Mental availability uplift from OOH creative with distinctive brand codes: study

Out-of-home (OOH) creative incorporating distinctive brand codes – including logo, colour, shape, tone of voice and style of imagery – averaged a 13% uplift in category mental availability versus weakly coded ads, according to research by media company JCDecaux New Zealand.

Why it matters

Using distinctive brand codes in OOH creative influences mental availability, which predicts the propensity for a brand to come to mind in a buying situation versus simply being known.

Key insights

• Mental availability is an important brand metric and is often undermeasured compared with awareness or consideration.
• Ads with strong brand codes are liked 31% more than weakly coded ads.
• Liked ads drive uplifts by 18% as strongly coded ads are easier to cognitively process, which leads to perceived preference.

Quote

“At JCDecaux, we subscribe to the view that advertising ‘works’ through building memory structures that consumers call on in a buying situation. This study puts specific numbers around our knowledge that strongly coded out-of-home advertising can influence decision making and drive a sales effect” – Victoria Parsons, Senior Insights and Strategy Specialist, JCDecaux New Zealand.

Background

The study was conducted in partnership with behavioural insights company NeuroSpot and involved 1,600 participants, who were shown real campaign creative across five categories: automotive, banking, FMCG, energy and alcoholic beverages (beer).