1. What does outdoor advertising include?
Outdoor advertising is often abbreviated as OOH (out-of-home advertising), and some call it offline advertising. This article focuses on traditional outdoor formats and does not cover digital out-of-home (DOOH).
Anything placed where passing crowds can see or hear it counts as outdoor advertising, for example large billboards, light boxes in MRT (metro) stations, cable TV channels, bus and taxi ads, vehicle wraps, and even video screens in office lifts and outside residential buildings.
2. How can you monitor the effect of outdoor advertising?
Although outdoor advertising cannot provide data such as reach, impressions and conversions the way digital advertising does, there are still ways to evidence its effect:
- A third-party market research company (such as Nielsen) can provide playback monitoring reports to confirm that the ads ran as scheduled.
- Official footfall reports show the ads’ potential impact. For example, Taipei Metro regularly updates its ridership figures.
- If the budget allows, you can also commission a market research company to carry out in-person surveys to find out whether consumers saw the ad, what impression it made, and whether it influenced their purchase decisions.
This information can help you report internally when real-time performance data is not available.
3. What are the ways to buy outdoor advertising, and how do you choose?
There are three common ways to buy outdoor advertising:
- Direct sales
Some building facade ads, for example, are run directly by the developer or property management company. This suits brands that need a single location and have simple requirements: you can negotiate yourself and save on service fees. For large purchases (such as vehicle ads), you can decide based on volume and price whether to have a media agency coordinate them. - Exclusive agents
Sites such as the MRT, high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway and bus stations are usually managed exclusively by a media agency, which handles sales, booking and installation. You have to deal with that agency, so this suits larger, integrated purchases. - General media agencies
Because of their number of clients, agencies have negotiating leverage and can help coordinate purchases across multiple platforms, lowering communication and execution costs. This is especially suitable for brands that want to spread their spending evenly across several channels.
If you are buying in large volume and want to negotiate long-term terms, deal directly with the exclusive agent. If you just want to spread your placements and work more efficiently, we recommend having a media agency handle quotes and placements for you.
4. How do you choose outdoor placements?
- Expected reach
You can estimate reach from footfall. For example, an MRT interchange station can see hundreds of thousands of passengers a day; combined with multiple placements and sustained exposure, this can significantly increase overall share of voice. Outdoor advertising is an awareness medium, so we recommend choosing at least 3 to 5 placements and running for at least two weeks to avoid insufficient visibility. - Target audience (TA) and their routes
Although you cannot target an audience precisely, you can choose placements based on the daily routes of your target group:- Office workers (aged 25–45): MRT station light boxes, office building video screens, transport hub billboards
- Students and young people (aged 18–25): around campuses, bus ads, billboards in night market and shopping districts
- High-net-worth groups: department stores, office buildings, elevated billboards, high-speed rail stations and other high-traffic areas
For more precise data, you can combine third-party footfall surveys, or use internal data and heat map tools to estimate audience distribution.
- Whether the budget is sufficient
Outdoor placements are exclusive and cannot be shared, so the unit cost is relatively high. For a full marketing campaign, we recommend a budget of at least NT$200,000 to support enough placements and visibility. Buying a single location is likely to have limited effect and only suits special situations or personal activities (such as fans supporting an idol).
5. Buying outdoor advertising: questions and answers
Q: How far ahead should outdoor advertising be planned?
Physical materials such as light box films and vehicle ads usually need a proof to be approved, to avoid the extra cost of reprinting or reinstalling. We recommend allowing at least two weeks from proof to going live. Adding in booking the space, design and the approval process, it is best to plan two months ahead.
Q: I want to drive the audience of my outdoor ads to my website or LINE Official Account. Do you still recommend QR codes?
For static ads (such as MRT light boxes and in-train ads), you can add a QR code or LINE Beacon to encourage passers-by to engage with the content. For moving ads (such as bus and taxi wraps), which are constantly in motion, it is better to focus on a short, simple slogan.
