The festive season has officially arrived – and South Africans are set to spend. According to Wonga’s sixth annual Summer Spending Survey, R224 billion in consumer spending is expected during this festive season, with an average festive budget of R5 707 per person.
For advertisers, this presents a valuable opportunity to get your brands in front of consumers, helping to include them in consumers’ consideration sets. Out of home (OOH) media – specifically programmatic out of home (pDOOH) – offers a powerful tool in helping marketers achieve their year-end targets.
The holiday season is a prime opportunity to showcase your brand and engage with both new and existing customers. With strategic and well-executed campaigns, you can inspire excitement, drive growth and cultivate brand affinity.”
Here are several tips to help advertisers maximise their holiday campaigns using OOH.
Leverage high-traffic locations
As the holiday shopping rush ramps up, engage your audience where they’re spending the most time (and potentially money!)
High-impact OOH placements, such as large-format billboards, roadside digital displays, and forecourt ads, are great for increasing brand awareness and making sure your products and promotions stay top of mind.
Large-format billboards offer high visibility, allowing brands to amplify their messages and maximise reach. In the realm of pDOOH, roadside digital screens are ideal for promoting time-sensitive offers or product highlights with festive-themed messaging, ensuring offers are clear and compelling.
Digital displays at forecourts allow you to engage customers directly with educational and demonstrative content. Keep your videos short (15-30 seconds) to hold consumer attention, showcasing your offering clearly and quickly.
Integrate pDOOH into your omnichannel strategy
Research shows that multiple ad formats and mediums help to deeply embed a brand’s messaging, leading to higher engagement and better sales. By adding pDOOH advertising into your omnichannel approach, you can extend your reach and cover every stage of the customer journey.
As shoppers move around during the festive season, incorporating dynamic pDOOH ensures your brand is visible both in public spaces and on digital devices, amplifying your campaign’s effectiveness. Its advanced capabilities enable granular audience measurement and reporting, sophisticated audience targeting, and dynamic content with custom and contextually relevant triggers.
Right time. Right place.
The key to driving sales during the holidays is reaching the right people with relevant messages. Understand your target demographic and tailor your ads to meet their needs and interests. Through advanced targeting technologies such as those possible with pDOOH, you can refine your strategy and connect with customers based on location, past purchases, or specific behaviours.
For example, location targeting allows you to reach people where they work, shop, travel and holiday. Place ads in high-traffic areas at peak times for maximum impact. Behaviour-targeting sees the use of data to identify moments when audiences are most likely to engage – whether it’s during lunch breaks, on weekends, or in the lead-up to big shopping dates like Black Friday, Christmas or Back-to-School.
The more specific you are with your targeting, the more effective your campaigns will be in converting interest into sales.
Plan well – and in advance (ideally!)
Planning early is key to navigating the high demand of the holiday season. Fortunately, even if you find yourself slightly on the back foot, the flexibility of pDOOH allows you to book and activate campaigns during November and December with ease.
Leveraging flexible pDOOH packages allow you to change your creative based on calendar events or even real-time triggers, such as weather. For example, you can use a festive season package that spans from November to February, seamlessly transitioning your messaging from Black Friday sales to New Year’s promotions and beyond.
Keep it fun!
To truly stand out during the holidays, your ads should do more than promote products – they should engage your audience emotionally, making them smile or tugging on their heartstrings.
It has been a long, hard year for many, so create campaigns that bring the joy of the season to life and make the shopping experience more exciting. Consider using festive-themed content, such as gift guides, exclusive offers, or sneak peeks of upcoming discounts, to build anticipation.
Use email campaigns and OOH ads to tease upcoming deals and products, helping keep your brand top of mind. Then, ramp up the excitement with countdowns to big sale events. Don’t forget to retarget customers who have engaged with your DOOH campaign, offering them a special discount or holiday incentive to complete their purchase.
Remember, creativity is key – and this is especially true over the holidays, as every brand is competing for attention. Craft your messaging with a festive, emotional narrative – whether it’s about family, nostalgia, or holiday humour – while staying authentic to your brand’s voice.
Mali Motsumi-Garrido is sales director at Tractor Outdoor.
Tractor Outdoor offers a range of festive pDOOH packages – for more information, contact info@tractoroutdoor.com
