Crossing the Finish Line: How Audio Out of Home Helps Brands Make the Sale

Marketers who use audio OOH ads like to think of them as the deal closers of brand campaigns. “It really pushes the consumer over that last mile to buy the product,” Dave Etherington, CCO of Place Exchange, told Adweek. That’s because they pitch customers when they’re in a store making their final decisions on what to buy. It’s become an increasingly attractive tool in marketers' arsenal since it's measurable and available at scale on programmatic exchanges. It’s helping drive the already booming audio advertising market, which is up 14.4% to $18.6 billion, according to PQ Media’s United States Audio Media Forecast 2021. That’s the fastest growth rate for audio in more than 40 years, thanks to, yes, AOOH, combined with streaming and podcasting. “Programmatic unlocks a lot of the value of AOOH in a way that we haven't seen before in a world where it's harder and harder to target consumers in a privacy-compliant way,” Anna Bager, president and CEO of the Out of Home Advertising Association of America, told Adweek. “The fact that you can target specific audiences programmatically all the way to the aisle in the store is very powerful.” Hear the ad, buy some chips Those that work within the AOOH platform say it’s most effective for CPG products since consumers can be easily swayed at the last minute if they hear about a good deal, new product or if they’re hungry and an ad for, say, chips plays on the store’s sound system. That’s why it’s largely used in grocery stores and pharmacy chains. It’s also used to educate consumers. Paul Brenner, CSO of the digital OOH agency Vibenomics, pointed to a recent regional grocery campaign to increase sales of an in-store sushi counter. Vibenomics designed 10 campaigns that varied slightly based on each store’s location and played at designated intervals on the stores’ sound systems. The ad playfully reminded shoppers that there’s a sushi counter within the store. The message simply provoked consumers by asking: Wouldn’t their next meal be easier if they bought some sushi before checking out? The campaign increased sushi sales by 2%. In a similar type of campaign, Kroger worked with Vistar Media’s demand-side platform (DSP) to raise awareness for bank kiosks located inside the chain. A custom audio message played throughout stores, intermittently letting shoppers know they can do their banking while grocery shopping thanks to the in-store kiosk. The campaign was supported with signage and stickers on the floor showing where the bank was located. New York Times Audio Could Spur a Realignment of the Podcasting Landscape The results included 8.5 million AOOH impressions at more than 1,800 grocery store locations in 30 states. While the campaigns are purchased at scale, they are tailored to each store. A campaign at one Kroger may be very different from another location just a few miles away because of the customer base and the location of the bank within the store. “We've taken non-endemic ads and made it about selling things inside the walls of the store," Brenner said. Measuring success AOOH is a recent addition to Vistar Media’s programmatic offerings. The goal is to hit every touchpoint along a customer’s journey from, say, a TV ad promoting awareness about a brand, to a billboard and finally to the in-store audio ad. Marketers are able to measure the performance of these campaigns. As Place Exchange’s Etherington explained, all its ads—billboards, taxis, videos at gas stations, AOOH, etc.—collect consumers' exposed device IDs. They’re packaged and sent electronically to the DSPs, which each have an attribution methodology they apply. The DSP might also match an ID to cookies from another ad platform, so it can tell which online ads consumers were exposed to. As Etherington explained, “It creates a much fuller understanding of the journey the advertiser and consumer have been on.” Hear Insights From Adweek’s Elevate: Out of Home Event