The Unique Advantages of Out-of-Home Advertising

·38 min·3 clips

Jeremy Flynn reveals why vinyl billboards are fraud-free and unskippable, unlike digital ads.

Jeremy Bergeron hosts Jeremy Flynn, the Senior Vice President of Data, Products, and Strategy at Clear Channel Outdoors. Flynn explains how his role focuses on making out-of-home advertising more measurable and addressable for brands. He oversees an analytics platform called Radar, which provides solutions for audience targeting and campaign measurement. Flynn argues out-of-home advertising exists in the public square, creating a communal ad experience unlike individual digital or TV ads. He states it is "fraud-free," using the example of a vinyl billboard on a main street being unskippable and immune to ad blockers. The medium offers a passive, non-intrusive experience compared to interruptive TV commercials during content. Clear Channel uses mobile location data to measure consumer behaviors, such as store visits or website engagement, after exposure to a billboard. The company has measured out-of-home's influence on retail visitation and household sales. Flynn notes out-of-home is the only media channel where increased ad frequency does not diminish effectiveness but actually boosts intended consumer behaviors. He cites examples where more exposures to a billboard led to more store visits or repeat orders in a food delivery app. A surprising insight is that out-of-home can serve as a virtual storefront for direct-to-consumer brands like Glossier or Allbirds before they open physical retail locations. During the pandemic, restaurants used out-of-home to thank essential workers, and Flynn's team measured its impact on maintaining foot traffic. He observes a trend of capital drying up for performance marketing, leading brands to invest more in brand marketing to build consumer trust during economic uncertainty. Flynn admires Airbnb's San Francisco billboards for their creative language that improves brand affinity during a commute. He believes the fragmentation of the data landscape and state-level privacy regulations present both a challenge and an opportunity for out-of-home. The episode has a conversational and educational tone, with the host asking direct questions to draw out the guest's expertise. It is styled as a professional discussion with lighthearted moments, including a brief lightning round of questions. Marketing professionals, especially those in media planning, brand strategy, or performance marketing, would find this episode valuable for its data-driven perspective. Listeners seeking tactical digital marketing tips or critiques of traditional advertising might find the focused praise for out-of-home less applicable.

As heard by us

A clear, grounded case for out-of-home media, with measurement making the pitch more convincing.

Marketing Trends makes a straightforward case for out-of-home advertising: it is hard to skip, it avoids ad blockers, and it can feel less intrusive than interruptive media.

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