OOH set to score highly during World Cup fever, according to Posterscope

With the UK’s most anticipated sporting event of 2018, the FIFA World Cup Russia, now well underway, and England emphatically qualifying for the knockout stage after thrashing Panama 6-1 on June 24, the next few weeks are set to be a perfect opportunity for brands to capitalise on consumer interest in the World Cup using out-of-home advertising.

New research by Posterscope has shown that most consumers – 80 percent – will likely watch the matches live, while 72 percent are planning to watch match highlights and almost as many will listen to the matches or keep up to date with scores, results and team news. Of those planning to watch the World Cup live, the majority are planning to watch at home or at friends’ or relatives’ houses (76 percent) or at the pub (44 percent). And as they plan to travel by car (45 percent) or train (36 percent) to get there, the opportunity for OOH is huge.

Against a backdrop of declining consumer spending and high street misery in the UK, so much more than national pride hangs on England having a successful tournament.

The World Cup equals big consumer spend: 20 million litres of beer will be sold in pubs during the group stage and if England make it through to the second round, retailers, pubs and restaurants are likely to reap an extra £1.3 billion. This increases to £2.5 billion on souvenirs, sportswear, televisions and celebrating if England get through to the final, creating a huge revenue opportunity for businesses in these sectors.

Alexandra Porritt, Senior Client Strategy Manager at Posterscope, commented, “It’s no surprise that OOH works hardest in the summer months, with 15 percent more time spent outdoors. Add to that our love for all things football when it’s World Cup time and OOH really comes into its own. The afternoon kick-offs for nearly all of this year’s matches are perfect for capitalising on the digital OOH opportunity, by building excitement in the morning, bringing news to those out and about during the afternoon, and celebrating (or commiserating) after each game, significantly increasing brand recall.”

To demonstrate the effectiveness of dynamic copy in DOOH, Posterscope funded an independent piece of research in 2017, conducted by VirtuoCity, to test the impact against key KPIs. Against every measure, dynamic copy that was more relevant to the location, time or context delivered a stronger result versus linear content. There was an 18 percent increase in spontaneous recall, a 53% increase in message recall and 173 percent increase in relevance being cited as a reason for recall.

In March 2017, for example, Guinness launched a locally targeted, dynamic out-of-home campaign to celebrate its status as the official beer of the Six Nations Rugby, that automatically served ads to proximity digital OOH to provide kick off times and distance to direct fans to nearby pubs screening the live match.  A network of sensors fitted in participating pubs captures footfall data and, based on capacity levels, triggers real-time, tailored creative executions cleverly drove fans to the best venues to watch the game.  These pubs saw 4% incremental uplift in footfall during the campaign.

OOH is one of the few media channels which continues to see its audiences grow when others are seeing fragmentation. The average British person is now exposed to 71 adverts per day and in one week, OOH can reach 98% of the UK population. It is also up to four times more effective at driving online behaviour than any other traditional channels, particularly amongst the younger and harder-to-reach 18-24-year olds – and through mobile.

OOH and the World Cup are a powerful combination for brands looking to tap into this once in a four-year opportunity.

Source: Posterscope

  FIFA World Cup, Marketing, OOH, Out-of-home, Posterscope, Report, Research, Study, UK, VirtuoCity