OOH Of the Month September
Each month System1 works with JCDecaux UK to bring you the best Out Of Home (OOH) executions – the ads that made the greatest emotional impact with the most growth and sales potential of the month. And this month the ads with the biggest “OOH Factor” have something in common: beautiful visual design.
There are plenty of different ways an Out Of Home execution can work. Amusing copy. Startling claims. Tempting new products. And ads that play with the medium and the space it occupies. But some of the most purely effective OOH ads rely not on copy or product claims but simply on elegant, excellent design and photography that captures the emotional appeal of the brand in a single image. And here are three gorgeous examples.
Top-scoring this month is an ad from Spain for Walls Cornetto ice cream, an appropriate summer winner with a visual pun that works on multiple levels – no words required. The poster shows a surfer riding a wave, a classic summer image. But the ocean he’s surfing on is the blue and white wrapper of a classic Cornetto ice cream, and the surf is the trail of torn paper as that wrapper is opened. So, in a single image the designer has captured and linked two strong, positive emotions – the sense of sunshine and freedom we associate with surfing, and the anticipation and indulgence of opening a Cornetto.
It’s no wonder the ad scores a strong 4.2-Star rating for its potential to drive long-term growth. Even more impressive is its short-term Spike Rating, measuring the ad’s ability to drive immediate sales: it’s an exceptional score, putting Cornetto at the very top of the Outdoor ads we’ve studied. The ad ran in Spain, but with no copy to translate this could work in any number of markets where there’s enough Brand Fluency to create recognition. A great example of how purely visual messaging can be effective.
Our second ad does have a line of copy at the bottom but this UK work for Corona Naturals mainly communicates through a fantastic visual metaphor. This product from the beer brand is brewed using all natural ingredients, something they get across with a spectacular piece of landscape art, showing the sun going down over the ocean between two rocks. The light of the sun fills the space between the rocks, which is shaped roughly like a bottle of Corona.
So, the ad gives you a wild landscape, a sunset, and a Corona bottle seemingly made of solid light – an extremely powerful image of refreshment that plays on both the natural product and Corona’s golden color. The ad gets a good 3.6-Star Rating but where it really excels is Brand Fluency – it’s an image which conveys the brand very powerfully, and despite the brief audience exposure Out Of Home affords, it leaves 96% able to identify it correctly.
And this month’s final ad is another example of a brand using photography to communicate how its product feels – Gucci with its Flora perfume. This strong use of design and visual metaphor is more common in the world of fragrance advertising, but it’s still not always easy to do well. One particular risk is that abstract or arty pictures will confuse viewers and make it harder for them to identify the brand. Gucci, however, gets exceptional Fast Fluency scores – not only is the brand easy to “get”, it’s easy to get immediately. The image, Miley Cyrus holding up a bottle of perfume among flowers, is as chic as you’d expect from Gucci and communicates the classic floral freshness of the scent. The ad also gets a good long-term Star Rating and a strong short term Star Rating, so it’s a fine all-round performer.
Three ads with one sentence of copy between them, all relying on striking, attractive and fresh visuals to put the qualities of their brands across. It’s proof that you don’t need gimmicks to give your outdoor ads the “OOH factor” – the classic virtues of beautiful imagery can still be enough.
Credits
Cornetto
Global Wall’s and Cornetto brand lead: Barbara Scala
Global Cornetto senior brand manager: Hazal Kantman
Global Cornetto assistant brand manager: Charlotte Richmond
Lola MullenLowe
Executive creative director: Tomás Ostiglia
Global creative director: Dante Zamboni
Global creative director: Jorge Zacher
Global creative director: Kevin Cabuli
Managing director: Tom Elliston
Head of global strategy: Camilla Facin
Global strategy manager: Bruno Yanagui
Global account director: Victoria Rossetti
Global account director: Bárbara de la Plaza
Global account supervisor: Megan Edwards
Design director: Yan Graller de Oliveira
Art director: Pedro Mezzini
Designer: Alan Chung
Head of production: Felipe Calviño
Producer: Jorge Saade
Producer: Marina Saro
Corona
AB InBev UK
European Marketing Manager: Liz Hemus
Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam
Gucci Flora
Kering Group
Talent: Miley Cyrus
Photographer: Tyler Mitchell
Creative director: Sabato De Sarno
Artistic Director: Ricardo Zanola