Toward A Model To Enhance Synergy of Out-of-Home Advertising Media Integration Strategies

Journal of Promotion Management
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Toward a Model to Enhance Synergy of Out-of-

Home Advertising Media Integration Strategies
Amarentia Thérèse Roux & De la Rey Van der Waldt
To cite this article: Amarentia Thérèse Roux & De la Rey Van der Waldt (2016) Toward a Model
to Enhance Synergy of Out-of-Home Advertising Media Integration Strategies, Journal of
Promotion Management, 22:3, 386-402, DOI: 10.1080/10496491.2016.1154919
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JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENT
2016, VOL. 22, NO. 3, 386–402
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2016.1154919
Toward a Model to Enhance Synergy of Out-of-Home

Advertising Media Integration Strategies
Amarentia Therese Rouxa and De la Rey Van der Waldtb
a
Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa; bNorth-West University, Potchefstroom, South
Africa
ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
For media planners to combine multiple media across alternative media strategy,
platforms to maximize synergy is a critical challenge within cross media planning, out-of-
integrated marketing communication. For this study, in-depth home advertising media
Journal of Promotion Management 2016.22:386-402.
interviews were conducted with experienced media specialists

in leading agencies to explore how they integrate different
out-of-home advertising media platforms in IMC strategies. The
feedback of these experts was then used to propose a model of
strategies to enhance synergy within out-of-home advertising
campaigns. This model is a first of its kind for planning out-of-
home advertising media across platforms and bridges a gap in
the existing literature on media synergy and out-of-home
advertising media strategy.
Introduction
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory; tactics without strategy is the
noise before defeat (Tzu, 2006). While out-of-home (OOH) advertising media prac-
titioners might fully understand and apply tactical considerations, there still seems
to be a lack of strategic media planning when integrating across media platforms.
The earliest OOH advertising was, in its original form, messages displayed outdoors
to communicate to the public. It is probably the oldest form of advertising in history.
It can be traced back a few thousand years B.C. to ancient rock-art paintings in India
and inscriptions and graffiti in Egypt and Greece (Veloutsou & O’Donnell, 2005).
However, OOH advertising media have undergone a renaissance in recent years, as
advertisers have realized that this form of advertising has greater impact and more
specific reach than was previously thought; and these media have become some of
the fastest- growing media segments across the globe (Iveson, 2012).
OOH advertising media has not traditionally represented a large share of the
advertisers’ budgets, but overall expenditures have grown considerably in recent
CONTACT Amarentia Therese Roux [email protected] Tshwane University of Technology, Department MLS,
Private Bag X680, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/wjpm.
© 2016 Taylor & Francis
JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENT 387
years. The global expenditure was US$30.4 billion in 2012 and is projected to grow at
a faster pace than traditional advertising to US$38 billion in 2017 (McKinsey, 2013).
A total of approximately US$6.9 billion was spent in the United States in 2013, and
is expected to grow to a value of almost US$10 billion by 2017 (OAAA, 2014).
OOH advertising media represents a substantial part of the overall share of
advertising expenditure of countries such as South Korea with 20.3%, Singapore
and Japan with approximately 14%. This is also the case for Central and Eastern
Europe (Ukraine with 16.2%, Slovenia with 12.8%, Bulgaria with 12.5%, Hungary
with 12.7%) as well as Western Europa (France with 11.4%, Portugal with 11.2%)
(Group M in Muller, 2013). The drastic increase in the popularity of OOH adver-
tising media in emerging markets is also notable in the relative share of the
medium, for example Russia with 17.7%, China with approximately 14%, Nigeria
with 30.6%, and Mexico with 9.5% (Iveson, 2012; Group M in Muller, 2013).
OOH advertising media evolved from being mainly billboard advertising to
include other contemporary platforms that offer advertisers unique strengths but
also come with some limitations (Roux, van der Waldt, & Ehlers, 2013). Outdoor
advertising on constructions or buildings and freestanding billboards in the road-
side environment aimed at fast-moving traffic can deliver advertising to a mass
market, but typically results in limited dwelling time and potential for interaction
with the message. Transit advertising can reach various commuter profiles in a
captive environment; however, competitive stimuli and personal activities in this
environment can be distracting. Street-and-retail furniture advertising on public
facilities and fixtures deliver targeted messages to pedestrians and shoppers close
