Out-of-the-Box Marketing Ideas

When it comes to marketing, most people think that you need an army of promoters, designers, and developers to launch a successful marketing campaign. But that’s not true.

All marketing is, is about creating a strategy, identifying your target audience and then executing it in a way that resonates with them, and that is no different than with out-of-home advertising such as billboards.

It can be a difficult process to get right but one of the best things about it is the opportunity for creativity and innovation along the way.

So, if you’re looking for some inspiration on how to do just that, we can help! We have put together this list of our favorite out-of-the-box marketing ideas that will help you stand out from the crowd and win customers over before they even know what hit them.

marketing ideas

What is An Out-of-Box Marketing Strategy?

Out of the box marketing comes down to one thing – data-driven marketing with emerging strategies.

For instance, if you choose to buy a placement on a billboard, using data technologies that measure traffic and the prospective reach is one thing, but merging that with custom URLs, hashtags, or QR codes creates an ecosystem that propels brand awareness and experience.

Below are ten out of the box marketing ideas that can help benefit you and your business.

Offer a Trade

If you have a product that has value and your customers don’t want it, they’ll probably be willing to trade something else instead. This is a great way to get rid of products that are too expensive to distribute or not selling well.

There are many ways you can offer trades:

  • Trade-in credit: Offer customers the option of trading in their old product for store credit toward future purchases. This can be especially useful when selling electronics or other expensive items that require replacement parts or repairs regularly.
  • Gift card swap: You could give out gift cards at the checkout counter when someone makes a purchase, but then offer them the option of also receiving an extra gift card for every item they trade in as well! This could double or triple your return on investment (ROI) from these discounted sales because people will actually buy another item with their first credit rather than just leaving empty handed—which happens more often than not when companies only offer one type of payment option during checkout processes like this one does.

digital marketing ideas

Use Digital Signage

Digital signage is the use of digital technology to promote products, services, events and brand messages on large displays in public locations – such as stadiums, shopping malls and terminals.

Digital signage serves a number of purposes including:

  • Promoting your business
  • Providing information to customers on where they can find what they’re looking for or what is happening in the area

Create a Scavenger Hunt

This is a great way to get your team or clients involved and increase brand awareness/loyalty.

Create a list of items, then take pictures or video of them in your office and store it online or across social media so your participants can see them.

On the day that you launch your scavenger hunt, send out an email with instructions for how to participate (you can also post on social media if you have room for more exposure). The instructions should include what image(s) are needed from each location, how participants will know when they’ve found the item(s) needed and other details like this one: “The first person who finds [an item] at [location] wins!”.

Make sure the prizes are worth winning! It’s always good to give away something that has value because it shows appreciation towards those who took time out of their busy days in order to participate. The prize doesn’t have to be big though; it just needs something special about it so people feel good about themselves after receiving one as opposed to feeling like they’re just some dumb loser who couldn’t find anything cool enough.

Use the Mail

  • Use the mail to send coupons, information about your business or products, and thank you cards.
  • Send holiday cards to customers, friends, and family that have expressed interest in your business.
  • Send birthday cards for every employee, including yourself! It’s important for employees to feel connected to the company beyond just working together on projects.

Go Mobile With Mobile Coupons or QR Codes

Using billboards or fuel pump advertising allows the use of QR codes.

QR codes saw a resurgence during the 2020 COVID lockdowns, and the momentum has not stopped.

QR codes can offer mobile coupons that are a great way to reach your audience and get them into your store. They can also be used in many ways. For example, you could offer free shipping on a certain day or time period, or coupons for discounts on items in your store. Mobile coupons are also helpful for getting people to try new things, like offering free samples at checkout counters.

Create a Viral Marketing Campaign

When you think of your content, don’t limit yourself to what’s on the paper in front of you.

Think about how you can add value to that content. For example, in a recent film “Smile”, the marketing team sent paid actors to baseball games to ‘Smile’ for the duration. The goal was to raise awareness but also to creatively expand the audience in a viral marketing effort.

Viral marketing combines out of home marketing with digital marketing and PR to produce word of mouth awareness.

