Digital outdoor and social media 'perfect bedfellows'

Premium digital out of home (DOOH) advertising primes and optimises social media campaigns, elevating brand relevance, likeability and authenticity.

That is the conclusion of a new neuroscience study released by Ocean Outdoor, which, building on a decade of work with Neuro-Insight, uses brain imaging to demonstrate how DOOH is a vital ingredient in helping brands extract better value from their social media content.

To test the hypothesis that digital outdoor and social media channels are congruent and innately aligned, Ocean analysed brain responses to different forms of social media posts which had been shared across TikTok and Instagram.

Two cohorts of participants in London and Manchester were shown advertising content from brand social media posts, social media posts shared by well-known influencers within that brand’s sector and DOOH content featuring the brand.

Significantly, the participants were also shown social media posts which featured the DOOH content itself in order to gauge the relative brain response to each form of content.

From the resulting responses, Neuro-Insight concluded that ten years after Ocean’s first neuroscience study, despite the rapidly evolving media landscape, the priming effect of premium DOOH has not changed, but is in fact reaffirmed.

In addition, DOOH primes social media content positively. People are drawn further to brands on social media when they have seen the brand campaign on DOOH first, delivering a tangible priming impact from the DOOH in terms of brand approach (+87% in London), emotional response (+5% in Manchester) and dwell time (+1.3x in Manchester).

Meanwhile, viewing the same piece of premium DOOH content on a physical screen first and then seeing that DOOH screen amplified socially strengthens brand perception and elevates attention levels. The London cohort recorded a 28% uplift in approach and a 13% increase in engagement when compared to a non-DOOH primed brand post.

Socially amplified DOOH content shared by brands also strengthens brand familiarity and relevance and celebrity influencers strengthen excitement and authenticity.

And, finally, those shown the socially amplified DOOH content, but not the physical execution, registered a 21% increase in approach and a 3% increase in emotional intensity (Manchester), compared to a 79% increase in approach in London and a 5% increase in emotional intensity.

Ocean Outdoor UK CEO Phil Hall insists the study demonstrates a step change in the evolution of DOOH. He said: “Put simply, if a brand has a social media strategy on the plan then it needs to build in DOOH to make it better and more effective.

“Neuroscience has previously established the priming effect of premium DOOH on mobile devices. Now we can demonstrate what happens when out of home transcends the physical screen and becomes the content for brands’ social media campaigns.

“Using DOOH content across social media unlocks significant value, delivering well beyond the priming effect of physical DOOH alone. For advertisers these are serious benefits, proving DOOH is a vital ingredient when used to make big statements and mark important moments which by their very nature are incredibly shareable.”

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