to point-of-purchase, but offer relative lower impact than larger formats. Alterna-
tive OOH advertising such as interactive displays in shopping malls and advertis-
ing displayed on objects such as balloons, bicycles, and promotional street art
targets very specific audience profiles where they congregate for a specific pur-
poses; however, it is ineffective for passive audiences in busy crowded environ-
ments. It is clear that this wide range of platforms and formats should no longer be
regarded as a homogeneous sector sharing exactly the same key characteristics,
benefits, and limitations as outdoor advertising boards, as suggested by some
prominent sources on media planning (Katz, 2010; Lane, King, & Reichert, 2011;
Moriarty, Mitchell, & Wells, 2012). Failure to consider the unique strengths and
weaknesses of each of these platforms and formats when used in a multi-media
campaign would result in neglecting the synergy that could have been achieved.
Despite the growth and wide range of unique OOH advertising options, aca-
demic research remains scant. While older studies have examined the effectiveness
of some types, such as free-standing outdoor advertising signs or billboards
(Donthu, Cherian, & Bhargava, 1993), outdoor posters (Van Meurs & Aristoff,
2009), transit advertising such as taxi cab advertising (Veloutsou & O’Donnell,
2005), airport advertising (Wilson & Till, 2008), and more recently digital OOH
advertising signage (Dennis, Brakus, Melewar, Gupta, & Alamanos, 2014). How-
ever, these studies have investigated the different media types used in OOH
388 A. T. ROUX AND D. L. R. VAN DER WALDT
advertising in isolation. This silo approach has failed to recognize the potential
interactions and synergy between the various OOH advertising types included in
an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategy.
Media synergy may be conceptualized as the combined effect of multiple media
activities that exceeds the sum of the individual effects (Naik & Raman, 2003). In
the so-called multi-media- or cross-media campaigns, marketers seek to maximize
the effectiveness of their budgets by exploiting the unique strengths of one
medium. The basis of this synergy is conveying messages through multiple media
in order reach different audiences and to utilize the intrinsic strengths of each
medium (Katz, 2010; Lane et al., 2011; Moriarty et al., 2012).
Understanding the combination and integration of media to achieve maximum
synergy, are of the most critical issues for marketing communication practitioners
and theorist alike (Schultz, Block, & Raman, 2009). Fortunately, it became evident
the last decade and both researchers and practitioners started to focus on these
issues more frequently. Initially the focus was on the interaction between tradi-
tional advertising mediums in a campaign. For example, Naik and Raman (2003)
identified and measured cross-media synergy between television- and print adver-
tising for a widely used fast-moving consumer brand. It was found that combining
different media enhanced media effectiveness and increased sales. It was also pro-
posed that as synergy increases, advertisers should not only increase the media
budget, but should also allocate more funds to the less effective media activities.
This is because the effectiveness of each medium depends not only on its own
effectiveness, but also on the spending on the other media. Another study by Du
Plessis (2005) verified this synergy between television and print advertising media.
For most of the campaigns analyzed in his study, recall of television advertisements
among Sunday newspaper readers was more than double that of nonreaders. More
recently McCarthy and Fram (2008) examined the effects of combining traditional
advertising with sales promotion. It was observed that using promotional products
along with print advertising resulted in higher levels of consumer brand equity;
however, it had no considerably effect on the likelihood of visiting the brand’s
website.
Lately there has been a shift to the synergy between online and off-line advertis-
ing media options. Chang and Thorson (2004) found that the combination of tele-
vision and internet advertising resulted in significantly higher attention, overall
positive attitudes, as well as higher perceived message credibility. The synergy
effects of internet and television advertising were verified by Wang (2011). Voor-
veld, Neijens, and Smit (2011) noticed that combining advertising on websites and
television resulted in more positive affective, as well as behavioral responses. It was
also revealed that in some cases a repetitive exposure to television advertisements
performed as well as in the cross-media condition. Conversely, the results of Sto-
lyarova and Rialp (2014) did not support expectations regarding the relative effec-
tiveness of the internet in cross-media campaigns. They used longitudinal datasets
of large advertisers in Spain to conduct DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) and
found synergy in certain combinations of advertising media; however, internet

