OOH best practice is so simple, it forces you to get creative

Despite upsetting a few QR-toting modern poster lovers, most who have mentioned this column since are in hard agreement, largely for two reasons.

First, I shared solid data to back up this point. System1 worked with JCDecaux and Lumen (poster and attention experts) to test a large sample of OOH UK posters with 7,500 UK consumers. Lumen revealed that the average poster gets two seconds of attention (with static getting less than dynamic). System1’s emotional creative effectiveness testing showed that over half of exposures to OOH don’t trigger the correct brand, and 40% of all exposures don’t create any useful positive emotions to build brand equity, landing us on the seven out of 10 figure.

Second, I shared OOH best practices born from this robust research that chimes with what poster experts have been saying since Byron Sharp was a kid. With this low attention, what I call the “creative realities” of the media channel are rather simple. If you don’t brand bold at the top of the poster, or forget to use large, famously distinct color blocking, product shots or brand characters, or use more than 10 words, you literally throw away media cash. People miss the brand and have no idea what’s going on.

Some have criticized how basic this set of guidelines is and how this best practice doesn’t allow room for creativity.

Those people don’t understand creative effectiveness.

Be in the three out of 10 winning posters

Creative effectiveness is creativity that works for a brand in service of the target customer. By following the simple guardrails we laid out in the research (full publication available for free here), you’ll find yourself in the top 30% of all posters. How do you start seeing above and beyond results? Well, give these guidelines to a creative. You might be thinking - “Sharing boundaries with a creative? You must be mad.” Not true, an experienced creative will bite your hand off for a clear brief like this.

Why guardrails help creativity

I used to run the marketing for Bacardi’s innovation and whisky brands in influential bars and restaurants. 5 Star Hotels, Top 50 Bars, East London rooftops, etc. I’m still a walking black book of wanky bars that will look good on your Instagram or seal the deal on a first date. I gave a list of must-visit London bars to my international friend recently. They later informed me that they didn’t make it to any because they got pissed in “Simon’s” all week.

They meant the Simmons Bar Group. A booming chain of London bars started by a founder with very little cash. This lack of money didn’t limit him; it pushed him to make the coolest and fastest-growing bar group in London. He filled the bars with beaten-up old-school desks and century-old game machines and served cocktails in whatever bric-a-brac he could find from charity shops. Simmons was born, a kitsch back-to-school cocktail bar serving cocktails in teapots.

This founder didn’t let guardrails ruin his fun; it pushed his creativity to build a brand my buddy will never forget.

The 4Ps of posters

These clear guardrails can allow creatives to do the same for posters. The only real limit is imagination. In fact, some still argue that if a campaign idea doesn’t work on OOH – it isn’t developed enough.

The upper echelons of poster effectiveness come from playing within and on the edges of these boundaries to grab attention and build positive, useful memory structures for brands.

So, here are my 4Ps of Posters to help marketers win in OOH. (Editor’s note: you can’t just say Play four times Andrew.)

To my creative nerds reading this, this is essentially getting “right-brained” with posters–or working out how to entertain to build fame, as Paul Feldwick would say. Our left hemisphere likes to manipulate words, symbols and imagery. Our left hemisphere likes to manipulate people using words, symbols and imagery. Our right hemisphere enjoys playing WITH words and symbols for fun. Playing with these guidelines is how we make broadly appealing and entertaining posters.

Play with Distinctive Assets

This is such an easy win, especially for FMCG brands. If you need to throw up a huge product shot or brand asset to ensure you trigger brand quickly enough, make your assets do all the work for you. So damn simple, but it’s created some of the most effective OOH we’ve tested–all the more reason to invest to build these assets.

Play with Culture

Brands need to be popular–not with marketers but with consumers. This makes a brand feel current, familiar and well-liked by all. Advertising can do this by bouncing off the wider culture. This might be off of world events, other brands, things in the lexicon, things that the brand has already inserted into culture themselves or even things consumers are saying about you.

Play with Copy

I find this the most impressive. A good copywriter is worth their weight in gold. In 10 words or less, you can use copy to play with your assets, tap into culture, or simply do what any good TV ad does: create positive human emotion. Humor is always the most impressive, but anything shocking or feel-good will have its advantages. It also becomes very evident how clear the positioning and creative ideas are with good copy. I even changed the copy on a poster to show it can double its effectiveness.

Play with the Rules

There’s a school of thought that creativity needs to be unique. I think we focus far too much on whether something is truly new. The truth is consumers don’t care enough. But there is something magical in the “that’s clever” when you see an ad. Or when something is so different that it stops you and breaks the two-second rule. It was hard not to throw up a load of special build examples here, as I’m trying to share examples we all can do.

Of course, these aren’t the only ways to win in OOH. That’s the joy of advertising; we can get to the finish line in different ways. But go back and scan through all the examples I’ve shared. You’ll see that most of them actually tick two or three of the 4Ps I’ve described.

The rules are so simple you don’t even have to follow them all.

If you are interested in creative effectiveness, System1 has partnered with the global marketing awards program Effie to write a new free publication combining our data. We are asking marketers what they would like to know about effectiveness in a short five-minute survey here.