Host an Event at Your Place of Business

Hosting an event at your business is a great way to get your brand in front of your customers. For example, if you’re a barber shop or salon, you can host an event where people come in for discounted haircuts. This is also a great way to build brand loyalty and engage with customers on a deeper level.

You don’t have to hold the event at your place of business either! You could host it off site and encourage people from all over town or even around the world to attend. This gives them something fun and entertaining while also bringing more traffic into your store or office space.

Give Away Swag

Gifting swag is a great way to get your name out there. The trick is to give away something that’s relevant to your business, useful for the customer, and not too expensive. A good example of this is offering an in-store coupon when people bring their pets in for grooming.

You should also try gifting things that will get people talking about your brand and put you at the forefront of their minds — like branded water bottles or reusable totes!

Go ‘Live’ on Social Media Platforms

Live video is a great way to connect with your audience. It’s a great way to show off your products, new or old. You can use live video to promote a new product or service, share information about your company, and even answer questions from people who are interested in what you have to offer.

Get Local Businesses Involved in a Larger Campaign

  • Think about how you can work with other businesses in your area.
  • Get them involved in a larger campaign, and ask them to promote your business for free.
  • Offer them a free service in return for their support.
  • Offer them a discount on one of your services or products if they agree to help promote it through their own channels (e.g., website, social media).
  • Give away free gifts to people who attend events at another business’s location (e.g., restaurant) as part of an event of yours that’s happening nearby—this could be tickets or gift certificates that they can use on their next visit!

marketing strategy session

Think Outside the Box for Creative Marketing Ideas

The best way to get creative marketing ideas is to think outside the box. If you are getting stuck on a project and need some inspiration, here are some ways to help you come up with unique ideas for your business:

  • Get on the internet! There are so many websites out there that provide excellent resources when it comes to searching for creative marketing ideas. There are also plenty of blogs and articles written by successful entrepreneurs who have used these techniques before.
  • Use what works! If an idea worked well in the past, there’s no reason why it won’t work again! Don’t be afraid of trying something again if enough time has passed since its initial success; after all, nothing beats experience when it comes down to figuring out how effective certain techniques can be at generating interest among potential customers.
  • Survey your audience! Go right to the source and ask what they want to see more of from your business or brand.

bMedia and Out-of-the-Box Marketing Ideas

Out of the box marketing ideas come in many shapes and sizes. While viral marketing worked for the team promoting a film, it’s best to consider your options, keep an open mind, and find a partner that can help you achieve your KPIs.

As a local leading media promotion company, our goal is to provide advertising avenues that make your message get through to your target market in order to solidify your brand image and / or increase your sales through impact, quality, innovation, and distinct services. We’re

Contact bMedia and learn more about our services and how we can help promote your business.

Street Advertising

Today’s world of technology has made avoiding advertisements very easy. With DVRS and personal music devices, the old ways of reaching an audience through advertisements are changing. When marketing in the current media climate, you’ve got to present your advertisements in creative, out-of-the-box ways.

The good news: street advertising is a great way to reach your audience and has a great success story.

Did you know that at least 68% of consumers make purchasing decisions while in a car?

Street advertising will help you capitalize on reaching your ever-moving customer base.

Let’s dive into this and what it can do for your business.

crowded streets and street advertising

What is Street Advertising?

Street advertising refers to the practice of using outdoor advertising methods such as billboards, posters, stickers, and murals to promote products, services, or events.

This type of advertising takes many forms; from large-scale billboards to posters and stickers.

These kinds of ads are typically placed in high-traffic areas: intersections, busy streets, and public transportation areas. They can also target specific demographics.

Believe it or not, street advertising has been around for centuries.

Examples of street advertising can even be dated back to ancient Rome and the middle ages.

These messages were carved into stone and plastered on walls to promote events and public announcements. Signs were painted on the fronts of buildings to indicate the type of business being conducted inside.

In recent years, street advertising has experienced a resurgence.

Many businesses are looking for ways to reach their customers in an incredibly jumbled and cluttered media landscape.

Modern street advertising takes many forms, from traditional billboards and posters to more innovative approaches like guerrilla marketing, which relies on unconventional and often eye-catching tactics to grab people’s attention.

Advantages of Street Advertising

There are a lot of reasons why you should consider using street advertising or outdoor advertising.