advertising had no significant influence on the brand value created. However,
none of these studies dealt with synergy when using different OOH advertising
mediums in a campaign.
Thus, despite the potential of synergy between the wide range of contemporary
OOH advertising media opportunities and the growing recognition of the value of
cross-media integration, there is insufficient literature to help advertisers or their
agencies to develop synergistic OOH advertising media strategies. Specialists in
OOH advertising media planning do not have a framework or model to assist
them to better synthesis and integrate multiple OOH advertising media platforms
in IMC plans. Without such strategic framework OOH advertising media are
unknowingly applied on an ad hoc basis, without proper integration and synergy.
This lack of integration leads to tactical approaches without considering strategic
aspects such as brand presence, impact, coverage, and geographical domination.
In the light of the aformentioned discussion the focus of this article is to answer
the following research question: How do experienced OOH advertising media spe-
cialists integrate different OOH advertising media types in an IMC strategy? Insights
based on the answer will be used as basis to develop a matrix of strategies to
enhance multiple media synergy and integrating OOH advertising media.
Study design and procedure

An inductive approach to qualitative content analysis, where the researcher begins
with an area of study and allows the theory to emerge from the data was selected
as research method. This approach is common in several types of qualitative data
analyses, especially grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). It has been exten-
sively used to explore the perspectives of specialists in a variety of fields, including
those of marketing and advertising practitioners (Cardoso, 2007; Um & Kim,
2014). This method was applied because it offered a theoretically flexible approach
to analyzing qualitative data, it provided detailed and nuanced account of themes
within the data and generated new insights on how specialists plan and integrate
OOH advertising media in an emerging context.
Purposive sampling was applied to select prominent media-only agencies (the
Mediashop and Mediacom) and OOH advertising media-specialist agencies (Post-
erscope, Kinetics Worldwide, Intouchoutdoor, and Outdoor exchange) in South
Africa. Most of these agencies are part of the world’s largest agency networks such
as Dentsu Aegis Network, GroupM, and WPP, while Intouchoutdoor and Outdoor
exchange are South African manager-owned. The media managers or directors at
all the agencies were briefed on the purpose of this research and asked to suggest
the most suitable people in their company to participate in the study. This resulted
in ten participants with extensive experience across the whole range of OOH
advertising media platforms. These participants were responsible for planning the
media strategy for some of the world’s biggest companies of large global
advertisers, among them Coke Cola, Adidas, Visa, Vodaphone, Sony, Pantene,
Unilever, Cadbury, KFC, Brandhouse, Pfizer, Virgin, as well as prominent local
advertisers. The researchers consulted with the official OOH advertising media
trade association as well as four of the largest spenders on the medium, in order to
obtain their input the suitability of the media agencies and participants selected for
the study. These experts confirmed that the selected participants indeed represent
the industry specialists on the topic. Six of these participants were at media director
level, while the remaining four were OOH advertising media strategists with at
least seven years of relevant experience. Four of the participants were male, while
six were female.
The participants were interviewed in-depth, where after interviews were digitally
recorded and transcribed verbatim. Each of the transcribed interviews was
imported into ATLAS.ti and analyzed several times to identify categories and
themes. The coding system was tested, by applying it to three of the interview tran-
scriptions. The researchers discussed the difference in the coding, where after some
codes had to be adjusted and transcriptions were then re-coded. This process was
used to develop categories and broad themes, which formed the basis of the pro-
posed matrix.
The four key quality issues for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative studies,
(credibility, dependability, transferability, confirmability) as suggested by Lincoln
and Guba (1985) were considered in this article. Sufficient understanding and
thorough review of the literature to conceptualize and frame the findings ensured
credibility or validity of the findings and conclusions. Using ATLAS.ti to organize
the data and facilitate the transparent processes for coding and drawing conclu-
sions from the raw data also helped in this regard. Detailed descriptions of the
research design and methodology, as well as rich and solid descriptions of the data
analysis were provided to satisfy the concerns for transferability. Confirmability of
the findings was ensured by debriefing sessions between the researchers to reduce
the bias of any single researcher. An accurate and detailed record on how the study
was approached and conducted, including how the data were collected and ana-
lyzed also contributed in this regard.
Results
Media objectives are the goals for a media plan; these are to be accomplished
through media strategies. The participants explained that OOH advertising media
objectives are derived from the overall IMC objectives; and they require a trade-off
between reach, frequency, budget and impact achieved, just like the planning of
any other media, based on these typical media objectives.
It all depends on the client’s objectives. A client might need wide reach or coverage. Then
we will look at where they want to be and what the size of their budget is. They can’t be
everywhere with large building wraps, with street poles they can get a wider reach. You
will obviously target different areas with different media types (p. 7).
It is clear that the OOH advertising media strategy would depend on what the
most important media objective is to be achieved for the specific campaign within
a given budget—whether it is to be designed for maximum impact, wide or selected
coverage. The extent of market coverage required largely influenced participants’
selection of OOH advertising medium used for a campaign. For example, when
aiming at a wide mass market, transport advertising media can be considered,
while street-and-retail furniture advertising is suitable for targeted coverage.
If a client typically wants to reach the mass market, such as a Brandhouse product or
something like OMO (a leading washing powder brand), which is high volume of people
and middle to lower LSM (income groups), you immediately look at things like modes of
public transport. If you look at the mass market, you are going to look at high volumes
and you are going to look at pedestrian exposure and public transport. An opposite exam-
ple, I am working with a brand of watches at the moment that specifically targets high
LSM. The cheapest watch is R14 000 so it’s a high-end product. Then you start leaning
towards certain shopping centres, very exclusive shopping centres (p. 9).
Other examples also confirmed this principle of media selection depending on

