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In fact, according to Outsmart, Urban / Out of Home (OOH) advertising reaches 98% of the population at least once a week.

The numbers are truly staggering, and if you’re not yet convinced about urban marketing, now is the time to get your thinking cap on and come up with some killer OOH adverts. 

But first, you may be wondering: what is urban marketing? The term “urban” has been defined as “of, relating to, or designating a city or town”; therefore, urban marketing refers to utilising marketing strategies to reach and appeal to urban residents and consumers.

Urban marketing strategies can include anything from large-scale billboards on the side of skyscrapers to leaflets and posters in a local bus shelter. The possibilities are, well and truly, endless. 

Are you looking to start or improve your existing urban marketing strategy? Check out our handy tips below on how you can best utilise this already popular and competitive form of marketing.

Take Advantage of Those Local Hotspots

There is absolutely no point in hiding your ads away down a rarely-visited sidestreet. Take advantage of those well-known hotspots that thousands of people visit every single day. Whilst these locations will be your more costly options for ad placement, if you can afford to be there, then go for it.

One option could be by the side of a well-used public transport route. For example, the ‘Axis’ building in Manchester sits right beside a popular tram line and boasts a massive digital screen for adverts. Any tram going between Deansgate and St. Peter’s Square (spoiler alert, there are loads) will give riders the opportunity to view the screen. 

The tram line is just to the right of the building

Every football team, from the tenth step in the English divisions right to the Premier League, is sponsored by brands, whether in the food, manufacturing, healthcare or gaming industry. If you become the new sponsor for your local team, you can guarantee thousands will become exposed to your brand each week or month.

Frontline, a company known for flea & tick sprays for pets, took advantage of a nearby, bustling mall to push their product. This is your typical clever & creative OOH ad that’s perfectly capturing the issue a brand’s product is trying to solve.

Encompass Various Forms of Advertising

If you aim to reach the eyes of thousands, employing more than one form of advertising is the way to go. Don’t just focus on distributing flyers outside your nearest Tesco; stick up posters at the local bus or tram stops; enquire about ad space on billboards or in shop windows; or organise street campaigns, including flash mobs and pop-up food or drink events.

Sometimes, putting all your effort and money into one form of advertising can benefit your brand as you’re able to focus your entire time on one specific thing, but being a jack of all trades in the marketing world can allow you to reap the benefits.

Look at Your Competitors

By this, we don’t mean copy everything that they’re doing. Copying ads isn’t going to really get you anywhere because people will remember who did it first, not who followed afterwards. You’ll become known as the brand that copies from other businesses and has no original ideas. 

If you do look towards your competitors, see what’s working for them, and try to replicate certain aspects for your own brand. It’s important to add your own voice or identity to anything you take inspiration from and make that thing your own.

Do Not Limit Your Creativity

People are likely to remember adverts that they enjoy. If you’re limiting your creativity and churning out bland, characterless ads, then who’s going to:

A) Look at them.

B) Decide to purchase from you.

C) Tell their friends about what they saw.

Some of the most well-known ads are the creative ones. This blog here features a few of our absolute favourite OOH ads, most of them being highly imaginative ones that utilise the landscape around them so well.

That being said, it’s best not to go too overboard with your creativity to the point that the message gets lost. If so, people may completely misread your ad and negatively tell their friends about what they saw. 

Whilst this ad from Bergermann & Son Funeral Services is a creative one, it’s most definitely divided the opinions of those who’ve seen it. Some may find it incredibly funny, whereas others may think it’s completely overstepped the line (pun intended…) (Include Image of Bergermann & Son Funeral Services ad)

Take Advantage of Trends Within Your Community

No one wants to fall behind the crowd. It’s so important to understand what’s happening in your local community and try to capitalise on those trending moments or well-known upcoming events.

Are your local football team soon playing against their biggest rivals at their home stadium? Is there some form of parade happening soon? Are local bars or restaurants banding together to focus on a particular event? 

Take advantage of those trends or events within your local or larger community, and try to focus your advertising strategies on those things. Your billboards or leaflets could have their prospective audience doubled, tripled or even quadrupled during the course of the occasion.

Try To Create Discussion

If you’re trying to spread the message at the heart of your campaign, word of mouth could be the most powerful tool available. If people enjoy what they hear or see, they’ll tell their friends, who may go on to tell their friends. 

Creating discussion around your products could be an extra addition to your actual marketing strategy. You may decide to pin posters on lamposts around the city centre, but end up with a side effect being word of mouth advertising, created thanks to your discussion-provoking campaign.

A simple way of sharing your campaign around could be by including a relevant hashtag. Encouraging event attendees or poster viewers to share the hashtag online can improve your reach tenfold. 

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