Buyer’s Guide for Outdoor Advertising

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What is Out-of-Home advertising?

We see it everywhere, when we’re driving to work, walking in the city centre or shopping at our local supermarket, out-of-home ads reach us when we are out and about. It’s the last remaining truly broadcast medium.

Our out-of-home advertising portfolio consists of a wide range of digital and paper formats from large traditional billboard posters to a network of over 2,000 digital screens called Adshel Live.

Unlike television and radio advertisements, out-of-home is always on – day or night. You can’t switch it off or turn the page – it’s simply unavoidable!

It’s no surprise that we reach 91% of the UK population every week!*

Source: Route v31

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Which Out of Home format is best for me?

Adshel

Think how many people walk and drive past bus shelters. It’s an incredible amount of people! Which is why Adshel is one of our core products. In fact, we have 31,000 poster sites in the UK which in total receive 212 million views every fortnight*. Adshel provides a great opportunity for businesses to reach people Out of Home, on a local or national scale (Route v31).

Adshel Live

Our national digital Adshel network on bus shelters and phone kiosks is a platform where brands come alive. This premium network influences consumer spend through a variety of flexible and creative possibilities. All 2,000+ screens are within walking distance of over 20,600 retailers and reach 32 of UK adults every week (Source – Route 32).

Billboards

Talk about making a big impression! Billboard advertising makes an instant impression and enables brands to get their message across to customers in a matter of seconds. Typically ranging between 6×3 metres and 12×3 metres and consisting of over 3,300 billboards in the UK, this format enables advertising, large and small, to reach huge audiences every day.

Billboard Live

A state-of-the-art portfolio of highly visible digital billboards located on bus city arterial routes across the UK, providing brands an incredible opportunity to reach massive audiences at scale. This digital network also enables advertisers to reach people at different moments by serving contextually-relevant ads dependent on triggers such as weather and time.

Malls Live

450+ stunning full motion digital screens in 45+ of the UK’s leading shopping malls – seen in total over 3.7 million times per day. Use the perfectly placed screens to engagement with highly receptive shoppers who are in the mood to spend. From those hard-to-reach millennials to luxury seekers, Malls Live creatively inspires key retail audiences. (Route 2019).

Malls Live XL

Our premium (20M2) digital network inside shopping malls. With over 10 full motion digital screens inside 8 top UK malls, Malls Live XL offers instat message impact and enables businesses to reach millions of spending shoppers with a cinematic scale and eye-catching full motion display.

Phoneboxes

Phoneboxes are commonplace in town centres and around the Country. Our national network of over 1,200 phoneboxes are a cost-effective marketing option that enable local businesses to reach shoppers at the most influential stage – on high streets and in city centres.

Socialite

A network of over 650 full motion HD digital screens situated inside pubs and bars nationwide. Perfect for engaging young, sociable audiences in their favourite pub and also effective for reaching sports fans with contextually relevant ads. Situated in some of the UK’s largest chains including Greene King, Stonegate, Walkabout and O’Neills.

Storm

Our portfolio of super-premium digital screens located across five major UK cities, designed to deliver brand fame for advertisers. Innovative flexibility allows full hours of display to be owned by brands without sharing the loop with other advertisers.

Supermarkets

Over 600 full motion digital screens at Asda and Sainsbury’s branches across the UK – reaching 20+ million shoppers fortnightly. An effective opportunity for local businesses to influence and engage shoppers while in a purchasing mind-set; an incredible opportunity to be the last ad they see before spending (Route 2019).

Need help deciding what advertising format to use?

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How do I reach my audience?

There’s a huge selection of locations to place your advert. Typically, the better the ad placement, the more noticeable your ad will be and the better the results will be. However, there are a number of important factors to take into account when deciding the perfect position for your advertisement.

Visibility

When considering the location of your advertisement, think about the surroundings and imagine how you would see your own ad if you were there. If you’re looking to reach pedestrians, you can afford to have more copy, as people will have more time to engage and understand your message. However, if you choose a site next to a busy arterial road, we’d suggest following the ‘less is more’ rule and have less copy on your poster. People are driving past your advert at speed and therefore your message needs to have an instant impact and be easy for consumers to digest.

Demographic

Think about who you’re advertising to. If you’re promoting a product aimed at teenagers, select locations where you know they are likely to be, like shopping malls and high streets. If you don’t know where your audience typically is – we do. We have a dedicated team that help us plan targeted ad campaigns for local businesses. As another example, if you’re looking to reach parents with your advert, you could select advertisement sites along popular routes to schools and colleges where you know parents will be driving down. You can do this for any type of customer in any area of the UK.

