OOH Takes Political Campaigns into the Real World
“Hotly contested” is clearly the theme of this year’s political elections, despite the fact that mid-term elections are typically less exciting than presidential years. While many states have already held primaries, nearly half wait till August or September. So there’s plenty of primary action ahead.
And everyone has their eyes on the ultimate prize — November 8th, Election Day.
For candidates and ballot measures, the stakes could not be higher. It is critical to spread your message and get out the vote. Out-of-home marketing is everything any campaign could ask for – an ideal running mate and an ardent campaign contributor, all in one.
OOH reaches more people more often, when and where your message will resonate most clearly and memorably. That strengthens your entire campaign:
· Building brand (name) awareness
· Selling key campaign talking points
· Raising money
· Recruiting volunteers
OOH can transform simple advertising into voter experiences.
How?
OOH reaches everyone
Barack Obama forever changed electioneering when he turned to social media to reach voters. Since then, voter outreach on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube have become campaign essentials.
However, paid social media advertising isn’t the powerhouse it once was because consumers are suffering from pervasive digital fatigue. Google and Twitter don’t even allow targeted political ads any more.
OOH fills that gap and then some, giving your campaign a fresh presence while supporting and fueling social interactions.
No wonder candidates have turned to OOH.
OOH speaks directly to voters, when and how you want to reach them:
· Billboards excel in reaching large audiences with basic messaging. Using them to augment a digital campaign can also boost your reach by a whopping 340%!
· Mobile digital billboards take your campaign to the people, wherever they are.
· Street furniture brings billboard-style messaging down to eye level and invites interaction with viewers
· DOOH — place-based digital screens deliver contextually relevant content to voters as they live their daily lives at the store, work, the gym or out to dinner and a movie
· AOOH – yep, thanks to streaming radio and podcasts, audio ads are out-of-home’s newest (and some would say, hottest) way to reach audiences on the go
· Connected TV ads reach voters in and out of home
With all these options and strategic-data-driven placement, campaigns can generate broader voter interest. One great tactic? Leverage social media posts by repeating the key points in OOH ads.
This reinforces your post with those who have seen it before, and it puts the message in front of voters who may not follow you on that social platform. It’s like cross-posting between the online and real worlds.
Adding a way for viewers to respond to your ad right away – a URL or QR code, for example – further boosts ad effectiveness. You can connect with voters at the micro-moment they’re primed to follow up.
OOH goes hyperlocal
When you come right down to it, elections are won at the most granular level – by winning over voters, one at a time. That’s true whether you’re running for a seat in Congress or the statehouse or a seat on the city council.
Personally connecting with voters is so important that political campaigns are devoting no less than 88% of their advertising budgets to local and in-state races this year.
And that means hyperlocal targeting is key to your Election Day success.
Once again, OOH excels. Because while you can reach everyone, repeatedly, to spread your campaign message far and wide, you can also drill down to reach certain voter segments. Even very specific niche groups.
Using local voter data and your own marketing demographics and other criteria, tech tools such as geo-targeting and geo-fencing will show you exactly where to place your ads. Programmatic automation allows you to deeply tailor screen-based ads right down to the time of day and change up content as the context changes.
In short, OOH enables you to direct the right talking points to the right voters when and where they will be most receptive. That’s how to run a strategically smart, successful political campaign. You’ll be taking a victory lap on Election Day.