One of the main advantages is that it has the potential to reach a large and diverse audience.

Street advertising can be strategically placed in high-traffic areas, such as busy streets or public transportation hubs, where it can be seen by a large number of people. This makes it an effective way to raise awareness about a brand, product, or service.

Another advantage of street advertising is its flexibility. It can be created in a variety of formats and sizes, from billboards to posters to street art, allowing for creativity and customization.

Cost-Effectiveness

Street advertising can be a cost-effective way to reach potential customers, especially compared to other forms of advertising such as television or radio ads.

Wide in Reach

Street advertising can reach a large number of people, especially in high-traffic areas. This allows businesses to promote their products or services to a wider audience.

Targets Your Audience

Street advertising can be targeted to specific neighborhoods or demographics, allowing businesses to reach the right audience with their message.

Shows Business Creativity

Street advertising offers advertisers a great deal of creative freedom, allowing them to use eye-catching graphics and slogans to capture people’s attention.

Brand Amplification

Street advertising can help build brand awareness and recognition, as people see the same message repeatedly over time.

street advertising thailand

Examples of Street Advertising

These are just a few examples of some of the successful campaigns over the past couple of decades.

Each of these campaigns used a combination of bold visuals, catchy slogans, and clever marketing strategies to capture people’s attention and build brand awareness.

  • Apple’s iPod Silhouette Ads:
    • The silhouette ads were featured against brightly colored backgrounds. These were successful in the early 2000s. The ads helped to boost sales of the popular music player and helped to establish the iPod as a cultural icon.
  • Nike’s “Just Do It” Campaign:
    • The campaign launched in 1988, is one of the most successful advertising campaigns of all time. The campaign featured bold, simple slogans and striking images of athletes in action, and helped to establish Nike as a leading brand in the athletic footwear market.
  • McDonald’s Billboards:
    • McDonald’s has had lots of success over the years with its billboard ads. These billboards have featured iconic imagery such as the Golden Arches and slogans like, “I’m Lovin’ It.” These ads have helped to establish McDonald’s as one of the most recognizable brands in the world.
  • Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” Campaign:
    • This Coca-Cola campaign was launched in 2011. It featured cans/bottles of Coke with people’s names printed on them. The campaign was a huge hit on social media, with people sharing photos of their personalized Coke bottles and cans.
  • Red Bull’s “Gives You Wings” Campaign:
    • Red Bull’s campaign launched in 1997 and featured extreme sports and other high-energy activities. This helped to establish Red Bull as a leading brand in the energy drink market.

Innovations in Street Advertising

These are just a few examples of the many innovations. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more exciting and creative approaches to outdoor advertising in the years to come.

  1. Digital Billboards: Digital billboards are becoming increasingly popular, allowing advertisers to display multiple ads on the same billboard and to update the content quickly and easily.
  2. Augmented Reality (AR): AR technology allows advertisers to create smart billboards – interactive and immersive experiences for consumers. For example, an ad might use AR to superimpose a virtual image over a real-world location, creating a unique and memorable experience for viewers.
  3. Guerilla Marketing: Guerilla marketing is a type of street advertising that uses unconventional and often unexpected tactics to grab people’s attention. Examples might include using chalk art on the sidewalk or placing a statue in a public space.
  4. 3-D Printing: 3-D printing technology is allowing advertisers to create unique and innovative billboards and installations that would have been impossible in the past. For example, a billboard might feature a 3D sculpture or structure that extends out from the surface of the billboard.

Street Advertising Cost vs. Other Advertising Methods

Like everything, the cost-effectiveness of street advertising will depend on different factors including the location, format, and duration of the campaign.

  • Allows Targeted Advertising: Street advertising can be targeted to specific neighborhoods or demographics, allowing businesses to reach the right audience with their message. This can help to ensure that advertising dollars are being spent effectively.
  • Lower Cost Per Impression: Street advertising can often be more cost-effective than other forms of advertising when you consider the cost per impression (the number of people who see the ad). For example, a billboard might cost a few thousand dollars per month, but it can generate hundreds of thousands of impressions during that time.
  • Has Flexibility: Street advertising can be adapted to different sizes and formats, allowing businesses to choose the most effective approach for their needs. For example, a business might start with a small-scale street art campaign and then scale up to a larger billboard campaign as the business grows.
  • Has Longevity: Street advertising can often have a longer lifespan than other forms of advertising, such as television or radio ads, which have a limited shelf life. Street ads can remain in place for months or even years, generating ongoing exposure for the business.
  • Has Buzz: Street advertising can also generate social media buzz and word-of-mouth marketing, amplifying the impact of the campaign and increasing the return on investment.

