Given the recent lifting of lockdown restrictions, outdoor audiences are continuing to return to near pre-pandemic levels. Let’s take a look at one of the most ubiquitous OOH formats around – bus advertising.
4.5 billion passenger journeys take place across the UK each year with nearly half of those in London alone. That’s a lot of bus journeys – and a lot of buses.
This huge number of buses creates a fantastic UK wide canvas upon which local, regional and national businesses can promote.
Individual reach but en masse
Bus advertising is an incredibly cost effective method of delivering brand messages and can reach in excess of 48 million people in a 2-week period. There’s over 30,000 buses nationwide, reaching up to 94% of the UK population.
Regardless of the type of advertising you choose to commit to, you’re reaching IN to the local communities. This is advertising on a key transport link and delivering a personal message to individuals but en masse. There’s not many formats that do this so effectively.
A moving billboard
Think of it as a ‘moving billboard’ and it really starts to feel effective, amplify this by 20 or 30 buses – a reasonably typical and affordable local campaign. In addition, you’ll regularly advertise your campaign in multiple places. The costs of this compare very favourably to other local media campaigns. And they often deliver a wider audience reach.
Lots of ‘media people’ talk about the difficult-to-reach 15-34 year old audience. This audience are typically light TV viewers. They often don’t engage with local radio stations and they certainly aren’t reachable by regional press. This young audience is best engaged out of the home. Buses are ideal for this.
Multiple formats
The multiple formats on buses cater for all types of creative at all types of price points, from the simple bus rear format through to T sides (exactly as they sound – a T shape on the side!) up to the wrapped bus. For sheer impact, a fully wrapped bus looks amazing and certainly aids brand recollection. Again, in terms of numbers you don’t have to have as many fully wrapped buses to make an impact as you might with the smaller formats.
How does it work best?
So how many buses do you need? The general rule of thumb is that you take between 20-30% of the available fleet stock for a sold medium-weight campaign. Taking a city such as Wolverhampton, for example, this would equate to just 20-30 buses.
The pandemic has hit the OOH industry hard and with a massive supply of stock, there is opportunity in rate and there are deals to be had. We’d be delighted to advise you which are the best options to help meet your objectives.
To discuss your next campaign contact us today here.
