How Arla and Guinness applied captivating OOH ads to maximize their audience reach
Arla and Guinness successfully engaged consumers through their captivating OOH campaigns, leveraging curiosity to extend their reach Discover the insights from Kantar's 'The Works' study on these food and drink brands
Marketers have a chance to craft attention-grabbing creative through out-of-home (OOH) advertising, which can lead to long-term brand uplift as long as the concept and execution are strong.
In the most recent edition of 'The Works' by Kantar, which assesses advertising effectiveness, Arla and Guinness achieved impressive results for their OOH creative in October of this year.
Commissioned in collaboration with Our Website and the Advertising Association’s Trust Working Group, the Kantar survey involved gathering insights from 750 consumers regarding the most impactful OOH ads during the specified timeframe.
Arla’s Lactofree 3D installation clinched the top position, owing to its innovative 3D feature that extends the Lactofree carton beyond the confines of the advertising hoarding. This creates a captivating illusion of the dairy-free milk product being poured, with many Kantar survey participants attributing its effectiveness to its "eye-catching" execution.
According to Kantar, the ad ranks in the top 6% of UK ads for being interesting. Kantar's head of creative excellence for the UK, Lynne Deason, notes that OOH ads can spark discussion and have a life, reach, and visibility that extends beyond the location itself. She points to Arla's Lactofree OOH special build at Westfield, London as a great example, with 37% of people saying they would definitely tell others about the ad.
The ad's capacity to capture attention enabled Arla to effectively communicate brand and product messages. According to Kantar data, the ad ranks in the top 15% for its distinctiveness and the prominence of the brand name places it in the top 40% of UK ads for branding. Importantly, in the competitive dairy-free market, the ad ranks in the top 5% for effectively conveying the lactose-free nature of the milk.
Kantar’s eye-tracking study reveals that the 3D carton grabs the most attention, followed by the brand logo and the words ‘easier to digest’.
Deason elaborates: “Ads don’t naturally capture people’s interest; they won’t exert mental effort to decode the ad or understand your message. Data from Kantar’s Link database indicates that adding more messages ultimately weakens the main takeaway, leading to the 'less is more' effect.”
That sentiment was echoed in several comments from the survey participants, such as "the simplicity and ease of understanding" and "clearly indicates its lactose-free nature".
Source: Diageo
The simplicity of the message and branding was also seen in the Guinness creative, which was just behind Arla in the Kantar data. The image of a pint of Guinness made from surfboards is in the top 4% for brand recognition without the product, and overall branding ranks in the top 5% of Kantar-analyzed ads.
Deason explains: "Guinness's OOH campaign demonstrates that special builds are not the only effective way to create OOH ads that deliver results. The campaign positions Guinness as a refreshing drink on hot days, using the brand's unique assets and tone of voice, which is found to be highly distinctive, smart, and funny."