Ways of Creating An Effective Street Advertising Campaign

So you’re looking to create a street advertising campaign? Here are some things to consider. Remember, bMedia can always help with the creative process. Check out these best practices.

Define Your Business Objectives

What do you and your business want out of the campaign? Do you want to raise awareness of your brand, promote a new product, or drive sales? Knowing your objectives will help you to create a campaign that is focused and effective.

Know Your Audience

Understand your target audience and what motivates them exactly. What are their needs, interests, or desires? By using this information, you can craft a message that will really resonate with them.

Show Some Creativity

It’s all about standing out from the crowd, so be creative with your message and design. Use bold, eye-catching visuals and messages that are memorable and engaging.

Use the Right Medium

Choose the right medium for your message.

Different types of street advertising are better suited for different objectives and target audiences. Consider using a combination of mediums to maximize your impact.

Be Strategic with Placement

Placement is key here.

Choose locations that will generate high foot traffic and exposure to your target audience. You can also consider partnering with other businesses or organizations to leverage their customer base and increase exposure.

Measure The Results

Track key metrics such as foot traffic, social media engagement, and sales to determine the impact of your campaign and make adjustments as needed.

street advertising memphis

The Future of Street Advertising and Its Potential

The potential for street advertising is enormous. With the right approach, advertisers can create campaigns that are engaging, effective, and targeted. As technology continues to evolve, the possibilities for street advertising are limitless.

The future of street advertising is likely to be shaped by technological advancements and changing consumer behavior. Here are some potential trends to watch for:

  • Greater Use of Augmented Reality: Augmented reality (AR) is likely to play an increasingly important role in street advertising. AR technology can create immersive and interactive experiences for consumers, enhancing the impact of the campaign.
  • Increased Use of AI: As AI continues to evolve, street advertising campaigns will become more targeted and personalized. Advertisers will be able to use real-time data to optimize their campaigns and reach the right audience at the right time.
  • More Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Ads: As sustainability becomes a bigger concern, campaigns will become more eco-friendly. Advertisers will look for ways to minimize waste and reduce the environmental impact of their campaigns.
  • Integration with Smart Cities: As cities become smarter and more connected, street advertising will be integrated into the urban infrastructure. Advertisers will be able to leverage data from smart devices and sensors to deliver more targeted and effective campaigns.

How bMedia Can Help You In Your Street Advertising Endeavors

As a leading media business in Puerto Rico, bMedia has a mission to provide you with the best services for your street advertisements. We want to set your brand image in stone and ultimately, increase your business’s sales.

bMedia Group will provide you with innovation and quality as our strategists work hand-in-hand with you and your business through measurable and effective business solutions.

Analyze Marketing Data

As a business owner, you are always looking for new ways to reach your target market and get your product or service in front of them. Outdoor advertising, such as billboards, is one effective way to do that. In building your billboard strategy, you want to ensure that your marketing dollars are well-spent. After all, there’s no point in shelling out big bucks for a billboard campaign if it isn’t going to result in more customers or sales.

But how do you know if your billboard campaign is actually reaching people and driving sales? The answer lies in being able to analyze your marketing data.

digital marketing analytics

Why Marketing Data Analysis is Essential

Data analysis is important for any marketing campaign, but it is especially important for channels like billboards where you are trying to reach a large number of people in a specific geographic area.

As you analyze your marketing data, you can see which sites your billboard campaign is reaching the most people and whether or not those people are taking action (such as visiting your website or making a purchase).

Moreover, you can adjust your marketing strategy by understanding what works and what doesn’t.

What to Consider When Launching Marketing Campaigns

There are a few things you need to keep in mind when analyzing marketing data, particularly from outdoor/digital outdoor billboard campaigns.

