Use OOH to Reach National and Local Consumers Where Digital Can’t

July 17, 2025

by Bob McCuin

Let’s face it: summer isn’t prime TV season. While traditional media takes a backseat to summer vacations, Americans are grabbing their keys, booking flights, and hitting the road. AAA projects that more than 70 million people will travel this summer, breaking records and flooding highways, airports and city centers. This is backed up by some recent data from OAAA and The Harris Poll which showed 83% of adults in the U.S. plan to travel this summer.

That means your audience isn’t sitting on the couch, they’re out in the real world. And if your brand is still focusing the bulk of its spend on digital and TV, you might be missing them entirely.

While summer is in full swing, 58% of adults plan to book their summer travel 4 weeks or less in advance of hitting the road (OAAA/The Harris Poll, July 2025).  So, for brands needing to win summer, this is good news. And this is where Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising steps in, and the timing couldn’t be better.

Five-Year Study Shows OOH Outperforms Other Media

A recent five-year study from Kantar and Clear Channel Outdoor is shaking up how marketers think about media planning. The findings reveal that OOH outperforms connected TV (CTV) and digital across crucial performance metrics like ad awareness, brand favorability, and most importantly, purchase intent.

As marketers, we’ve been trained to chase impressions and clicks online. But as digital fatigue sets in, and audiences increasingly opt for ad-free experiences, the reach of digital media isn’t what it used to be. And with media fragmentation only accelerating, it’s getting harder, and more expensive, to capture attention in the digital space.

OOH Scores High Marks for Brand Awareness

Meanwhile, OOH is quietly making major strides.  A recent Kantar study found that OOH isn’t just holding its own, but rather, it’s thriving. The data show that OOH consistently delivers higher brand awareness and engagement than digital, and even rivals TV in impact, but at a more efficient price point. In fact, one standout stat showed that OOH drives a 13.3% increase in ad awareness. That’s a number digital can’t touch right now.

This has massive implications, especially in summer, when consumer behavior shifts toward the outdoors. Think about the visibility opportunities: roadside printed and digital billboards, airport displays, transit signs and street furniture. While someone’s scrolling past your ad online in half a second, your OOH placement is right in front of them as they sit in traffic, walk to a concert or line up at security.

Real Impressions in the Real World

Even better? OOH doesn’t have to fight algorithms or skip buttons. It exists in the real world, where eyeballs are still free and impressions mean something.

What the Kantar data also shows is that OOH’s additive nature fills in the growing gaps that other media channels are leaving behind. It boosts brand visibility for new product launches, supports performance marketing goals, and builds long-term brand equity which is something digital has increasingly struggled with in the attention economy.

Nicole Jones of Kantar puts it best: OOH is “an indispensable channel that drives serious impact for brands.”

As media budgets get tighter and ROI becomes more scrutinized, OOH offers a measurable, cost-effective, and impactful solution that adapts to the real world, just like your audience.

Contextual Creative Wins the Day and Consumer Attention

And let’s not forget the creative flexibility. OOH allows for bold, memorable messaging that plays well with its environment. Think: clever headlines, high-impact visuals and real-time updates. It’s the kind of storytelling that sticks with people long after they’ve passed by.

This is a “critical moment” for marketers to rethink how they spend. With economic uncertainty and media fragmentation looming, brands need to stay in the advertising game and they need a channel that can do more with less. OOH checks every box: it builds awareness, drives action, and delivers results up and down the funnel.

So, as we roll into the peak of summer travel season, with Americans spending more time outdoors, away from their TVs, and increasingly hard to reach digitally, ask yourself, “is your media plan meeting them where they are?”

Because they’re not on the couch. They’re on the move.

And Out-of-Home is there to meet them.