Advertising Works 23 is a rather hefty tome of IPA Effectiveness-award winning case studies and insights. Measuring in at 450+ pages, the golden book holds a fantastically diverse mix of brands that cleverly ‘translated big ideas into impressive results’. Of the 39 winners, around one third utilised OOH as part of the communications mix.

In many of the case studies effectiveness is measured econometrically, the key metric being ROMI (return on marketing investment). I’ve written an article in the past about  the challenges  faced by econometric models to accurately measure OOH’s contribution to ROMI and its great to see some of this year’s winners call out OOH as an important driver of their campaign’s success.

To illustrate, here are two examples from Advertising Works 23, which both yield impressive results despite using OOH  in different ways.

The first winner is Art Fund, a UK Charity dedicated to saving and promoting works of art. Art Fund used OOH to reframe their proposition and ultimately increase donations. This case study was a mammoth one and covered activities across 2011-15!

Across 2012-15, 70% of their brand building budget was spend on OOH and press with much of the OOH targeting London commuters, building and maintaining awareness. In 2015-16 location-specific creative was introduced, which made special reference to how close the audience was to great art in steps, stations or minutes. Calls to action encouraged visits to artfund.org for more info and opportunities.

The long-term effect was substantial. Across 2011-15 the marketing spend was over £3M and the ROMI (incremental profit / marketing spend) was an astonishing £4.07 for every £1 spent. Art Fund pointed to the close relationship between the media plan and the creative work as the key to success.

For OOH specifically, the brilliant graph below shows the huge awareness and action a brand can attain once OOH is implemented.

The second shining example is from Sixt, a challenger brand in the car-rental sector. Their mission was to change consumers choice of car-rental company (a typically habitual purchase) . No small task. And all on a modest budget of £500K.

Sixt’s media strategy was to sacrifice reach for domination by  focusing their campaign on where their target audience would be, and what they would respond to.Sixt ran takeovers of Canary Wharf tube station to reach its aspirational audience. The creative was bright, bold and drew on a key consumer insight – people enjoy being seen in an expensive car (that was rented for a bargain price) ..perfectly encapsulated in ’Drive Smug’.

Sixt’skey brand measures grew, local sales responded and they rented more luxury cars. Additionally they established a recognisable brand narrative that stands-out, and can easily be transferred s across platforms and channels. Net profit return was £0.80p for every £1 Invested.

Given the rigour of the process involved, an IPA effectiveness award is a huge achievement and a badge of honour for any applicant. So congratulations to both Art Fund UK and Sixt!

In addition to their stellar results, these case studies also share an elegant simplicity that I think serves as a best practice: concise messaging, wrapped in impactful, eye-catching creative that is relevant to the audience. It doesn’t have to be complicated, does it?