First, you need to determine your marketing goals.

What are you trying to achieve with your billboard campaign?

Are you looking to enhance brand recognition?

Drive traffic to your website or brick-and-mortar store?

Once you know your objectives, you can begin to gather data that will help you determine whether or not your campaign is successful.

After understanding your aspirations, it’s important to define your target audience.

Who do you want to make an impression with on your billboard campaign?

Once you know who your target audience is, you can begin to gather data that will help you determine whether or not they’re seeing your billboards and, more importantly, whether or not they’re taking action as a result of seeing them.

marketing data

How to Evaluate the Success of Your Marketing Campaigns

When most people think of billboards, they think of huge signs advertising products or services along highways.

However, billboards can be placed in various locations, including near high-traffic areas, public transit stops, or even in front of businesses.

No matter where you place your billboards, you want to ensure that they effectively drive sales and generate customer leads by measuring a few key indicators of success (KPIs – Key Performance Indicators).

Sales Revenue

One of the most important metrics to track when evaluating the success of your billboard campaign is sales revenue.

To evaluate this metric, you can compare your total sales during the period when your billboard was active to your total sales from the same period the previous year.

If you see an increase in sales after launching your billboard campaign, that’s a good sign that your investment is paying off.

If you don’t see an increase, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean that your campaign was a failure; there could be other factors at play, such as changes in the overall economy or seasonality. Nonetheless, tracking sales revenue is a relatively straightforward way to get a rough idea of whether or not your billboard campaign has the desired effect.

ROI With Advertising Spend

Of course, no matter how well a marketing campaign performs in terms of metrics like social media engagement or web traffic, it won’t be worth it if it doesn’t generate a positive Return On Investment (ROI).

To calculate ROI for a billboard campaign (or any other advertising spend), divide the revenue generated by the billboard campaign by its total cost. The higher the ROI for a given advertising spend, the more successful the campaign is considered to be.

Incremental Website Traffic

In addition to looking at social media engagement and CPC, another metric you can use to evaluate the success of a digital billboard campaign is traffic—specifically, web traffic.

To track this metric, you can look at how many visitors came to your website from clicking on one of your ads during the period when they were active. If you see an incremental increase in web traffic (usually through “Direct” traffic in Google Analytics) after launching a digital billboard campaign, that’s a promising sign people are interested in what you’re offering and are taking action by visiting your website — an early step in their customer journey.

Social Media Engagement and Impressions

Another metric you can use to evaluate the success of your billboard campaign is social media engagement.

One way to track this metric is to look at the number of mentions or shares your brand received on social media when your billboard was active. You can also look at the “sentiment” of these mentions and see if they were generally positive or negative. If you see an uptick in social media activity and content impressions after launching your billboard campaign, that’s a good sign that people are thinking and talking about your brand.

Customer Retention

Last but not least, don’t forget to evaluate customer retention rates following your billboard marketing campaign.

If you acquired new customers through your billboard or outdoor marketing efforts, are they sticking around? Or did they make a one-time purchase and never come back? Customer retention rates can give you valuable insights into your campaign’s overall success and sales strategy.

google marketing analytics

How bMedia Can Help Analyze Marketing Analytics

Billboards are a notable way to reach potential customers. However, designing a successful billboard campaign can be difficult.

bMedia can help you with your billboard marketing strategy by providing best-in-class analytics and expert advice from our team of marketing strategists. We analyze marketing and advertising data and develop a strategy according to those insights.

There are a few key ways in which we can help propel your marketing strategy forward, including:

Expanded Reach

Our billboards provide 24/7 exposure, reaching over 90% of the Puerto Rican population.

That means that no matter what time of day or night, your billboard will be seen by the vast majority of people on the island.

State-of-the-Art Technology

Our team also uses cutting-edge vehicle analytics to gather data on cars passing by billboards. This data is then used to calculate your CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and ROI (return on investment). In other words, you’ll know exactly how effective your billboard campaign is in real time.

Access to Expert Professionals

We also give you access to working hand in hand with marketing strategists to help seamlessly craft your billboard strategy. Not only will you have access to insightful analytics, but you’ll also have a team of experts working behind the scenes to make sure that your campaigns are as successful as possible.

