Valerie Carboni

Social media is having a moment…and not all in a positive light 😬 It’s been a volatile time for social platforms due to a variety of reasons, including rises of misinformation, personal data collection, and most recently, the drama surrounding Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. The blue bird (and corresponding checkmark) has suddenly taken on a different identity.

It’s safe to say that big brands took notice of these changes and started seeking more brand-safe advertising channels for growth. And it’s no coincidence that as the performance of digital ads took a dive, brands started shifting to out-of-home (OOH) as a practical advertising approach.

In Brand-Safe Advertising, Quality Matters

With digital marketing, there is little a brand or marketer can do to improve a brand-safe advertising environment. Since the medium is the message, the medium on which the advertising message appears affects the message.

The unsafe online environment is affecting people and brands more than ever. A report published by the UK-based Reuters Institute revealed worrying fatigue in news and other media consumption on the Internet. The study of over 93,000 respondents in over 46 markets globally concluded that more than half of people who consume content on TV, online news, messaging apps, social media, and search engines had lost faith in content-driven media and brands that advertise on them.

The same study found that more than 80% of consumers said they tend to trust brands that ‘do what is right’ and ‘associate with other brands that do good.’ Consumers prefer to buy from brands with whom they share values, particularly those that help tackle challenges society faces.

Advertising online and in digital media exposes brands to risks of appearing next to fake, inappropriate, or negative content. This magnifies their vulnerability to being associated with toxic brands and content, which could hurt their brand.

Presently, the only way for a brand or marketer to keep its message safe from the effects of unhealthy advertising is to pass its message in a safe environment.

The Future of Advertising is Purposeful Ads

Most media platforms are powered by advertising. As the tastes of advertisers and consumers evolve, purpose-driven media is emerging as the future of advertising. This form of marketing aims to build a deep rapport with consumers. Purposeful advertising appeals to the understanding of the target market and reveals how it will benefit in the long run.

For consumers, purpose-driven marketing is more appealing because it relies less on the frequency of exposure to the message and more on its relevance. As individuals and society at large grow, advertising is becoming less about control and more about promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Consumers will lend an ear to a brand they know cares about education, the environment, security, and privacy.

The most notable form of advertising that relies on purposeful ads is OOH advertising. These include traditional advertising outside the consumer’s home, from billboards to vehicle wrappers and everything in between. Some of the top benefits of OOH advertising are that it is not intrusive. The advertising message is location-based, and it is highly effective in instigating consumer engagement.

Big brands that have traditionally relied on content-driven media to advertise gradually realize the benefits of OOH advertising. The main driving force for the shift is the realization that in a world of digital advertising. Brand safety issues are a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if.’

Every brand should strive to protect its name in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. However, as this demands constant foresight, delicate planning, and collaboration, it is proving to be more costly than ever. Every advertiser must now remain diligent on the platform their message appears. It’s the only way to quickly mitigate the impact on their brand when negatively-purposed messages threaten to besmirch their name.

The Importance of Proactivity in Brand Safety

The platform a brand uses to pass its message, the content the ads are placed next to, and the context of the message affect its truth and identity. A brand that cares about its values and does all it can to align its message accordingly must be proactive in ensuring its brand safety.

As an advertising message is a part of a marketing ecosystem, the platform it appears on must resonate with the target market. OOH advertising targets consumers in their right places with a meaningful and purposeful message. The advertisement can be carefully designed and worded to have a meaningful impact on both the consumers and the advertiser in a reassuring and memorable way. With OOH, the message can be big and bold or small and subtle, but it is intentional.

OOH is a brand-safe and effective approach to modern advertising. In an age of internet turmoil and elevated risks of digital advertising, OOH brings a renewed sense of joy for consumers tired of intrusive ads. Media fatigue is a real problem, and advertising outdoors is a sure way to reassure the target market that a brand cares about them. No brand can afford to underestimate the impact of sharing a message offline and outdoors today.

Next Steps

More brands are already cutting their digital ad budgets and pulling ads from online platforms. This happens mostly after their messages appear in undesirable contexts, often hurting their brand name.

