ICYMI: “Ideal length” Is an OOH Platform

As trends and technology evolve and fall in and out of favor sometimes the simplest most basic ideas endure and prove to be pure enough in their original form to mesh with all forms that follow Such is the case with outofhome advertising OOH I recently came across an intriguing dataandinfo graphics compiled by SumAll and Buffersocial as well as some very interesting research done by Pew Research on text usage and had a revelation concerning OOH advertisingamp8217s place in the digital ageAccording to the Buffersocial researchamp8226 The ideal domain name length is 8 charactersamp8226 The ideal length of a tweet is no more than 100 charactersamp8226 The ideal length of an email subject line is 2839 charactersamp8226 The ideal length of a Facebook post is 50 charactersamp8226 The ideal length of an online headline is 6 wordsNow consider these numbers from Pew which speak to consumersamp8217 connections to their mobile devicesamp8226 The average amount of texts young adult Americans aged 1829 send or receive daily is 877amp8226 The average American teen sends and receives 30004000 texts per monthWhat does this all add up to Where does OOH fit into all of thisSMSbased text messaging Twitter Facebook Instagram Pinterest and abbreviated online news stories have become the dominant forms of communication and information gathering Their formats and patterns have become ingrained in peopleamp8217s daytoday lives As focus and attention is diverted further and information moves faster one thing is evident Assimilating brief tothepoint messages has become second nature in todayamp8217s digitalbased society This evolution paired with the research quoted above builds an incredible case for OOH as the ideal form of advertising for todayamp8217s marketplace The case is especially strong when targeting the coveted 1829 demographic group who through greater connection to their mobile devices and online communication have been trained to rapidly consume brief bits of information and tothepoint messagingWe are now a amp8220soundbite societyamp8221The best of OOH advertising utilizes brief tothepoint messaging amp8230 always has always will It has long been taught that the ideal billboard contains a maximum of 7 words which on the high end averages 40 characters This structure mirrors the trends noted above and has proven to be the golden formula for OOH design since itamp8217s inceptionI studied a sampling of 2013 OBIE Best of Show and Gold Award winning OOH designs and what I found confirms my thinking The average word count was 65 the average character count was 275 The best of the best in the industry offered more proof that OOH is and has always been a medium that understands the power of being minimal and directI looked back further through the decades OAAAorg has great archival resources and it is clear that those who have effectively utilized and designed for the OOH medium have always understood the importance of being succinct or teasing to pique the viewers interest and leave them wanting moreOOH has endured and continues to flourish because from its beginnings it has been created using the model that has now been adopted by modern communication trends Direct tothepoint and easily consumed In a world where brief bits of information are the norm the model has come full circle To its advantage OOH commands attention itamp8217s undeniable presence all but assures that important messages are not missed as may be the case with the fleeting nature of texts tweets etcAs a creative professional in the OOH industry another important takeaway from the information put forth above is the importance of creating ads with a singular focus Position your product or sell it never attempt to do both This has long been prescribed but current trends now point to this being more important than ever A well crafted easytoconsume message or singular storytelling image will resonate in ways it never has beforeIamp8217m an artist not a statistician and the whole right brainleft brain thing usually causes me to just admire numbers for their form rather than what they point to but what the numbers above point to is undeniable OOH advertising complements and adheres to trends being followed in the digital marketplace That being said when clients ask whatamp8217s new tell them about what continues to endure out of home advertisingThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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ICYMI: “Ideal length” Is an OOH Platform

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David Lamberti

The Ad Council, Huntsman Mental Health Foundation and Amazon Announce “The Mind Set” to Support Mental Health - Ad Council InSites

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ICYMI: “Ideal length” Is an OOH Platform

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