Why should I use digital advertising?

Out of all of Clear Channel’s 35,000+ Out-of-Home advertising sites in the UK, over 4,000 are currently digital – and this number is growing fast. In fact, Clear Channel plans to increase the number of Billboard Live sites to 325 by the end 2020 and Adshel Live to a further 3,000. But how does digital differ to traditional Out of Home advertising? And why should your business be using it?

Flexibility

With traditional advertising, once the advert is up, it can’t easily be changed. With digital displays, you can change what’s showing in a matter of seconds, either through scheduled changes or uploading new content. This flexibility enables your business to run a variety of different creatives to deliver a number of targeted messages.

Creativity

Digital Out of Home (DOOH) media benefits from some amazing technological innovations. Facial recognition, movement tracking and even augmented reality can deliver a truly stunning advertisement that makes people stop and pay attention. In fact digital ads are viewed twice as long by pedestrian viewers and adverts with animation see view numbers increase up to 24%. (CACI, insite, 2017) + (EPOS Studies, 20/14/15).

Other important questions

How long will my campaign last?

The standard campaign length using traditional poster advertising sites is two weeks. Whether you use large billboards or multiple bus stop sites, it will last a minimum 14 day ‘cycle’ which is determined by our advertising posting calendar. Any further campaign duration increase would be an additional two weeks, e.g. 2,4,6,8 weeks.

However with the increased development of digital advertising, the two week cycle is certainly no longer concrete. As digital campaigns are sent electronically to your desired advertisement sites, there’s no time spent pasting the poster up and taking it down – it’s more innovative and efficient.

Digital therefore provides businesses with immense campaign flexibility and the ability to advertise at very specific dates and times. For example, if you wanted to promote a time sensitive offer at the weekend or if you wanted to use multiple creatives and change your digital advert daily – you could.

Shopping Centre Advertising featuring Diversity

How do I make my ad?

Whether you have ideas about what you want your advert to do and say or if you don’t know where to start, contact a professional designer to assist you with the creation of your poster advert.

Alternatively, click below to use our Mockup Maker which helps you create your poster campaign using a step-by-step guide. Also, on our site, you can find the artwork specifications that are best for the varying types of Out of Home, from bus shelters (Adshel) to large digital billboards (Billboard Live).

Start a mockup

Poster Search

Use our advertising locator tool to discover thousands of opportunities for your business to advertise on. Filter by Out of Home formats or search for specific areas or postcodes. Click now to try it.

Start your poster search

Digital telephone kiosk advertising featuring Lizzo

What can I expect during and after my campaign?

Once your campaign is launched, we will keep in touch with you throughout the campaign regarding further services, additional options and to ensure that your whole campaign runs smoothly. After your campaign has ended we will arrange a Post Campaign Analysis meeting with you to discuss the success and results in detail to determine whether your business objectives have been met. This includes determining ROI, analysing the number of people who saw your advert or the number of times your digital campaign displayed. Once we’ve reviewed the success of your campaign, we’ll address any other opportunities for future campaigns.

How do I know if Out of Home works?

Out of Home advertising is used by brands and local businesses. We know it’s seen by jaw-dropping amounts of people and that it drives action and encourages behavioural change. We’ve hand-picked some of our latest customer success stories for you. Leasing.com used Outdoor to reach their target customers, motorists. “We estimated that we saw a 15-20% increase in direct traffic to the website on weekdays and it gave rise to an approximate 40% increase in total conversions.” Founder of Leasing.com, Dave Timmis. Creditfix wanted to reach new customers and raise awareness. “In two weeks we generated just over 600 leads and brought in over 50 new customers.” Taylor Flynn, Head of Marketing at Creditifix. Ormiston Denes Academy wanted to attract bigger numbers to open evenings using Adshel and billboards in high footfall areas. “Our school’s open evening was the biggest ever.” Stuart Aldous, Assistant Principal at Ormiston Denes Academy.

How much does Out of Home cost?

Clear Channel have over 35,000 poster and digital advertisement sites across the UK, each varying in cost due to a range of reasons. The exact location of the advertisement panel, the overall duration of your campaign and the total number of locations you select can influence the total cost of your campaign. To find out more about our advertising options, including how much your advertising campaign will cost – get in touch with Clear Channel Direct today. Our dedicated, friendly team will help you through the process.