In OOH, we’re lucky. We have an audience BUILT IN, but as creatives, it’s still our job to get the attention of that audience. We still have to make them look. I believe we can achieve this by either being really simple OR making them really stand out.
Simplicity
There is beauty in simplicity. I love negative space, and I wish I could see more of it. Times have changed from when I entered the OOH industry 19 years ago. For years, our challenge has always been to help client’s narrow creative elements and help them achieve their goals. Honestly, we should not have to do that anymore. In today’s world, anyone can locate a website, phone number or address in a few seconds. Because of this, our goal should be to make that consumer RECALL the name. Period.
The brands in the following examples get it. They chose to use the best visual medium out there coupled with simple images to evoke a feeling, memory, want, or need.
The beauty of negative space is that it forces your eye to read what IS there. In this Quaker ad, we all read the same three words. Negative space forces your eyes to read the ONLY thing there. That’s smart and effective OOH.
This not only works for national brands, it works for local as well. This barstools ad is an effective way to drive traffic to a website. The eye is naturally drawn to the ad because of the simple visual and is then instinctively drawn over to the only text.
Stand Out
We can do things in OOH, creatively, that other media cannot. Extensions, smoke machines, pole wraps, 3D enhancements, real people on boards….these are all things that other media cannot physically do. No other print media can go beyond the perimeter of the display carrying a message. We can.
Modified: 2 years