If you've ever waited for a bus, chances are, you've waited in a bus shelter. Bus shelters aren't just about keeping us dry when it rains!
We love a bargain, a format that offers a good bang for your buck. But we also love cutting edge ad technology. Surprisingly, perhaps, one of the formats that delivers that wishlist best is the venerable bus stop advert.
So we're exploring some of the reasons why bus stop advertising makes it onto so many media plans.
Bus stops offer great scalability. A relatively low cost of entry allows local organisations and SMEs access, while the national ubiquity perfectly suits large brands too.
Urban areas never really sleep and neither do bus stop adverts. The integral lighting keeps the ads highly visible (possibly even more so than during daylight hours) through the night. It’s safe to say that the ads never stop working.
Bus stop adverts can’t be ignored or switched off. They are an old school interruptive marketing technique. That’s not to say the brand behind them shouldn’t seek to curry favour with the audience, but they don’t need to ask permission before delivering content.
Although bus stop adverts are visible enough to attract a passing audience, they are also obviously placed for a captive one too. For those actually waiting for a bus, a bus stop advert can include far more info than many OOH ads can as a higher percentage of viewers are there for a longer period.
Take a close look at a bus stop advert and you’ll notice the high, magazine-like, production values. They are a quality format for any brand to be associated with.
Bus stop posters are a great local campaigning tool. They are on the ground and speak to a local audience – with the added benefit of being cheap enough to alter (and increase relevance) for different locations.
National campaigns have the potential to achieve very high levels of reach (the percentage of the population which sees an advert over a given period of time) via the national network of bus stops, particularly given the low cost compared to other high reach formats like TV.
They are, in the space of a standard bus stop, exclusive (usually two ads at most share the space). A rarity in your average highly branded urban environment, your brand can ‘own’ the uncluttered space.
Although bus stops are a traditional OOH format, they aren’t stuck in the past. Digital bus stops in fact are at the very forefront of emerging technology – with Clear Channel having over 2,500 digital OOH bus shelter screens in over 145 of the largest towns and cities nationwide and reaching more than 50% of UK adults.
They are more personal than a billboard, are able to rely on a more captive audience and as a result offer more interaction between digital screen and the smartphone-wielding audience. Measuring ad success is also set to be revolutionised as ‘proof of play’ elements become the norm.
If you'd like to find out how bus stop advertising can deliver the results you're looking for, get in touch with us today.
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