Music Industry Advertising turns to OOH

Music industry advertising and promotion is increasingly turning to OOH to make an impact. Its an incredibly dynamic sector and out-of-home (OOH) advertising is an equally dynamic way to advertise new acts and established artists alike.

Here are just some of the ways the music industry is taking advantage of OOH promotion.

Make a big impact

Love is all you need to build a 79-Foot Echo in Times Square! @OutfrontMediaUS @amazonmusic #OOH pic.twitter.com/h1VK0EwZiI

— RapportUS (@rapport_US) June 15, 2017

Amazon erected a 79-foot tall replica of their Echo speaker in Times Square to advertise their Music Unlimited service.

The campaign linked their Unlimited service with their Alexa voice activated personal assistant interface and their Echo device.

The giant speaker accompanied a billboard with a text-based creative that read, “Alexa, play the song that goes “Love is all you need”, highlighting Alexa’s lyric search feature.

On top of all this, the “Love is all you need” lyric fragment worked as a kind of slogan-within-a-slogan.

Fit your budget

Whatever funds are available to you, there’s an OOH strategy that will give your campaign added impact.

For example, 6-sheet posters can be particularly effective for music advertising in high traffic areas. They are cheaper than billboards but still have some of the same impact. Think how many people will walk by street posters with their headphones in. They’re in the mood for music, and your ad may just inspire the next playlist on their iPod (or whatever the kids use these days).

Integrate user data

Spotify’s “Thanks 2016, it’s been weird” campaign tapped into their user’s anonymised listening habits to create a range of creatives based on popular music tracks; including an appeal to an avid Hamilton fan to bag some tickets, and to a Justin Bieber obsessive for playing “Sorry” 42 times on Valentine’s Day.

The OOH ad took the personal experience of listening to music and brought it into a public sphere for a very effective campaign.

Work the rumour mill

OOH ads don’t have to be direct; they can work in more mysterious ways to generate audience interest.

There’s a lot of buzz about a potential new Jay-Z album after ads simply displaying the numbers “4:44” started cropping up online and on the streets. The numbers have been interpreted as evidence of a new solo album due to the rapper’s fondness for using the number 4, including naming his daughter Ivy (IV being the Roman numerals for 4).

By displaying the ad on a street billboard, the rumour is taken from the niche realm of online hip hop fanatics to the streets, where a broader audience are let in on the speculation, priming mass interest for the anticipated release.

Reach the right people

Street level posters on busy high streets not only give exposure to pedestrians and vehicles, but also are a great way to target audiences after hours; when they’re in the mood for gigs, or seeking out new music to soundtrack their weekends.

When it comes to music advertising, the sky’s the limit in terms of what you can do with the OOH medium.

There’s no one way to proceed, but if you apply creativity and ingenuity to your ads you may just create a campaign that becomes a smash hit in its own right.