coverage required. If a specific geographical market or city was targeted, freestand-
ing outdoor advertising boards on main arterial routes in the city would be consid-
ered; while if a very specifically defined audience place-based media in specific
areas would be the most effective.
Depending on what the different brief is, it could be that they are looking to reach a high
income market working in a area, then I will look at all available billboards on Sandton
drive … Or the brief might be about targeting doctors in Johannesburg. Then we will go
and look at all the medical centres and find what is available around that. (p. 6).
It was clear that different OOH advertising media and locations selected for a
specific campaign depends on the level and the type of market coverage needed.
OOH advertising media are used as broad-based media to target vehicular traffic
on highways, but are also applied for more targeted reach at specific locations or
places. Targeted reach is typically obtained by selecting media located at specific
geographical positions and places, such as close to or at schools, office parks, public
health clinics, medical clinics, shopping and leisure venues, depending on the spe-
cific profile targeted by a campaign.
Based on the media objectives to be achieved four unique OOH advertising
media strategies emerged namely: the “High-impact strategy,” the “Geographical
dominance strategy,” the “Brand maintenance strategy,” and the “Extended-cover-
age strategy.”
If the most important influence of OOH advertising media campaign is to deliver
impact, a typical High-Impact strategy should be used. For this strategy different
large or high-impact OOH advertising media formats; or instance, super large, iconic
outdoor advertising formats, spectaculars, super signs, building wraps or hoardings,
wall murals, or new innovative media formats are combined to create credibility and
appeal for the brand. The market coverage delivered is typically limited to a specific
defined geographical location, such as a town, township, or city center. An outstand-
ing unique creative concept to create a superior brand image or to enhance the status
of the brand being advertised must be applied for this type of strategy.
The following example illustrates how advertisers can capitalize on the unique
strengths of high-impact OOH advertising media such as massive building wraps
to maximize the effects of multi-media campaign. In this campaign for Johnny
Walker a gargantuan building was wrapped with the striding man icon to promote
the iconic status of the brand. This was the largest building wrap with a “Striding
man” in the world, involving more than 35-floors, and covering more than
11,000 m2 advertising space. This was visible from all angles; and it has become a
giant landmark in the city. This striding man is a symbol of progress, and it plays a
significant role in the brand positioning strategy of the Johnny Walker brand, as
one of the world’s leading brands. The simple, but powerful symbol, used for the
creative message on the massive building wrap and the status conveyed by the
media strategy were used synergistically with other prominent OOH advertising
media to enhance the brand image.
Johnny Walker did the progression thing, they wanted to “show off.” Their creative con-
cept was the idea to move – from good to greatness, hope to reality. They are a pioneering
brand, so they wanted to be on very special formats that were like: “Wow!” So they used
the Southern Life Centre, which was the biggest building wrap in Johannesburg CBD as
basis for their campaign, and combining it with some other magnificent sites (specific geo-
graphic locations with OOH advertising media), similar to this one for image building and
setting them apart from the other want-to-be-brands. This worked really well to get a con-
nection with brand, because the locals even call this the Johnny Walker building. (p. 4).
The following quotations illustrate the use of a High-Impact Strategy by differ-