Why You Should Invest in the Right Marketing Data for Your Billboards

Being able to analyze marketing data is important for business owners who want to ensure their marketing campaigns are influential.

For outdoor advertising campaigns like billboards, data analysis can help you understand which areas are being reached and whether or not those people are taking action.

There are a few different ways to collect and analyze data, but one of the most important things to remember is to plan what you want to do with the data before you start collecting it. Otherwise, making sense of all the information you gather will be an uphill battle. By taking the time to understand your objectives, target audience, and budget, you can ensure that your billboard marketing campaign is successful and that you’re reaching the right people with your messaging.

Our team at bMedia can help you streamline your marketing billboard analytics without the headache. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you with your billboard marketing goals!

Impressions vs Reach

In marketing and advertising, the Rule of 7 is a common concept that states that your potential customer needs to see or hear your brand name roughly 7 times to convert. This is one of the reasons that billboards are so important for companies who want to attract their clients and grow their customer base. However, what are the main differences between impressions vs reach?

As a local leading media company, bMedia’s goal is to provide advertising vehicles that make your message get through to your target market to solidify your brand image and/or increase your sales through impact, quality, innovation, and distinct services.

 

reach vs impressions

What is Reach and Why is It Important?

Reach is defined by Hootsuite as being the number of people who have seen your ad at least once and can be categorized as either organic, paid, or viral.

Organic reach refers to the number of individual people who saw your content through their timelines or news feed on their own.

Paid reach is the number of people who saw content that was paid for, such as an ad.

Viral reach is the number of people who saw your content because one of their friends interacted with it.

Reach is an important metric to use when considering your marketing campaign because it counts the unique size of your audience; having your reach outlined helps you when you’re trying to understand the impact of your content.

Is Reach the Same as Impressions?

Reach is not to be confused with an Impression. However, when it comes to impressions vs reach, both are equally important metrics for tracking the success of your billboards and campaigns.

Where reach is how many people have seen your content, Impressions are the number of times your content has been displayed to your audience, regardless of if they clicked on it or not. Impressions may show up on your audience’s timeline without them having seen or taken it in. Furthermore, it still counts as an impression simply because it appeared on their web page regardless of whether it garnered engagement.

For example, a piece of content posted on Instagram may pop up on someone’s timeline, and whether they clicked on it or simply scrolled past it, it is still considered an impression.

Which is Better – Reach or Impressions?

There are plenty of similarities between impressions vs reach, but is one better than the other?

When strategizing a new campaign, you want to be sure of which metrics you’re measuring advertising effectiveness and success.

Each Key Performance Indicator (KPI) has a different outcome in terms of success and completely depends on your goals. If you’re unsure whether the amount of ads you’re putting out is too little or too much, you’d want to track impressions. If your ad is sent out and has little engagement or a low conversion rate (someone taking the action you want). Each gives you different information and campaign insight about your ad and content performance to figure out the effectiveness and any changes you may need to make along the way.

reach and impressions

What Is An Impression on a Billboard and How Do You Measure It?

While social media has tons of analytic tools at your disposal, outdoor advertising options (OOH) are a little trickier to track. To do this, you will need a combination of strategies from multiple sources to calculate your success.

Billboards are the most common for those that are on the road or even just walking down the street – as we all can attest to, they are everywhere. The size of these ads is created as such to draw your audience in through their regular routines. Not only that, but they are massive, sturdy structures that can be seen from far away – quite literally hard to miss.

When it comes to OOH advertising, tracking Impressions is a little different. Rather than having data on how many people were exposed to your ad, it’s important to be mindful of activity in the area and the level of engagement. This is mostly calculated through traffic patterns to estimate the number of people that saw the ad through the Traffic Audit Bureau (TAB) using surveys, market research, and more to measure the number of impressions. This information helps you define demographics, interests, consumer characteristics, time spent near the ad, vehicle speed, and much more.

How to Measure Reach with Billboards?

In OOH Advertising, Impressions calculates how many times a person sees your ad on average, where Reach focuses on the bigger picture – the entire population – and the number of times a person has seen your billboard at least once. Reach is calculated technically – using road type, distance on the road, size, and billboard characteristics, to name a few.

