Breaking Boundaries: The Power of Fake Out Of Home Advertising
The magic of surprise disrupts the ordinary and fosters differentiation, but does it help or hurt brand trust?
Fake Out Of Home (OOH) advertising has been a relatively new bridge in marketing land that connects OOH’s emotional familiarity with AI’s appetite for imagination.
What is fake or faux OOH?
Fake Out Of Home Ads are ads that combine actual video footage with 3D elements, mostly showcasing a product in an absurd yet close to reality, sort of way. These ads may combine real video footage with imaginative 3D elements to showcase products in unique ways. Samsung, Maybelline, Adidas, Lenovo and even Apple have tried the trend.
No ordinary billboard, FOOH can potentially be a visual masterpiece that blurs reality and fiction, challenging everything you thought about outdoor advertising.
On the other hand, if not thought through well, it might be perceived as an illusion and might push the customers to distrust the brand, thereby debating ‘innovation vs authenticity’.
For savvy marketers like you, believing in the timeless impact of Outdoor advertising is a given. But here’s the twist — a recent Digital Signage Today survey found that 74% of marketers saw a spike in engagement with digital Out Of Home strategies.
Now, Fake OOH isn’t about faking it. It’s about surprising and engaging your audience in ways they never saw coming. Picture CGI seamlessly blending into the city hustle, grabbing attention with lifelike realism.. It’s not business as usual; it’s about sparking curiosity and conversations on the street.
Numbers don’t lie — AdAge’s study reveals a whopping 20% higher recall rate for Fake OOH campaigns compared to the traditional outdoor stuff. But it also asks whether these campaigns help or hurt brand salience?
Research by Edelman’s Trust Barometer consistently reveals that consumers trust businesses more when they perceive them as authentic and transparent.
This is where the power of social media can also work both ways — it can amplify a campaign to dizzying new heights, or amplify negative sentiment from audiences.
In a world of misinformation, audiences who are initially wowed might feel cheated when later discovering that a campaign was intentionally faked. There have been vigorous debates on the defense and offense against the use of FOOH and the ethics involved.
However, as you navigate the digital frontier, you might also find examples to share that fake OOH isn’t replacing authenticity; it’s evolving strategically. It taps into our hunger for the unexpected, challenging norms and opening doors for creative brand storytelling. Here is a whole playlist of beautiful FOOH ads to bring forth some inspiration!
In closing, this serves as a reminder to us marketers that quality and ‘quality of memory’ of a branded experience will reign, and FOOH when/if done with the intent to ethically engage will have more chances of a positive outcome.
