While we were all looking forward to being done with this pandemic, the likelihood of increased restrictions look like a possibility later this year. 

Have no fear, we’ve learned a lot these past 500+ days!

Many of us in the OOH industry have seen a massive shift in the way brands evaluate and ultimately buy this type of ad medium.

Here are a few things we learned from the lockdowns in 2020 and pandemic related ad buying behavior:

1. It takes 66 days to form a habit
   
   According to a 2009 study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes an average of 66 days to form a habit.  We saw the rise of app-enabled delivery propel DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats, Instacart, GoPuff and many other app-enabled players in the gig-delivery space.  We all know someone that would have never used their smartphone to get their groceries delivered and now it is engrained in many of our lives. What’s more, many of these drivers were also doing rideshare driving pre-pandemic and needed to supplement their income with ad-supported revenue from platforms like Wrapify.
   
   It put brand dollars into the pockets of Americans who need it and these brands realized platforms like Wrapify deliver measurable exposure in neighborhoods across the country … Where people spend MOST OF THEIR TIME!
   
   
2. We have 500+ days under our belt
   
   It’s been more than 500 days since the initial impact of the pandemic here in the US. We all know how to wear our masks, social distance, and many of us have already been vaccinated.  We still have work to do, but platforms like Zoom allowed us to persist and run our businesses. Many of us have started to have face to face meetings and we might have to stop congregating indoors without masks … but we’ve all learned how to adapt and keep business moving. Brands also adapted to this environment by leveraging OOH in new ways; focusing more and more on hyper-local, measurement and retargeting the audience exposed with contextually relevant messaging.
   
   
3. OOH was more valuable than many initially thought…
   
   We’ve been plastered with digital advertising on our smartphones and devices.  We’ve seen more CTV/OTT ads than we can count and quite frankly, we just have digital fatigue or ‘Digital Device Burnout’.  In a recent EY study, Digital fatigue drives 47% to seek downtime from internet-enabled devices. 

This Harris Poll highlights how OOH is increasingly leading consumers to discover new businesses and brands, and influencing their path to purchase. About one-quarter report OOH informed them of a new business or brand this past year. In larger urban areas 1M+, 34% say OOH influenced their decision to buy a product.

Many marketers initially assumed that lock downs meant people weren’t out and about and that was the case according to Geopath Mobility Update – Week of 8/2/2021, but the traffic returned to pre-pandemic levels pretty quickly, and we are now seeing miles traveled per day exceed miles traveled pre-pandemic:

4. Flexibility & Cost Effectiveness
   
   OOH can be leveraged in so many ways and one common misconception is that it is a top of the funnel tactic with limited measurement and inventory is hard to find in other parts of the US.  We’ve been focused on making measurement and attribution primary reasons to leverage the media we deploy.  Whether it’s a ‘Tier 1’ market like NYC or LA or a neighborhood in Tuscaloosa, we can deploy measurable and attributable OOH anywhere in the country.
   
   
5. Recall
   
   One of the most striking arguments we lean on, is the recall our media creates and how it influences the digital audience thereafter.  OOH + digital is a recipe for success now more than ever.  Even Facebook reported that using both Facebook and OOH ads worked best – with the combined impact proving to be “13% more efficient than expected.” Nielsen also called out wrapped vehicles as being the most noticed segment of Moving OOH Inventory in a 2019 NIELSEN & OAAA OOH ADVERTISING REPORT. This is one of the main reasons our ‘Physical Retargeting’ capabilities are leveraged in most of the campaigns we deploy.

The Wrapify Take
Make no mistake about it – we want businesses to remain open and I want to see us all continue to thrive. Here are a few examples of how brands that leverage Wrapify took advantage of these new market dynamics:

• B2B TECH BRANDS WORKED FROM HOME TOO: B2B Tech giants like Zoom and Oracle leveraged the rise of app-enabled delivery to reach decision makers where they live and play. Our ABM use case was adapted to WFH and became even more relevant with such a high volume of Wrapify drivers also participating in app-enabled food and grocery delivery canvassing neighborhoods nationwide.
• HOTSPOTS & HYPER TARGETING:Brands like Petco and 7-Eleven leveraged our ‘Hotspot’ feature on the Wrapify platform to drive more frequency in the neighborhoods their retail locations service. This feature gamifies driving so that these gig-drivers earn more by driving in high-value areas for brands.
• SWARMS: (a Wrapify favorite): App-enabled brands like Self Financial and the BLK App leveraged SWARM to get their campaign vehicles driving around specific points of interest and leveraged the Wrapify Attribution Suite to measure things like app installs and specific events fired in their respective mobile apps.

This article was written and published by Wrapify CEO and OOH Influencer James Heller. The original post can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/proof-ooh-pandemic-proven-james-heller

About Wrapify

With a powerful combination of OOH, digital, and the gig economy, Wrapify empowers Fortune 500 brands to reach audiences in an omnichannel environment – while delivering measurable, actionable analytics to prove its effectiveness. This high-recall ad tech platform combines the impact of out-of-home advertising with the scalability, targeting, and accountability of digital.

Brands including T-Mobile, Petco, and Zoom reach and engage audiences that interact with Wrapified vehicles across channels and devices, driving awareness, attribution, and conversion. Wrapify enables brands to target and scale ad campaigns nationwide, across screens and channels, as well as access to data in real-time to measure performance. 300,000+ drivers in the U.S. use the Wrapify app to earn extra income simply by driving. Founded in 2015, Wrapify is headquartered in San Diego, California. Learn more at wrapify.com.