ent advertisers for brand-building purposes. The characteristics of this type of
strategy, such as combining large or high-impact OOH advertising media formats
in a specifically defined geographical area, and the application of unique creative
concepts are demonstrated.
Quite often it is a brand building exercise, in which you want to promote the bigness of
your brand, that you are the market leader. Bigger in outdoors is often better. Certainly, if
you want to achieve impact and build brand stature, you have to go big and you have to
make a statement. For brand building, OMO for example – they will use larger billboards
and formats in the area, because their competitors like Mac (minor washing powder
brand) would be on smaller billboards all over (the market area). Their aim is to establish
the power of the brand, as opposed to just making people aware of the fact that it is still
on the market (p. 10).
Skyline branding is another one for getting maximum impact, at a cost, of course. For
example, the Vodacom Ponti Tower and the MTN (an telecommunication company) ads
on the skyline of Jo’burg CBD. These huge advertisements are visible from various
approaches towards the CBD (central business district) (p. 9).
The Geographical dominance strategy is applied when the main aim is to

achieve relative impact in a selected number of geographical areas or zones. The
purpose is to create strong visual dominance or brand presence where the targeted
audience typically converges, such as the entire street in a town, at selected shop-
ping malls, around the beach, at specific taxi ranks, or at the sports stadium. Visual
dominance in these zones can be achieved by advertising on a combination of a
smaller OOH advertising media formats—such as outdoor advertising boards,
street-and-retail furniture advertising, transit advertising media and ambient com-
munication channels—located or concentrated at prominent visible positions
within these zones.
If you want to lead the media space in a given area or a certain environment, you aim at
(visual brand) domination; this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to use all the biggest
and the best options (such as super large advertising on boards or buildings). No, it
means you create smaller touch points, like Lipton (cool drink) did – they dominated spe-
cific areas, they had little golf carts, street pole advertisements and all sort of media (a
variety of smaller media). J & B (whiskey) did this as well. They had certain zones of
advertisements. They had Long Street, so they had a whole lot of (smaller advertising)
boards on Long Street. We also did contra visions on the shop windows (advertising on
the outside of shops) going up Long Street, they had some of the mirror balls (ambient
media) hanging inside shop windows. In Melville, they had all sorts of billboards, smaller
like 3m x 6m, 7,5m x 5m backlit (LED backlighting) and then also normal store fascia.
Then also some street pole ads, bus shelters; so its smaller elements that actually create a
strong visual effect (p. 4).
Repetition or frequency is an important media objective to create and maintain

brand awareness. However, continuous repetition without variation tends to cause
boredom and message wear-out. This can be negated by instead of just using only
one OOH advertising media type, a variation of types and messages are used. Con-
sumers are more likely to pay attention to new information, than previously
encountered messages or ways of presentation. It can also be combined with adver-
tising and promotion at retail spaces as retrieval cues to aid memory in-store, while
bolstering behavioral responses.
For summer campaigns we often use collective media efforts (combining diverse types) to
get maximum brand synergy. For MTN, branded air media such as a helium passenger
balloon or zeppelins rights outside a (shopping) mall, gazebos, kiosks, soccer balls, t-shirts
and below the line promotions, you know all that were combined. The effect is their yel-
low brand being intensely presented there. The idea is to get people exposed to the brand
on interesting forms and shapes at the targeted place and in the best situation. This to
increase the odds that the message is noted and remembered, and of course react. One
will also notice this when entering malls. Each brands’ advertising is concentrated in a
specific court or area: placed on the elevators, the escalators, hanging banners and even
video walls. The ideal is to integrate the campaign so that the mall ads are integrated with
in-store ads and activations to lead the consumers from awareness to sales (p. 8).
Brand-maintenance strategy is a continuity longer-term strategy, which is used

