A Guide to Out-of-Home Advertising in Metro Detroit
Making a BIG Impact in Your Local Market
Utilizing multiple forms of out-of-home (OOH) advertising media can allow businesses to reach targeted demographics where they are, allowing them to grow brand recognition and find new customers.
As the area with the largest population in Michigan, Metro Detroit serves as a prime place for making the most of out-of-home advertising. From billboards to public transit and sports arenas, OOH advertising is a potential goldmine in a city like Detroit!
With all of the options available to you, finding the ones that will work the best with your overall marketing strategy shouldn’t be a problem. The S4 Connect Team will work with you to find the best placement for your message, contact us to get started.
What is Out-of-Home (OOH) Advertising?
Out-of-Home marketing, or OOH, is a more traditional form of advertising that can breathe new life into your marketing strategies. It is advertising media that will appear in places where a consumer is most likely to see them. OOH ads include billboards, bus stop signage, digital displays, walkway signs, and more.
Basically, any type of advertising that has a physical signage you would see out in the real world. These advertisements are geared towards building brand awareness with consumers for the portion of the day that they are away from their home and about their day-to-day business.
Types of OHH Billboard Advertising in Detroit
When it comes to Out-of-Home advertising, the media types are nearly as endless as your imagination, though there are some standard applications.
Static & Digital Billboards
Billboards have been an advertising staple for decades. Nearly everyone is familiar with billboards and likely sees at least one of them on their daily commutes! However, with advancing technologies, billboards are becoming more than just a large poster on the side of the road.
Digital billboards have brought a new dimension to highway billboard advertising. These billboards allow an advertisement to be displayed and changed, controlled by a computer after a set amount of time. The main advantage of digital billboards is the potential of having multiple images displayed in rotation and the ability to change the messaging more frequently.
Static billboards, primarily seen near roadways, interstates, and shopping centers, are large print ads that relay a quick message. These cost-effective outdoor advertisements are meant to be seen from a distance and deliver a short message, generally for a brand, location, or product.
Public Transport Advertising
In recent years, public transport advertising has become a trend for OOH marketing. While it has not been uncommon to see advertisements around public transport in the past, like at bus depots or stops, it is now becoming more common to see advertisements on and within the transit itself. Everything from bus interiors to train cars can be an excellent opportunity for OOH advertising.
Advertising in these ways allows you to get your message to consumers where you know they will be throughout their day.
Arena & Stadium Advertising
Another great way to get targeted messaging across is through stadium advertising. Using market research information available from the arena, you can target your message to the demographics that visit during game days and concerts.
With the many advertising opportunities available throughout arenas and stadiums, you can easily get your message out to a willing audience. In addition, you have the opportunity to have your ad placed on scoreboards, replay screens, dioramas, or courtside in front of thousands of people at one time, guaranteeing impressions for your brand.
Benefits of Out-of-Home Advertising
While mobile and television advertisements will always be tools in a marketing strategy, incorporating more out-of-home advertising into your plan can bring many benefits. Not only will you be able to reach a more significant number of consumers on the move, but you can also meet those consumers where they will be during their day!
Highly Targeted Marketing
Using the knowledge of your marketing demographics vs. your population demographics, you can tailor your advertising to speak directly to your target audience. By strategically placing ads that will reach your target demographic where you know they will be, you will have a greater chance that they will engage with it.
OOH Can Target Specific Demographics & Audiences
Using out-of-home advertising targeted directly to your desired demographic will make the most of your advertising budget. For instance, if you were selling a product designed for use by 20 to 30-year-old females, and you were advertising in metro Detroit, you could likely spend your advertising dollars on out-of-home signage near shopping centers like Somerset, Twelve Oaks Mall, Great Lakes Crossing, Lakeside Mall, or the Renaissance Center.
Knowing your demographic and better tailoring your advertising to those demographics is what makes OOH ads so flexible and great use of advertising budgets. S4 Connect can help you get your marketing message in front of your audience and guide your through all of the OOH advertising options in Metro Detroit.
Increased Local Travel Incentivizes Billboards
With an abundance of tourism coming into Detroit to take advantage of the city’s cultural aspects, along with the thousands of commuters each day, makes the use of billboards along roadways a lucrative means of advertisement. Due to the amount of traffic frequenting the city every day, the potential reach of a billboard advertisement (digital or static) could easily be tens of thousands of people per day!
