Out of Homes secret superpower - it's the most obvious but maybe not for the reason you think!

Article by OOHMAA CEO, Natasha O’Connor

At the heart of our business, we're selling screens pure and simple. But to do this effectively, we need to understand what Out of Home is capable of, and to rationalise a strong argument to convince advertisers to buy our screens. And without a doubt, Out of Homes’ superpower is its broadcast reach capabilities.

I perhaps know that what you’re thinking, that’s not a secret, and you’re right, it’s not, in the world of advertising, reach is often seen as a given. Advertisers understand its importance in priming audiences, increasing brand awareness and brand fame. However, many overlook the true significance of why brands need reach; to reach light category users.

For many marketers, that may evoke the response - that doesn’t matter, the 80/20 rule shows me that 80% of my sales come from 20% of my customers so that’s my focus. As highlighted by Professor Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, using purchase frequency as his compass in the analysis of BG20 data, he concluded that reaching light buyers and non-buyers is at least as important as reaching currently heavy buyers.

This is a sentiment that Professor Byron Sharp, Marketing Science and Director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute supports.; In his book ‘How Brands Grow’ he states,

 ‘If a brand grows, we find surprisingly little of this is due to a brand’s heaviest buyers.’

When looking at a buyer distribution curve, regardless of their category, most buyers fall into either the light or not-at-all categories.

With reaching these light and non-buyers proven to be important for brand growth there is a compelling reason to engage with these light category users at scale, priming them and ensuring your brand occupies enough real estate in your consumer's mind to exclude competitive brands that might want to build there.

This is where Out of Home's superpower comes into play, with its ability to deliver broadcast reach at speed in environments that are hard to miss - repeatedly exposing the broader audience of light-category consumers to a brand's message, while also reaching the brand's primary audience, priming them and driving mental availability.

In today's competitive landscape, reaching categories of light buyers is essential for long-term brand success. Out of Home advertising offers a powerful tool for achieving this goal; it’s mass broadcast reach capacity. By understanding the true value of reach and leveraging the unique advantages of Out of Home, advertisers can unlock the full potential of this effective medium and drive sustainable brand growth.