when the primary objective is to maintain brand awareness in a number of existing
or established markets. The primary aim is not necessarily to build the brand
image or status or to extend the existing market coverage, but rather to provide
continues reminders to the target audience. For this strategy, OOH advertising
media displaying simple strong brand messages are placed almost permanently at
prominent locations across the existing market of the advertiser. Some participants
explained how placing brands in a landscape over a long period could provide large
advertisers with a sense of ownership of the area. The locals are likely to positively
associate locations such as entrances to towns or stores with a trusted brand, when
being exposed to it daily.
When you only have one site in a specific area, you are not really reaching more people in
your (existing) target market. So if you just have one site in each major township, you
continue to have (brand) presence in the existing market. But you are not doubling-up
on (extending) the reach and frequency and not getting more people (from other mar-
kets) exposed to your brand (p. 3).
Some brands do this. SAB (South African Breweries) for example, often use one large bill-
board or gantry permanently at the entrance to each major townships to welcome people
back to the township… the message is often just branding and doesn’t change too much.
It gives their brand control of that area (p. 10).
…so that long-term outdoor strategy helps them; it is working for their brand. With these
clients of mine, we only review once a year, so our relationship is very much been going
forever and we speak only once a year. I meet with them and will get into the car and
drive to look at their billboards, and then of those billboards, we will renew about 70–
80%, because we chose right the first time around. So it’s more of a long-term strategy for
long term branding, in a way looking at all the existing outdoor media in their strategy
and keeping the best (p. 9).
Extended coverage strategies are used when the main objective is broad geo-
graphical reach or expansion of the current market to a wider market. This is
achieved by using a large number of OOH advertising media formats located all
over the required market. The level of impact will be relative low due to the smaller
sizes of the media formats used and the wider distribution across a larger geo-
graphical market area. The unique strengths of OOH advertising media formats
that can deliver wide reach and high frequency (such as outdoor advertising on
main arterial roads and highways and mobile transit advertising) are exploited for
such a strategy. The reach of this strategy can be extended even further by rotating
the message to new market areas and locations, for example, by using mobile
media, such as trailer advertising or the rotation of street-furniture advertising.
If you are trying to bring across the message to as wide an audience as possible that would
mean it’s a reach, reach would thus be the primary concern. Then you try and strike as far
and wide as possible. Different formats could achieve that for you. City lights (illuminated
advertising on street poles) for example – which work on a rotational basis – this means
that your poster moves on a fortnightly basis. For a fortnight you will be advertising on
William Nichol. For another fortnight, you will be advertising on Rivonia Road. That
way you get a lot of bang for your buck (value in exchange for money spent) in terms of
how the posters are spread around certain specific geographical area. You are not talking
about impact (p. 10).
The following example demonstrates how an advertiser combined environmen-

tally and relevant media options to obtain a presence in several key geographical
areas. For this campaign moving transit media affixed to the outside of moving
vehicles, static advertising positioned in the common areas of train stations and
taxi ranks as well as interior transit advertising were integrated to deliver the mes-
sage to different commuter profiles in targeted metropolitan areas. This combina-
tion is an effective way of delivering wide coverage to a large number of people, as
well as repetitive messaging, by placing it on specific routes, or at specific stations.
For the launch campaign of StarSat (a satellite television station), which was first named
Top TV, we incorporated a clever combination of options. Huge striking decals (lami-
nated stickers) on Johannesburg’s Park Station floor, so several of these thousands of
commuters passing through the station stopped to take a closer look at them. We also
had some static advertising (billboards) at Durban and Cape Town’s major train stations,
interior (mini-bus) taxi branding and advertisements flighted countrywide on Transit.TV
(large digital screens with content and advertisments in mini-bus-taxis). By using these
multiple touchpoints of mobile and static transit advertising we enticed this commuter
market at all these areas, following their mobility patterns with different media (p. 1).
Given the aforementioned description on the contemporary landscape of OOH

