Super Bowl TV ads sold out—now what? DOOH is your next big play

Super Bowl LIX has drawn massive ad investments, with all TV spots on Fox Television Network selling out as early as November at record-breaking prices. But the game isn’t over for marketers. Whether your brand had the $7 million budget for a 30-second ad spot or you missed out on inventory, there are other effective and accessible channels for engaging your audience before, during and after the big game. 

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) blends the impact of real-world advertising with the precision and flexibility of digital marketing. Unlike a single costly TV spot, DOOH allows brands to create multiple touchpoints with their customers as they go about their day. This consistent approach can help reinforce your brand messaging and visibility long after Super Bowl commercials fade from viewers’ minds. With out-of-home advertising achieving an impressive 84% ad recall, it’s a surefire way for brands to score a touchdown! 

Ready to kickoff your Super Bowl campaign strategy? Here are five ways DOOH can help you amplify your reach and maximize your impact. 

Tailor your audience strategy 

Similar to online campaigns, defining your audience is key to making your marketing efforts resonate. Today’s advanced data solutions provide the opportunity to gain valuable insights into behavioral trends, allowing for precise targeting in DOOH advertising. Using geospatial technology within your programmatic DOOH platform, you can continue to broaden your reach based on your audience’s movement patterns. This allows you to engage with your audience at multiple touchpoints throughout their day and reinforce your brand messaging in the moments that matter most. 

To help reach the right audience, here are some audience targeting strategies to consider for your Super Bowl campaign: 

• Behavioral audiences: With programmatic DOOH, marketers have the unique opportunity to create a custom audience around specific persona-based behaviors or leverage existing curated audience segments from trusted 3rd party data partners. Some examples of the audiences you could build with Vistar Media include:
  • Sports enthusiasts
  • Event goers
  • Food shoppers
  • Millennials 
• Purchase data: With access to purchase data from partners like Circana and IHS Polk, we can target audiences based on their purchasing habits, including:
  • Competitive product purchases
  • Brand loyalists 
• 1st and trusted 3rd party data: Vistar Media can integrate our location data with your first-party data and trusted third-party data, enabling you to bring your audiences to life in the physical world. This includes segments such as:
  • Your current customers
  • Event ticket holders
  • Gaming app users

Bring your message into the moment

When it comes to how you are reaching audiences, DOOH gives you the flexibility to align your strategy with where they are and what’s happening around them. By aligning your messaging with their environment, you can keep your ads relevant, build excitement around key moments like the big game and make the most of your budget. 

To ensure your message hits home when it matters most, here are some strategies to to consider when planning your DOOH campaign:

• Contextually relevant venue types: Whether you want to cast a wide net or reach a specific audience, DOOH locations such as billboards, malls, gyms and bars can give you access to the right consumers, when they’re most tuned in to your messaging. For instance, if you're a CPG brand aiming to capitalize on shoppers buying Super Bowl snacks, activating in grocery stores can effectively reach shoppers right when they're ready to purchase your product.
• Day-parting: Looking to connect with morning commuters or sports bar goers? Coffee shops, chain restaurants and bars frequently align their promotions with game days and outcomes. To effectively engage the right consumers, ramp up your campaign during peak morning, afternoon or evening hours when they’re most receptive to your messaging.
• Proximity or event targeting: Is your campaign tied to certain local events like a watch party or specific retail locations selling team-branded merchandise? Simply activate media within a certain radius of your desired POIs.
• Dynamic creative: By leveraging dynamic creative in your DOOH campaign, you can adjust your messaging before, during and after the Super Bowl to ensure your messaging remains relevant.
  • Before the game: You can build anticipation by running ads that highlight elements such as game time countdowns to encourage customers to shop early and buy your brand.
  • During the game: During the game, engage with fans at bars and other venues with ad messaging that leverages real-time game updates, live scores and more.
  • After the game: Enforce relevance by swapping out creative messaging based on which team wins or loses the game. 
    
    

Stay local or go national 

Whether you want to execute a hyper-focused campaign, within a certain designated market area (DMA) or broadly reach consumers from coast to coast, DOOH can deliver. When it comes to DOOH, marketers have the flexibility to activate locally or nationally, depending on campaign objectives.

With more than one million screens globally, including in all 50 states, marketers gain access to the largest inventory of programmatic DOOH media through Vistar Media. Marketers can easily tailor campaigns and ad messaging to fit their needs, whether targeting audiences coast-to-coast for a national push or honing in on specific cities and neighborhoods to engage local fans. 

Retarget and further engage your audience

With device ID passback, you can safely retarget audiences exposed to DOOH ads across channels like CTV, display and audio—helping drive lower-funnel actions. For example, if you are a sports bar or casual dining franchise with a game-day offer, you can retarget fans who saw your DOOH ads, reminding them to visit your location and enjoy the promotion during game day. 

Beyond retargeting, you can leverage DOOH to run interactive ads to drive immediate response within your target demographic. In fact, 74% of mobile device users reported taking action on their mobile devices following recent exposure to DOOH ads. By incorporating scannable QR codes linked to dedicated, trackable landing pages, you can guide audiences to tune in, download your app, place bets, purchase your product and more.   

Activate quickly and nimbly

Before, during and after a big cultural moment like the Super Bowl, it is critical for many advertisers to be able to deliver new creatives on short notice. Rather than having to navigate long lead times and commit to creative messaging months in advance, programmatic DOOH gives you the flexibility to react in near real-time. 

For example, did a big play impact the outcome of the game? You could have your creative team develop a new ad that highlights this excitement and reinforces your brand’s relevance in the heat of the action. With fast turnaround times and no strict spend amounts or minimum flight lengths, you could bring your new creative to the world within hours to capitalize on this cultural moment. 

What is your Super Bowl strategy?

Drawing 123.4 million viewers last year, according to Nielson, it’s clear why advertisers are willing to pay a steep price for a 30-second Super Bowl spot. However, the potential of DOOH extends far beyond just this impressive viewer count. If high visibility is your goal, DOOH provides an opportunity to engage audiences in their everyday environments—not just during the game, but also in the lead-up and aftermath. 

Ready to plan your Super Bowl campaign?