out-of-Home Is the Ultimate Campaign Contributor

Billboards boost reach by 340%!

Every election campaign at every level needs the right tools to reach out to voters effectively and cost-efficiently. Candidate or ballot measure, your goal is to motivate people to donate money, volunteer their time, attend a live or virtual event, learn more about you, and of course vote for you or your initiative.

Unless you're running for president (or governor in a few states) you don't have a human running mate that can bring additional power and value to your campaign. But that’s OK because you can have out-of-home advertising instead.

OOH has your back, and it has super-powers.

OOH advertising excels when it comes to influencing consumers – voters, in your case. Static and digital OOH offer a wealth of practical, creative opportunities to meet the people, raise money and tell your story to win their votes.

That's why out-of-home is now an essential component of omni-channel marketing for candidates and causes. In fact, just adding billboards to your campaign can boost your reach by a sizzling 340%.

You don't have to be a national or statewide candidate to take advantage of OOH. Local races and ballot measures at any level can benefit significantly because OOH offers:

• Scalability that fits any size budget
• Precise demographic and geographic targeting
• Fast, flexible ad creation, publication and modification
• Contextual relevance

Here's what that means for your campaign

Branded presence

• Out-of-home advertising makes a big, bold impact, with the highest reach of any advertising medium. Your campaign message is there for all to see, 24/7, day in and day out.
• OOH ads cannot be deleted, delayed, skipped-over or turned off. It is everywhere out in the real world, just like your audience, so you can make lots of impressions. LOTS of impressions.
• OOH delivers immediate visual impact and follows up with real staying power, continuously stating your case day in and day out as the election nears. It catches attention of early voters and serves as last-minute reminder to others to get out and vote.

Choice

• Out-of-home offers a vast array of inventory (media) types, locations and schedules, so it's easy to custom-tailor a media plan that fits your budget and objectives.

Targeting

You need to reach everyone if you're promoting a ballot measure and at least everyone in your own party plus independents and other undecideds if you're a candidate. With OOH, you can have it both ways:

• Massive reach and exposure for building awareness
• Precise targeting to make specific points to certain types of voters

OOH reduces CPMs and CPPs so you get more exposure for your money, and re-targeting opportunities extend your reach even further, increasing engagement.

Focus

• Messages are displayed in an environment where they stand out. Online ads are often surrounded by advertising or other content that could be competitive or worse.

Agility

• OOH advertising can be surprisingly fast to implement, and it can flex with your need to change ads or messaging based on the latest poll, news story, etc. to capture the moment.
• Digital OOH offers updating on the fly. Automated targeting and placement makes it even more convenient and effective.

Credibility and trust

Many consumers distrust political ads on social media. Happily, they consider OOH ads to be highly trustworthy. Bands that devote at least 15% of their media budget to out-of-home see 24% greater brand trust.  

Results

• OOH stimulates voter engagement. It boosts ROI of digital search results by 40% and encourages in-person participation.
• OOH also generates the highest ad recall rate among all channels.

Out-of-home ads can spark conversations (or even controversy!) that can ignite social media sharing and garner free media exposure. That means significantly more audience and significantly louder buzz.

Real-time monitoring and measurement allow you to continuously assess your campaign’s progress and adjust as needed.

PACs or other friends of your campaign can also use OOH to help spread the word on their own -- with complementary (or complimentary!) messaging of their own.

OOH makes all your marketing efforts count for more

Out-of-home can deliver greater reach, stronger impact and compelling calls to action, making it a marketing essential even for smaller campaigns with limited budgets.

Everything about your campaign is time-sensitive because you have a can't-miss deadline: Election Day. The pace is fast, the pressure is high, and things can change in a heartbeat. But you need to get it right because you won't get a do-over until the next election cycle rolls around. If you hesitate to adopt OOH, you can bet your opposition will not make that same mistake.

With OOH on your team, you could be an incumbent by then.

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.