Travel throughout the Metro Detroit area to destinations in Northern Michigan also create additional opportunities to engage with local travelers and tourists.
Detroit Billboard Advertising Opportunities For Businesses
While there are thousands of billboards across the country and hundreds in the greater Detroit area, making static or digital billboards one of the best ways to get your brand’s message out to a moving public.
Market Products, Services & Special Events
Advertising products, services, or events using a billboard can effectively reach a broad audience quickly. With few words and eye-catching graphics, you can convey your product, service, or event in a way that will create interest and recognition, inviting consumers to find out more. By using billboards to relay this information, you have the potential to reach thousands of potential customers per day.
Promote Job Postings
Businesses are finding it difficult to get people to apply for jobs since the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic. Using billboard advertising to promote job openings to thousands of people can help bring in a larger pool of applicants for your business. As opposed to internet job ads, where potential employees would have to search out the position, utilizing billboards can make it known to those in the job market that your business is ready to hire!
Spread Social Campaigns
Another great way to utilize a billboard marketing campaign is through combining the ad with a social campaign. If there is a promotion that you sponsor on social media, using a billboard-based campaign will enable you to amplify your message to reinforce and broaden that messages’ audience. Digital billboards can even be updated instantly with your latest tweet or Instagram post.
Where are the Best Opportunities for OOH Ads in Metro Detroit?
As the most populated city in Michigan, with its location close to the USA-Canada border, Detroit has many cultural, historical, and sports-related attractions that bring tourists to the city. Several major highways are used for commuting that offer excellent opportunities for a billboard advertisement.
Interstates & Highways
There are many high traffic areas in and around Detroit that allow OOH advertising to reach large numbers of people every day. Using these high-traffic areas in your marketing plan can be a great way to utilize your marketing budget and reach the greatest number of potential consumers.
Billboards on I-96, I-94, I-75, and I-696 Produce High Amounts of Traffic
As major thoroughfares for commuters in and out of the Motor City, using OOH ads along interstates I-96, I-94, I-75, and I-696 have the potential to reach millions of potential consumers each week. With this kind of exposure, the potential benefits to your business from a well-placed billboard can far outweigh the expense of a tv or radio campaign.
Tourism Hubs
With Detroit’s cultural centers, museums, art galleries, and sports arenas, there is no shortage of attractions for tourists. With an influx of tourist traffic, the benefit of using OOH advertising around these areas can mean constant exposure for your brand.
Casinos & Sports Arenas and Stadiums in Detroit
In Detroit, three major sports arenas and stadiums are big pulls for traffic in the downtown area.
- Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers
- Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions
- Little Caesars Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons
Downtown Detroit’s popular casinos and entertainment venues bring guests in to the city for the night or a weekend.
- Motor City Casino Hotel
- MGM Grand Detroit
- Greektown Casino
These live entertainment venues offer the ability to let you advertise to a focused, captive demographic through multiple platforms inside the stadium. There is also the ability to use OOH outside of the stadium with pedestrian signs, billboards, bus shelter and bench advertisements, even possible wraps on shuttles!
Downtown Detroit Foot Traffic
As the heart of city, downtown Detroit draw large amounts of foot traffic to the area. Those who want to look into lively entertainment venues and explore Detroit’s booming past will move from historical buildings to a city-wide resurgence. See the beginnings of the automobile industry and feel the beat of Motown. While these attractions bring tourists, they also bring great opportunities to use pedestrian panel advertisements on sidewalks, bus shelter panels, bench panels, and bus wrappings.
Digital Burnout for Consumers
Though the digital age is not going anywhere, digital media takes up so much of our lives that consumers are quickly reaching a point of “burnout.” Companies must find marketing strategies, like OOH ads, that do not revolve solely around digital media.
By switching up your means of marketing and advertising, you can also reach a broader base of consumers with your ad spend!
Contact S4 Connect for More Resources on Detroit OOH Advertising
While many companies are focused on print or digital media advertising, it is essential to remember that out-of-home ads can be an incredibly effective way to reach your target demographic. Contact S4 Connect today and let us help you find the right type of out-of-home advertising that will work for you and your brand!