Forward-looking brands stay ahead of the damage by proactively investing in location-based and brand-safe advertisements such as OOH. This is because OOH is safe and real advertising with proven results.

If your brand is not doing this already, do not wait until your brand takes a hit. Visit wrapify.com now to discover how you can promote your brand’s safety with OOH advertising.

Every successful fintech company uses all strategies at its disposal to identify and get customers. While digital marketing often comes to mind first, tech companies and startups that incorporate out-of-home (OOH) advertising strategies tend to fare better.

Why?

OOH advertising often gets a bad rap when compared to other digital advertising strategies. This is usually because this form of traditional advertising did little to target a specific market. However, the pandemic brought with it a creative renaissance in geo-targeted advertising which enabled tech companies to boost their customer acquisition using OOH.

Businesses providing financial services face three niche challenges: there is a need to target a specific market; their marketing strategies must adhere to strict privacy and security regulations; and, they must identify targets with the highest potential to convert and use the most effective and measurable strategies to reach them.

Here are three ways OOH advertising for fintech brands helps achieve this.

1. Remain Privacy-Compliant with Geo-Targeting

Just like cookies help marketers track behavior via online platforms, app-enabled GPS does the same in the physical world. This anonymized data allows fintech brands to target their consumers based on demographics, psychographics, interests, habits, and more. When buying OOH advertising for fintech brands, this step is crucial in making sure that you target the right audience.

Advertising channels such as vehicle wrapping make it easier to target desired audiences with the right message at specific times. Brands can also improve the accuracy and relevance of their advertising while boosting customer acquisition with contextual targeting. When combined with contextual targeting, advertisers can personalize OOH advertising to cater to specific groups of potential customers in specific locations.

2. Identify POIs That will Convert Higher

Along with strong, contextual advertisements, fintech brands can push conversions by being as relevant as possible. In today’s economy, it takes little to engage customers constantly looking for better financial services and products. But potential customers of a financing app will be even more likely to consider these services while they’re shopping for groceries leaving the bank, or more often now, at the gas pump. These point-of-interest (POI) moments take relevancy into consideration and provide fintech brands with a customer more likely to buy.

But how would a brand identify points of interest, and how can they stand out from a sea of banners, booths, and billboards? Fintech brands can take advantage of POI targeting by being at the right place at the right time. During SWARM events, wrapped cars show up in one specific area for a set amount of time. And your customers can’t help but take notice when they see 5, 6, or even 20 cars with your brand logo in one place.

3. Measure Performance in OOH Advertising for Fintech Brands

It may seem difficult to measure the success of an OOH advertising campaign. This is an understandable concern, especially considering that there are no clicks to count. After all, the financial industry is primarily data-driven, and real-time actionable insights are necessary to understand the impact of an advertisement. However, measuring the effectiveness of out-of-home advertising is easier than you think!

Based on the same app-enabled GPS discussed earlier, certain types of OOH advertising can measure ad exposures while capturing Mobile Ad IDs (or MAIDs). These MAIDs then unlock more information about a user, allowing marketers to view net lift measurements in foot traffic, app downloads, or even website conversions when properly executed. The measurement capabilities of OOH advertising are often underrated, but it goes wayyy further than just impressions.

In many cases, targeted customers may take some time before taking action, even when an advertisement has impacted their feelings about a brand. This is an upside and not a downside of OOH. Conversions outside the measurable period of ad returns are proof of lasting impressions and evidence that the ad resonated with the right audience.

Final Thoughts

OOH advertising for fintech brands has many use-cases and benefits. This underrated advertising mechanism has become particularly popular and effective thanks to the development of better geo-targeting technologies and the target market’s appreciation of relevant, financial products.

Wrapify is a performance-driven advertising platform that has streamlined the art and science of out-of-home advertising. We offer a lot more than just ads on vehicles. Our approach to OOH, geo-targeted advertising, attribution, and performance measurement are what a modern financial brand needs to supercharge its brand and marketing efforts. Go to wrapify.com today to discover how we can help your brand reach out to and convert local customers.