How to Make a Splash This Summer With DOOH Advertising

As summer approaches, you need to start planning your marketing strategy to reach consumers on the go. During this highly anticipated and fast-paced season, Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising offers powerful capabilities and flexible ways to approach campaigns based on your needs. Whether you’re a CPG beverage brand advertising an iced cold drink, a big box retailer selling the latest beach umbrellas and chairs, or a beauty marketer promoting sunscreen sales, you should consider the following tips:

Take advantage of the weather.

Vistar’s collaboration with IBM Watson Advertising provides plenty of possibilities when it comes to leveraging weather triggers for DOOH campaigns. You can deploy relevant, creative messaging using weather triggers based on specific environmental conditions that are likely to influence consumers.

Imagine you’re a beauty company that just launched a line of summer skincare products to protect you from the sun. You can leverage weather triggers to only activate media when there’s a high UV index and/or the temperature reaches a certain level. This increases the likelihood that warm weather products like sunscreen will be top-of-mind for consumers precisely when they see your ad.

Or, let’s say you’re an OTC company looking to drive sales for your allergy medication. Using weather triggers, you’re able to activate media within close proximity to specific retailers, or across any venue type that’s most relevant to your campaign, when there’s a high pollen count and people are in need of a remedy.

Engage consumers in contextually relevant environments. 

During summer, people tend to spend more time outdoors and participate in a variety of activities, creating opportunities for you to connect with your target audiences in meaningful ways. With DOOH, you can reach your target audience in contextually relevant and high-traffic environments like shopping malls, transit stations, or sporting events. This allows you to capture the attention of consumers who are highly receptive and increase the effectiveness of your advertising.

For example, if you’re a travel brand that wants to target consumers who are on the go, you might consider placing ads on digital screens at airports or train stations, where people are more likely to have an interest in travel. Given the flexibility of DOOH, you could also adapt the creative itself based on the type of screen and environment it's in. By deploying messaging that is relevant and contextually appropriate, you can increase the effectiveness of your campaigns and drive engagement with your target audiences.

Plan promotions around summer holidays.

DOOH allows you to upload a creative and activate against a variety of creatives – ensuring that your message is the most relevant based on the specific time, audience or event. 

Let’s say you’re a big box retailer who typically runs ads throughout the year based on seasonal holidays or events. Consider leveraging DOOH’s advanced technology to promote your summer products. In one easy-to-launch campaign, you can advertise patio furniture and a BBQ grill for your July 4th promotions, then switch your creatives to showcase school and office products as back-to-school season approaches. 

Additionally, if you’re marketing an alcoholic beverage brand and trying to promote a new refreshing summer cocktail, you can customize the creatives by venue type to display real-time messaging or offers. This way, you have the opportunity to send one message to consumers who are on the path to purchase (in transit, across billboards, or maybe at the salon) and a different message to consumers who are at the store and ready to buy (in liquor stores, gas stations or convenience stores).

DOOH should be an essential part of your summer campaigns. With programmatic, your brand can make a splash by activating DOOH media where people are going – customizing campaigns based on specific factors such as contextual environment, weather conditions or summer holidays.

To learn more about the DOOH landscape and more marketing strategies for success, download our ebook, “The Advertiser's Playbook for OOH in 2023.”

Ready to strategize or plan your campaign? Contact us today!