How to ACE Christmas with OOH Advertising 

Despite Halloween still being around the corner, it won’t come as a shock to know that many are already planning their Christmas celebrations.

We all know that the ‘ber’ months lead to the ultimate celebration in the UK. From travelling through the colder days and darker nights, to shopping not only for things you need, but for gifts that loved ones will appreciate, all roads lead to Christmas. 

All these activities, and many more that are enjoyed in these festive months, are enjoyed outside of the home. And we may be biased, but Out of Home (OOH) advertising in the lead up to and during Christmas provides the perfect opportunity for brands to influence consumers.  

In this blog, we will explore these opportunities and explain with OOH’s ACES – Audience, Creative, Effective and Sustainable – how brands can connect with audiences and reap the rewards using OOH advertising this Christmas. It all starts with thinking outside. 

But first, let’s look at the key shopping dates and habits this Christmas.

Key Christmas Dates 

As we mentioned above, some people are already planning their Christmas celebrations, including when they plan to buy the bulk of their gifts. 17% are planning to purchase their gifts from September to October, whilst 34% plan to make the most of the sales throughout November.

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This year, the average consumer expects to spend almost £600 (£593.90) on core Christmas-related products and activities – including food, gifts, decorations, socialising and travelling. But where will they shop?

Shoppers Are Still Hybrid

68% of shoppers plan to shop in-store in 2024, only a fraction behind online shopping (70%). Many shoppers will rely on both channels, especially for last-minute purchases.

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To reach hybrid shoppers across both environments, Talon recommends an omnichannel approach. When used in combination with digital channels, OOH increases the effectiveness of online ads by +31%, paid social ads by +56% and +80% for search ads. Consumers already spend an average of 70% of their time outside of their homes – so use OOH to reach these audiences and increase overall reach by 68%. 

Now, onto our ACES! 

Reach Audiences Out of Home this Christmas

It’s important to understand your audience. Who are they? Where are they going? What are they buying? Understanding audiences should be at the heart of every strategy. 

What makes OOH advertising at Christmas so advantageous for brands is its ability to work across all stages of the purchasing funnel. In recent years, the advancements in digital capabilities have shifted the role of OOH from being primarily a top-of-the-funnel medium to working across the whole funnel. 

Out of Home’s role has evolved and continues to evolve based on:  

  • Audience Targeting: +15% higher levels of audience relevance  
  • Reactive Activation: The ability to book panels in the hour for the next hour  
  • Driving Bottom End Metrics: 2x increase in purchase intent.
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We might be biased but audience-first planning using our proprietary technology helps brands to get ahead this Christmas. Using an audience first planning approach in Out of Home benefits our clients:  

  • Brand 1: Saw a +28% increase in on-target impressions vs. Busy high-street gifter audience  
  • Brand 2: Achieved a +50% Uplift in on-target impressions vs. In-market gifters & the brand’s consumers  
  • Brand 3: Saw a +12% Increase in footfall to the store vs. Competitors during the campaign.

Create Holiday Magic with Out of Home

During the festive season, the time people dedicate to Christmas shopping varies. Some people shop all day whilst some prefer to shop first thing or later in the day. 28% make buying gifts an occasion, opting to go with friends or get something to eat. 

Over half of 16-25s will spend an entire day doing their Christmas shopping, providing ample opportunity for brands to do something show-stopping and capture their attention. But how do we grab attention and shine this Christmas? Through special builds and site adaptions, experiential activity and dynamic digital creative – a Grand Visual specialty! 

A great example of a brand that utilised all three was Pepsi MAX. They were everywhere during Christmas last year with a multi-faceted, multi-format OOH campaign. The campaign included underground dominations, a wrapping grotto, two snowing billboards and sampling on the day that almost everyone travels home for Christmas on. 

As a result, Pepsi MAX delivered its best performing Christmas ever!

The Gift of Effective Out of Home

Festive messaging is an obvious, yet effective way to cut through the clutter this Christmas. Our analysis of previous campaign effectiveness studies found that 62% of 18-34s have a positive emotional response to Christmas OOH campaigns. When compared to “OOH norms,” Christmas campaigns see significant uplifts across three key metrics – unprompted awareness, consideration and purchase intent. 

Brands who use festive messaging to their advantage can see their campaigns drive uplifts of 23% in ad recall. A further 53% of those who were exposed to a festive campaign felt it reached them in the right mindset and 54% found the campaign relevant. 

Not only is OOH great at driving its own uplifts, but it is also THE digital primer and works extremely well to boost the effect of all other media channels. OOH also drives short term sales too with campaigns seeing a +47% uplift in sales activation effects vs non-OOH users.

‘Tis the Season for Sustainable Out of Home

This Christmas, we must balance creativity with sustainability. Bar a few sceptics – sustainability messaging cuts through and is highly important to audiences. Campaign messaging must be delivered with sincerity as consumers will see through greenwashing. 

OOH is a trusted channel to deliver on sustainability messaging and drive perceptions: 

  • 46p in every £1 and £441 million contributed to public infrastructure in 2022 
  • Per emission, OOH emits less carbon than all other media measured – contributing just 3.3% to UK total ad power consumption and accounting for less than 3.5% of the UK’s total ad carbon footprint 
  • OOH has strong ESG credentials when compared to TV, Press and Online. 

Talon Benchmarks also show that sustainability messaging can increase effectiveness across the brand funnel, on average, by +57%. This messaging drives average increases of: 

  • +5.4% ‘Are leaders in sustainability’ 
  • +8.2% ‘Produces sustainable products/services’ 
  • +8% ‘Has a positive impact on people, the environment and economy’ 
  • +8.6% ‘I trust they take responsibility for sustainability.’ 

A great example of a brand leaning into OOH’s sustainability credentials is Not on the High Street (NOTHS). 8 in 10 Brits reported receiving a “bad gift” for Christmas 2022. As a result, over 3.08 million bad gifts were thrown away, ending up in landfill. 

Recognising the enormity of the issue highlighted in its research, Not on the High Street (NOTHS) decided enough was enough this Yuletide. The UK’s home of small creative businesses, NOTHS made it their mission to ensure that festive gifts would not end up in the bin – again! 

To drive fame and stand out from the very beginning, NOTHS created a series of OOH special builds, each highlighting a different issue and encouraging consumers to think before they gift this year. All items in the billboards were donated to Crisis, who support the homeless and aim to better support those suffering.

Use Out of Home’s ACES to win Christmas 2024 

Remember to play your ACES to make sure your media plan delivers:  

  • Audience: Use Audience-first planning to reach consumers as they work, shop & play 
  • Creative: Drive high emotional engagement with Creative OOH executions 
  • Effective: OOH builds brands and drives sales activations, +47% uplift vs non-OOH 
  • Sustainable: Low carbon emissions per impression & 46p in every £1 reinvested to community.