advertising media and the importance of media synergy as well as the views of the
interviewed, the authors identified a challenge with regard to media integration
strategies. Designing OOH advertising media strategies requires a trade-off
between different media objectives: reach, frequency, budget, and impact achieved,
just like the planning of any other media (Katz, 2010). Four unique OOH advertis-
ing media integration strategies not to be found in existing academic literature on
OOH advertising media or media synergy are put forward and South African
advertising campaigns are used to illustrate the application thereof.
The conceptualization of these strategies is plotted on the matrix in Figure 1.
The vertical axle indicates the potential impact (ranging from very high to very
low), while the extent of market coverage is represented on the horizontal axle
(ranging from narrow market coverage to broad market coverage). The four major
OOH advertising media integration strategies are plotted based on the relative
impact and the extent of market coverage delivered. For example the High-impact
strategy and the Geographical dominance strategy can both be used to deliver
higher impact, but relative less market coverage. The Extended-coverage strategy
and the Brand-maintenance strategy will result in relatively wider market coverage,
but would offer less impact than the other two strategies. The reasons why each of
the multi-media OOH advertising strategies can lead to more positive campaign
results are also indicated.
For the High-impact strategy, a number of carefully selected high-impact OOH
advertising media vehicles at highly visible locations in the targeted area are used.
Figure 1. Model to enhance synergy of OOH advertising media integration strategies.
When using a combination of gargantuan formats such as building wraps and wall
murals in key locations the brand literally becomes larger than life and projects an
image of authority. Massive advertisements on hoardings at the bottom of build-
ings in central business districts and wraps erected around construction sites offer
advertisers an ideal opportunity for short term high-impact exposure to highly
sought after mobile and pedestrian traffic in urban areas. The formats leave no
long-term impact to the environment, since they are usually temporary or attached
to existing building structures.
Exposure to a multi-media OOH advertising campaign with different high-
impact OOH advertising media in a defined geographical area are likely to result
in higher credibility than a campaign that utilizes repeated exposure to only one
type of OOH advertising medium. These types of media serve as an indication of
the company’s confidence in the brand, because consumers’ perceive them to be
more expensive compared to single-media campaigns using small media types.
This high-impact strategy can differentiate the brand from those of the competi-
tors by strengthening the positive brand associations.
The creative possibilities such as the large size, vivid color, and three-dimen-
sional designs of the high-impact media should be exploited to create a strong
unique creative concept and visual brand icon to convey the brand power and
enhance the image of the brand being advertised. This phenomenon of using a
super-large OOH advertising media formats to create brand authority and impact
is especially noticeable during the World Cup Soccer. Figure 2 shows such an
example of the effective use of new technology as creative strategy on a huge build-
ing wrap for the NIKE soccer world cup campaign in the Johannesburg Central
Figure 2. High-impact strategy.
Business District, with the theme of “Writing the future.” The audience could
engage in and interact with the communication process by sending an SMS on
their cell-phone, or messages on social media platforms, such as face book, twitter,
and mix-it, to participate in Writing the future. These messages would then be dis-
played on a large interactive LED screen, mounted on the side of the iconic South-
ern Life Centre Building. This was just one the several high-impact OOH
advertising media vehicles employed for this campaign.
The Geographical-dominance strategy offers relatively less impact than the High-
Impact Strategy, but offers wider market coverage. This strategy is ideal to create strong
visual dominance for a brand in small selected geographical areas referred to as zones.
These zones can be an entire street, selected leisure, retail, or transit areas—where the
target audience congregates and which are contextually relevant to the message. The
concentration of brand contact points form integrated touch points with the brand
within these zones and improve the aesthetic value of a campaign.
A wide variety of media forms and smaller shapes such as outdoor advertising
boards, rubbish bins, bus shelters, benches, kiosks, trains, buses, taxis, balloons,
projection media, bags, and t-shirts are used to offer variability. Exposing an audi-
ence to such a multi-media OOH advertising campaign with a variety of media
shapes and sizes concentrated in specific zones, instead of being exposed to a mes-
sage in the same medium repetitively can enhance the processing of the message
and positive affective reactions toward the brand.
The messages on the mixture of media types must not be exact copies, but the
creative execution should rather be varied and relevant to the context in each zone
Figure 3. Geographical-dominance strategy.
where they are displayed. This will ensure that the audience is more motivated to
note and process the advertisements. Combining this strategy with some sales pro-
motion activities, live events, and road shows can be used for an amplified visual
brand presence and personal brand experience on different sensory levels. This
positive interactive or personal experience can stimulate stronger emotional con-
nection with the brand, if the audience participates and enjoys the events.
Santam, a South African insurance company recently used the aformentioned
strategy, to target holidaymakers at selected beaches along the Cape coast during
high season (Figure 3). The message of this campaign was that insurance could
