How to use OOH to promote vaping stores

Looking for a way to target your ideal audience and promote your vaping store? With so many restrictions placed on many other forms of advertising for vape products, outdoor advertising (OOH) is the ideal medium. How you advertise is easy – what you say and where you put it is the question.

The where, what and how to advertise vaping

It’s been about 10 years since electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and vaporiser (vape) products have been available in the UK. Since then, a lot of work has been done to not only improve the quality of the product, but also how it’s marketed.

A lot of the controversy around vape advertising is the concern that in promoting these products you’ll either:

Encourage non-smokers to start consuming nicotine-based products; or
Current smokers will consume even more nicotine by consuming both traditional and e-cigarettes.

This research, based on data from America, shows that traditional nicotine product sales went down as a result of advertising e-cigarettes. And, e-cigarettes can actually be an effective way of helping current smokers cut-down on the high levels of nasties they inhale by making the swap.

When it comes to advertising vaping, where you choose to place your ads is very important. On-demand TV, publications such as newspapers, magazines and internet, text and email is off limits. Luckily, that leaves the whole wide world of outdoor advertising at your disposal.

From bus stops to the whole bus itself – OOH is one medium you can use to your full advantage.

This vaping store in the UK used the back of a bus to promote their offering. A great use of OOH.

Image: https://www.adverta.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Juice-e-Vaporium-648×300.jpg

What you can and can’t say about vaping

When it comes to what you actually advertise, there are three main rules:

Don’t use children in your advertising. In fact, don’t use anyone who appears to be under 25 years old. That also means you can’t promote directly to this audience. Youth culture, popular influencers to millennials, and young talent should all be avoided.
Don’t say things you can’t back up. You can’t say that e-cigarettes will make anyone successfully quit smoking, unless the product is approved for that purpose by the MHRA. Endorsements from health practitioners are big no-nos, as are any medicinal claims.
State the facts about product ingredients. If you’re promoting a nicotine-based product, be honest with the information.

If you need any more information about what you can and can’t say in vape advertising, check out the official advice here.

When promoting vaping it's important to know what you need to say in the small print, like this large billboard.

Image: https://specialreports.oaaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/cs-vuseVapor-10-e1531745732203.jpg

Where you place your ad, matters

Once you know how to navigate the creative content – you can look to where you place those ads.

Thanks to a study on the marketing practices of vapor store owners in Oklahoma – where 6% of vape stores in the US are – we can see what works for some. The owners who participated in the study typically used outdoor advertising. They were particularly happy with the results of those located near events, such as outdoor concerts. Bars on Friday and Saturday nights were also a great push for the owners – which is a great way to use timed digital OOH to capture your target audience.

Small billboards like this one are great for vaping stores. This promotion went one step further with social media interaction, thanks to the hashtag

Image: http://webdream.co.uk/outdoor/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/blog-8-300×216.jpg

E-cigarette brand, Nicolites, dropped just under £500,000 on a month-long campaign with one simple message – ‘Can’t Stop? Just Swap’. The brand featured on over 1,000 billboards throughout the UK, including rail and underground placements, buses and taxis.

The results of the campaign are largely around the decrease in sales of traditional cigarettes. Given there are now approximately 2.8 million vapers in Great Britain and the lowest number of traditional smokers than ever – it’s surely made an impact.

Nicolites used over 1000 billboards throughout the UK, like one pictured to promote their E-Cigarette. Their message was all about swapping harmful cigarettes with vaping products.

Image: https://media-assets-03.thedrum.com/cache/images/thedrum-prod/public-drum_basic_article-118644-main_images-NicolitesSwaptoberBillboardAd–2×1–940.jpg

Luckily with Bubble, there’s no need to spend a years’ rent to promote your store. Thanks to the easy-to-use marketplace – you can sort and filter all your outdoor options in one place.

Add your ideal budget price, or search within a specific area (such as the geographic area around your store), add it to your cart and you’ll be increasing foot-traffic in no time.

Thanks to the office of statistics about e-cigarette buyers, identifying your audience just got easier. Typically men aged between 35-49 were the highest proportion of vapers. However, that does mean that the female counterparts are perhaps waiting for the right creative and placement to join the market.

Ready to place your ad? Just click here to walk through the steps, and get your content in a prime location, when you want it.