Using Reach and Impressions to gauge the performance of your advertisement are great indicators of success, as well as what you can do better next time.

Why Should I Use A Billboard in My Marketing Strategy?

Billboards have been used for years, and are not going out of style anytime soon.

Their effectiveness is unmatched, sometimes without your audience even recognizing the effects of the persuasiveness taking place. You may have used them on a long road trip to play the alphabet game, intaking more information than you thought.

They are psychological attention-grabbers, feeding your audience different messages and calls-to-action (CTAs) with your brand.

On the internet, your audience has more control over whether they see an advertisement, or how often they are on their phones or laptops at all. With billboards, they are physically and mentally hard to ignore, as they surround much of our daily lives and routine. By implementing billboards into your marketing strategy, you take back some of that control and can influence your target audience more easily.

Choosing the right group to help you find that client base is even more crucial in your advertising strategy plan – which is why bMedia statistically has the highest consumer traffic for their island-wide billboards.

bMedia is the perfect agency to help you reach your audience when you want, where you want.

Reach vs Frequency

Gone are the days of swing-in-the-dark-with-a-dull-blade advertising — in this modern world, marketing strategies are highly refined, surgical operations, sharpened by the power of data sciences.

By assessing vital metrics, we can accurately measure the impact a marketing strategy is likely to have or is having, allowing us to streamline our approach, reach more of our target audience, and, ultimately, stimulate growth and profit.

Yep, there’s no doubt about it – the path to success is paved with metrics, the most important of which (at least in terms of Out-of-Home advertising) are reach and frequency, two intrinsic measurements.

But these metrics aren’t just linked – they’re actually antagonistic, leaving many business owners questioning which should be prioritized to optimize the efficacy of a marketing campaign. So, in this article, we’ll be discussing what these metrics are, how they differ, and how and when you should use them to measure OOH advertising.

reach vs frequency

Reach vs Frequency: Definitions and Differences

We’ve heard both types of metrics probably quite a bit, but would you be able to explain how they differ? Understanding the difference between reach vs frequency is understanding the difference in how you measure the effectiveness of your billboards or out-of-home advertising.

What Is Reach?

Reach refers to the number of people that will potentially be exposed to an aspect of your marketing campaign at least once in a set period of time.

For example, if you pay for one of your ads to be placed on a billboard on a main road, the potential reach of that ad would be at least 1 person per car driving towards the billboard.

Reach can be measured in a number of ways, including…

  • Demographics
  • Census Data
  • Traffic Counts and Vehicle Analytics
  • Daily Effective Circulation
  • Eye Tracking

measuring reach

What Is Frequency?

Frequency, on the other hand, is how many times each person will be exposed to the same marketing aspect of a marketing strategy more than once within a given time frame.

So, borrowing our billboard example from a moment ago, if we assume that the cars driving past from Monday to Friday are commuting to work, that would mean they’re potentially exposed to your ad 5 times a week.

Frequency can be measured by…

  • Estimates —  You can get a very quick estimate of potential frequency by dividing impressions by reach.
  • Demographics
  • Census Data
  • Data Modeling
  • GPS Tracking Data

What Are Effective Reach vs Effective Frequency?

You can think of effective reach as a kind of hybrid metric that combines both standard reach and frequency measurements — Effective reach is the percentage of individuals exposed to your ads enough times that they’re likely to have taken notice.

This baseline amount of exposure is known as effective reach.

Effective reach can also be measured using…

  • Census Data
  • Data Modeling
  • GPS Tracking Data
  • Digital Statistics, e.g. Comparisons between pre- and post-campaign sales figures, online traffic, use of unique promo codes, etc.

What Are Impressions?

Whereas reach refers to how many individuals see an advertisement in a set time frame, and frequency refers to how many times an individual is exposed to an advert in a set time frame, impressions refer to how many times your ad was served.

For example, let’s say you’ve invested in a spot on a digital billboard that cycles through ads from 4 other businesses throughout the day perpetually. Your impressions metric would show the number of times your ad was displayed in a given time period.

On traditional billboards, impressions would refer to how many show your ad in a certain area. This is important as other businesses may have a more saturated presence in the area than yours, which would pull focus from your ads.

