When a major consumer electronics retailer sought to drive more customers to their stores, they partnered with EMC to launch a targeted Out-of-Home campaign that would end up showing just how well Out-of-Home media drives store traffic and demonstrate its ability to deliver significant business results.
In an era where digital marketing dominates media conversations, hyper-personalization, cookies, and data privacy are all top of mind, Out-of-Home often struggles to compete with click-level metrics. However, the truth is that OOH media remains one of the most effective ways to drive real-world customer behavior.
Far from being an outdated medium, Out-of-Home delivers measurable, trackable results that directly impact the bottom line. This campaign demonstrates how strategic OOH placement can reach consumers when they’re most receptive—during their daily routines and closest to the point of purchase.
And, most importantly, it demonstrates OOH’s ability to affect the bottom line and deliver accountable performance. These results speak for themselves, offering clear proof that outdoor advertising not only holds its own but can outperform industry benchmarks when executed strategically.
The Challenge: Turning Visibility Into Visits
In today’s competitive retail environment, attracting customers to your store requires more than just brand awareness – it necessitates strategic placement that meets customers where they are and provides a compelling reason for them to take action. This retailer needed a strategy that would reach potential customers in the right places at the right times and motivate them to make the trip to nearby store locations.
The Strategy: Proximity-Driven, Multi-Format Approach
EMC developed a comprehensive OOH strategy built around two key principles: format diversity and proximity targeting. The campaign deployed multiple OOH formats strategically placed near store locations to maximize the likelihood of converting impressions into visits:
- Digital and static bulletins positioned along major traffic corridors
- Transit shelters reaching commuters during their daily routines
- Bus Kings delivering mobile messaging across metro areas
- Rail posters capturing attention during commutes
- Grocery store placements connecting with shoppers already out and about
The crucial element was proximity and audience—every placement was carefully selected based on its distance to store locations, ensuring that audiences who saw the ads could easily visit a nearby store.
The Results: Measurable Impact Across Markets
The campaign delivered impressive business results that significantly exceeded industry benchmarks:
50.97% Overall Lift in Store Traffic
The multi-format approach successfully drove more than 50% lift in footfall traffic across all markets. This overall lift in store traffic is an exceptionally strong result compared to industry benchmarks. Many retail and location-based marketing campaigns see uplifts in the range of 10–26% for store traffic, with 15% considered “relatively high performing” in retail.
213% Lift from Digital Bulletins in Texas
Digital formats proved remarkably effective, with Texas digital bulletins delivering exceptional performance and Colorado digital placements achieving a remarkable 65% lift.
4.45 Days Average Response Time
The proximity strategy paid off—customers moved from ad exposure to store visit in less than a week on average.
73,702 Tracked Store Visits
Third-party measurement confirmed substantial real-world business impact with tens of thousands of tracked visits.
What Made This Campaign Work
Smart Proximity Targeting: By prioritizing ad placements near store locations, EMC ensured that every impression had the potential to convert into a store visit. This proximity-first approach maximized the campaign’s practical impact.
Strategic Format Mix: The combination of high-impact digital bulletins, transit advertising, and lifestyle placements created multiple touchpoints that reinforced the message without overwhelming audiences.
Market-Specific Optimization: The team adapted its tactics to local market conditions while maintaining consistent brand messaging, enabling the campaign to resonate with diverse audiences across multiple metropolitan areas.
The Bottom Line
This campaign demonstrates that effective OOH goes beyond building brand awareness—Out-of-Home media drives store traffic, and delivers measurable business outcomes. By combining proximity-based placement strategies with diverse format selection and careful market targeting, EMC created a campaign that successfully guided customers from initial exposure to store visits.
The results prove that OOH, when strategically planned and executed, serves as a powerful performance driver. In an increasingly digital world, this campaign showed the unique value of reaching customers in the physical spaces where they live, work, and travel—and then making it easy for them to take the next step.
Contact Us to learn more about how Out-of-Home media can drive real-world business results for your brand.
