By Marie Le Hur, Marketing Director

OOH is, and always has been, about real life experiences. It surprises and delights. It informs. It brings communities together – whether there’s a cultural moment to celebrate or a fan zone to pack out.

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The natural partnership of OOH and social media has enabled all these feelings to be shared more broadly, although nothing compares to being there. OOH is the only medium with the power to make people regularly share it on social – which we know generates results. From our 2023 neuroscience research, we saw a 21% increase in Approach (or brand perception) when respondents saw a DOOH campaign on social media vs a conventional brand post.¹

Social media extends OOH’s already broad reach and encourages the public to come down and enjoy it for themselves. If you rely on fake Out of home, you’re getting limited reach without the emotion that’s driven from in person experiences. This wonderfully stubborn human desire for real life interaction was reflected in the recent IPA Bellwether report, with a 17.2% increase in events budgets, far higher than any other category.  

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Digital out of home technology has further enabled interaction and consumer enjoyment. From augmented reality (AR) to gamification, live streams to Ocean Studio’s 3D DeepScreen® and DeepScreen Alive, there are endless opportunities to engage consumers in a memorable, rewarding way – whilst ensuring long term results for your brand. 

When it comes to fake Out of home, all of this is taken away. The likes of surrealism and AR are much better options for your brief, as they offer so much more. They drive interaction and therefore evoke a feeling that you can’t do just with a piece of branded content.  

These tech solutions work especially well when they form part of a broader OOH campaign, like Magnum’s recent creative on Piccadilly Lights. With these kind of campaign ‘extensions’, we can showcase the experience more broadly, through Ocean Labs’ technology AND social media. 

OOH can also serve as the perfect signpost to an AR or other in-person experience. They complement each other so well, there’s no need for fakery. 

Plus, we know people don’t tend to like being tricked. In a 2024 Alfresco Life study, 46% of respondents felt more positively towards an ad when they could trust it was real. This was noticeably even more important for 18-34 year olds, for whom the figure is closer to 60%.  

Not only is trust in advertising key for consumers, it is now the second strongest driver of brand profitability, up from seventh place in the early 2000s.² In the same piece of research by the Advertising Association, Out of home was confirmed as one of the most trusted mediums. Why risk eroding that and settling for a gimmick or a piece of content, when we can offer our audiences so much more? 

1. Ocean Outdoor / Neuro Insight part 5: The Vital Ingredient, 2023. 

2. The Value of Trust research by Advertising Association, 2023.