As they’re a simple count of ad servings, impressions are one of the easiest metrics to keep track of.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just maximize both reach and frequency and be done with it? You’d be pulling in customers left and right, and, quite frankly, you wouldn’t care to learn more about either one in this article.

As we’re sure you’re aware, implementing marketing campaigns costs money, and you’ll be splitting your budget between the campaign’s reach and frequency.

If you pump more capital into one, then you have less to allocate to the other. In the world of OOH marketing, finding the right balance between reach and frequency is critical to effective billboard advertising.

Reach vs Frequency: Which Should You Prioritize?

It’s common for businesses to prioritize reach over frequency, as they think the more people that see the ad the better, but this is commonly overlooked in marketing.

While it’s true that you want lots of people to see your advertisement, in the absence of frequency, reach can be a complete waste of money.

Modern life is incredibly cutthroat and fast-paced, and people’s attentions are constantly split between a number of things. To claim some valuable real estate in someone’s mind, you need them to see your ad multiple times — you need to establish an effective frequency!

Effective frequency usually sits around the 3+ exposures mark, and once you have that on lock, you can utilize the effective reach metric and gain a more accurate picture of how your campaign is panning out.

Prioritizing frequency at the expense of reach can also be a critical error, as your ad simply won’t engage with enough members of your target audience. The trick is to learn when it’s strategic to back one metric horse over the other, so to speak.

When Should You Prioritize Reach?

Reach is most important when you’re introducing a new product or service.

Statistically speaking, reach works best when introducing something new to the public. So if you’ve got something fresh to contribute to established markets or, better yet, something groundbreaking to offer in emerging markets, reach should get the lion’s share of your budget.

Reach is most important with an established brand advertising seasonal promotions.

If your brand is already a household name in the area, and you want to entice people with a seasonal sale of some kind, you don’t need to worry so much about frequency, as this foreknowledge of your company does a lot of the heavy lifting.

Reach is most important when there is a lack of competition.

The more saturated a space is with the marketing campaigns of competing businesses, the more you need to lean into frequency and bolster impressions to draw attention, but if the area is largely uncontested, you can win the attention war with a reach-laden campaign.

measuring reach vs frequency

When Should You Prioritize Frequency?

Frequency is most important when establishing your brand.

When you’re trying to break your brand name into the public consciousness, whether locally or nationally, repetition is your best friend, so it’s important to shift a certain amount of your budget over to frequency and impressions.

Frequency is most important when establishing trust.

If your campaigns are executed artfully, with just the right amount of repeat exposure, you can inspire feelings of comfort and familiarity in your audience, thereby establishing trust. Without investing in frequency, this trust will not develop in the mind of your target audience.

Frequency is the most important when there is a wealth of competition.

We’ve all been in a situation where two or more people are trying to speak to us at the same time.

How much of this tangled talk do you actually hear and comprehend?

None of it, right?

Unless, that is, one of the voices is shouting.

The same is true of OOH advertising.

In a heavily contested zone, your brand needs to rise above the rest and dominate the scene. It needs to stand up and shout (visually speaking), and the way to imbue your ads with a voice is maximizing frequency and impressions — it’s like giving them a microphone!

Advertising Metrics Can Change

The above suggestions aren’t exactly golden rules, as there are a number of variables to consider before maximizing one metric over the other. Nothing is set in stone.

Every marketing strategy has its own flavor, its own nuances, and creative approach, and no impression is exactly analogous to another. As such, there is no standard format for implementing and monitoring campaigns.

We know this can sound pretty daunting, but you’re not in this alone!

bMedia and Advertising Metrics

Here at bMedia, we don’t just provide you the physical space to exhibit your OOH advertisements; our dedicated team of marketing experts help you build your campaign from the ground up to suit your goals.

As a business owner, it’s important to understand the synergy between reach vs frequency and impressions, but if you’re not quite sure how to optimize metric balance, we’ll ease the burden with sound advice on measuring advertising effectiveness.

Our OOH advertising network spans the entire nation of Puerto Rico, so you can rest assured we have the sites available to maximize any metric in almost any location.

We can help you start telling your story, but more importantly, we can guarantee people see it!