protect clients’ home and personal belongings while they are away from home and
thus being most at risk. The message was delivered in an very appropriately envi-
ronment by using a combination of a wide variety of smaller OOH advertising
options such as branded yellow umbrellas, beach chairs and cushions, kiosks, and
even ice cream trucks. This campaign was also supported with advertisements
radio and handing out of promotional summer items such as sunglasses and
umbrellas in the area. This coherent message delivered in concentrated zones had
the effect that consumers associated the yellow with the message of cover or pro-
tection from the potential harmful environment when needed most.
The Brand maintenance strategy is used to maintain awareness in a number of
existing or established markets in the longer term. This is achieved by displaying
simple strong brand messages on a number of OOH advertising media vehicles
distributed across the existing market area. Constantly exposing the market to
trusted brands at prominent locations in a familiar landscape is likely to maintain
Figure 4. Brand maintenance strategy.
awareness and positively brand associations. National advertisers often use this
type of strategy to provide continuous reminders to their target audience at specific
prime locations on the highways or main arterial routes. Figure 4 shows some of
the cooling towers branded for First National Bank at major cities across the coun-
try. In each of the cities one tower was wrapped with FNB’s brand, while the others
featured vibrant artwork depicting each city’s unique cultural heritage.
The Extended-coverage strategy is used to obtain wider coverage for expansion
of the current market to a wider market. This can be achieved by advertising on a
large number of OOH advertising media vehicles located at positions that can
reach a wide mass market, such as on main arterial roads and highways, or mobile
transit advertising media across a wide area. The reach and coverage can be
extended even further, by rotating the message to new market areas and locations;
for example, by using mobile transit media or putting advertisements in one area,
and then moving them to the next location a few months later. Figure 5 shows
how various minibus taxi advertising options are used by fast moving consumer
good (FMCG) brands (such as Endearmints, Clover long life milk, and Twinsaver)
to reach emerging market segments across the whole country.
Conclusions
The relevant theory on the OOH advertising media is inadequate and do not
address the potential of media synergy and integrations to its full capacity. No aca-
demic literature on strategies for integrating different OOH advertising media
options in a campaign could be found.
Figure 5. Extended-coverage strategy.
In order to explore how specialists integrate OOH advertising media, the themes
identified from the transcribed interviews were categorized into four groupings of
alternative OOH advertising media strategies, namely, the High-impact strategy,
the Geographical dominance strategy, the Brand maintenance strategy, and the
Extended-coverage strategy. The proposed matrix of strategies to enhance synergy
and integration of OOH advertising media across platforms is based on these find-
ings and illustrated by selected campaigns.
Only OOH advertising media specialists in South Africa were interviewed, the
findings are thus not necessarily applicable to other countries with a less or more
developed OOH advertising media landscape. A worthy future research agenda
could therefore be to explore how the proposed matrix applies to other countries.
It would be valuable to conduct subsequent research on how synergy between
OOH advertising media options is experienced by consumers, such as to test the
validity of the reasons proposed to explain why the integration of different OOH
advertising media in a campaign results in more positive results than using single-
medium campaigns. Future studies could also analyze some of the actual OOH
media campaigns implemented, to explore how these strategies are applied differ-
ently by large national and small local advertisers or by different industry sectors
for example, financial companies, retail companies, and telecommunications
industry. And finally, it would be valuable to conduct empirical research on the
synergy and integration between OOH advertising media and other alternative
media such as event marketing, sales promotion, and social media.
In summary, it is anticipated that this matrix has the potential to aid media prac-
titioners to synthesize and integrate multiple OOH advertising media more success-
fully in their respective IMC plans and to help shape research questions for further
study on synergy within the wide range of contemporary OOH advertising options.
Funding
This work is based on the research support in part by the National Research Foundation of
South Africa, Grant: 99338.
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Toward a Model to Enhance Synergy of Out-of-

Amarentia Thérèse Roux & De la Rey Van der Waldt

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Toward a Model to Enhance Synergy of Out-of-Home

interviews were conducted with experienced media specialists

found synergy in certain combinations of advertising media; however, internet

Study design and procedure

Other examples also conﬁrmed this principle of media selection depending on

The following quotations illustrate the use of a High-Impact Strategy by differ-

The Geographical dominance strategy is applied when the main aim is to

Repetition or frequency is an important media objective to create and maintain

Brand-maintenance strategy is a continuity longer-term strategy, which is used

The following example demonstrates how an advertiser combined environmen-

Given the aforementioned description on the contemporary landscape of OOH

Figure 1. Model to enhance synergy of OOH advertising media integration strategies.

Figure 2. High-impact strategy.

Figure 3. Geographical-dominance strategy.

Figure 4. Brand maintenance strategy.

Figure 5. Extended-coverage strategy.

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