OOH Campaign Playbooks by Sector

Strategy

Location + imagery. Retail lives and dies by location. Buy near your stores and on commuter routes. Creative should be visual-first with minimal text.

Format: This depends on the type of campaign. If it's a store opening you may want something big and digital to celebrate the launch, but if it's to drive footfall and sales in the first two to four weeks and then ongoing campaigns, possibly all year round, then a digital and traditional 48-sheet and 6-sheet mix works well. Fly posters and other close proximity screens and shopping mall screens also work great. Deploy near flagship stores and high-footfall shopping districts.

Timing: Seasonal campaigns. Spring/summer for season changes, Q4 for holiday. Don't forget Black Friday.

Measurement: Foot traffic lifts are your best metric. Track store visitors before, during, and after. If online, then brand searches, online sales and QR codes are also good metrics to consider.

Budget typical: £15,000-£30,000 for 4-week multi-location campaign.

Strategy

Hunger + proximity. Food OOH needs to trigger appetite. Target commute routes where people are heading to eat. Use high-impact creative with mouth-watering visuals.

Format: 6-sheets and Phone Kiosks near restaurants and delivery hotspots are great value and can be found on high streets, the roadside and inside shopping malls. We've used this strategy for Slim Chickens, Sides Chicken and Chaiwala on multiple store launches. Digital screens in high-density areas are also great for speed of message.

Timing: Launch two weeks before menu item availability. Restaurant openings: heavy up first month, then normalize.

Measurement: Delivery app order spikes. Partner with Just Eat, Deliveroo to track lift by location.

Budget typical: £10,000-£20,000 for 4-week restaurant launch.

Strategy

Urgency + DOOH. Entertainment campaigns need speed to market. Use DOOH for flexibility and ability to update dates/times. Heavy up 2-3 weeks before the event.

Format: Heavy DOOH. Supplement with traditional at key event venues.

Timing: Peak frequency 3 weeks pre-event, decline to zero after.

Measurement: Ticket sales spikes by date. Correlate to campaign peaks.

Budget typical: £20,000-£40,000 for concert/festival promotion (4 weeks pre-event).

Strategy

Thought leadership + targeted reach. B2B OOH is harder but works if targeted to business districts. Use longer-copy messaging and specific value propositions.

Format: 6-sheets and bus shelters in business districts (City of London, Canary Wharf, etc.). Large Format placements (digital and/or traditional) in the right locations, where your target audience is.

Timing: Year-round. B2B buying cycles are longer, so consistency matters more than peaks.

Measurement: Combine with digital campaigns that track website visits. Use unique URLs or promo codes.

Budget typical: £5,000-£15,000 for 8-week business district campaign.

Strategy

The strategy for artists that are breaking through will be different to bigger household names. For upcoming artists the strategy will be a mix of getting sites that look great on social media and would make great content while also having great footfall or impressions for a short period to keep the cost down. For bigger artists the strategy will be more about ubiquity.

Artists need to feel everywhere. Flood target cities with multiple formats and hit youth-skewed locations (transit, universities, music venues).

Format: Large Format Digital Screens. Mix of transit ads (tube, bus), 6-sheets near venues, and DOOH in nightlife areas.

Timing: For upcoming artists this may be a short 1 day to 1 week campaign for release week. For bigger artists this could be a concentrated 3-4 week push around single/album drops. Tour announcements get separate campaigns.

Measurement: Spotify streams and YouTube views during campaign period. Ticket sales for tours.

Budget typical: £2,000+ for upcoming artists. £25,000-£50,000 for national artist launch (multiple cities, 4 weeks).

Strategy

Volume + brand. FMCG campaigns need scale and frequency. Longer campaigns (8+ weeks) to build brand recall. Broad geographic reach, not targeted.

Format: Traditional 48-sheets for brand presence. Supplement with shopping district 6-sheets and transit.

Timing: Year-round for established brands. Launch campaigns: 12-16 week sustained push.

Measurement: Sales lift in target regions. Work with retailers to track SKU movement by geography and time.

Budget typical: £50,000-£150,000 for national FMCG campaign (12 weeks, multiple cities).