Summer, Best Served with Out of Home 

It’s safe to say that summer has officially arrived in the UK. With longer days and warmer weather, audiences across the country will be dusting off their BBQs and spending even more time out of home. For brands, this means even more opportunities to reach a receptive audience.

We know that Out of Home (OOH) is the right choice for brands, with 96% of the UK population being reached by OOH ads every week and being a global consumer’s preferred advertising format. But of course, we’d say this. After all, we’ve been delivering award winning campaigns for well over a decade. So, let us show you why OOH is the right choice for your brand this summer.

How to use OOH’s ACES to win  

In 2024, OOH delivers across four main benefits. At Talon, we call these ACES. We play these four ace cards to make sure your media plan delivers:   

Audience, Creative, Effective & Sustainable. 

Audience 

As a result of our nights beginning and ending earlier, 67% of the nation feel happier and more content when the clocks go forward on the last Sunday of March and are motivated to get out and exercise more, with summer being the most popular time of the year for exercise (43%). 

A common misconception is that everyone travels abroad in the summer. Yes, some do jet off, but they are jetting off at similar levels across the year. Research from ABTA shows that summer is just as busy as Autumn or Spring. 

This is further supported by data from Ada – our proprietary data management platform – which shows that audience levels are nearly the same in the summer as the rest of the year. The only difference is in London, which indexes at less than 0.2.

Data from Ada also shows that hospitality and retail venues over-index in the summer months. Through Ada, you can better understand audience behaviours and hone in on target audience groups such as “young families” or something even more niche like “festival fanatics.”   

This data can then be combined with a programmatic OOH buy via Atlas, our proprietary DSP, to deliver strong brand payback on consideration and purchase intent metrics:   

• 2x increase in purchase consideration  
• 15% more relevant to audience lifestyle  
• 3x increase in purchase intent. 

So, yes audiences will be jetting off across the summer. However, they will always be out of home. 

Driving to the airport? Roadside formats.

Travelling to work and play? Public transport formats. 

Getting snacks? There’s a D6 outside of the supermarket for that!  

Visiting city and town centres? OOH is right in the heart of the action. 

Creative 

We know audiences are out of home, but are brands doing enough creatively? Summer is the perfect opportunity to break out of the billboards, dominate spaces and turn OOH into an emotional, immersive experience with audiences. 

Special builds, murals, interactive and experiential OOH are perfect creative solutions to achieve this. Research from JCDecaux and System 1 shows that creative solutions drive impact for brands. Impactful and unusual OOH can create up to 7x higher brand recall when compared to standard media: 

• Brand recognition speed is increased by 5.9x 
• Emotional response was seen to increase by an average of 120% 
• Purchase intent increased by +176%. 

Starbucks, Guinness, Palmers and Nissan are all fantastic examples of creative Out of Home, with Starbucks’ Iced Coffee Zone resulting in 62% of people exposed to the campaign agreeing that Starbucks is somewhere they would get iced coffee from and a +4% increase in unique visitors to stores. 

Effective 

Whilst some brands may opt to hit pause or reduce their spend in the summer months, brands that “stay on” can secure a more cost-effective share of voice (SOV). Those with excess share of voice (ESOV) are more likely to report long-term market share and other long-term success metrics. 

Research from the IPA found that, of the brands that increased media investment during a quieter period:

Additionally, OOH is a preferred media channel for audiences. Kantar’s “Media Reactions” research showed a significant shift towards in-person ad experiences, with both OOH and digital OOH (DOOH) in the top 5 consumer rankings. 

There is a 90% correlation between channels that consumers claim capture their attention, and those in which they prefer seeing advertising. The same research also found that advertising campaigns are seven times more impactful among receptive audiences, so consumer perceptions of media channels are integral to their effect.  

Perceptions of relevance, quality, and innovation exceed the average for media channels, while opinions as an intrusive or repetitive channel are below. For both consumers and marketers, DOOH is considered the most innovative channel, with high levels of trust. 

Sustainable 

Sustainability is a huge focus for consumers and brands alike. According to research from Euro Monitor National, 64% of global consumers are worried about climate change.

OOH gives back, with 46p in every £1 and £441 million contributed to public infrastructure in 2022. Per emission, OOH also 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.

Use OOH’s ACES to win over audiences this summer 

Say it with us – Summer is best served with OOH! 

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

• Audience: Use Atlas to deliver a 3x increase in purchase intent 
• Creative: Brand recognition speed is increased by 5.9x as a result of creative OOH 
• Effective: 63% of brands saw stronger ROI by increasing media investment during a quieter period 
• Sustainable: Invest in the channel that gives back.

Ready to win over audiences this summer with OOH? Get in touch with Talon today!