This week marks the beginning of a new monthly collaboration between System1 and JCDecaux UK to celebrate the best and most effective OOH advertising on bus shelters. This month’s winners are PG Tips, Strongbow, and Wrigley’s Extra.
Having previously worked with System1 on our guide for designing the perfect digital poster, this new collaboration will use JCDecaux’s VIM testing method (showing which aspects of the poster creative captures the audience's attention) as one of its metrics for judging poster effectiveness alongside System1’s short-term Spike Rating and long-term Star Rating as well as System1's Fast Fluency score, which shows how much of the audience are able to recognise the brand that is being advertised.
As these results and our Perfect Poster insight show - a poster that grabs attention through strong, impactful branding and a clear call to action so that it is quickly understood and recognised (ie has fast fluency) and generates an emotional response are key elements in creating a highly effective poster. Read on for JCDecaux and System1’s three Best OOH Posters from May.
1.PG Tips: “Sip, Sip, Boom”
The first of our 3 highlighted ads, PG Tips’ “Sip Sip Boom”, gets that right. The logo is prominent and clear, but the ad also does a terrific job of matching product and branding with its main visual – a mug of hot tea in PG Tips’ distinctive green and red colours. It’s no wonder both Fast Fluency and Final Fluency (a recognition measure with a longer time window) are well above the norm: it was the only ad that more than half the audience recognised within 2 seconds. The PG Tips poster isn’t a top performer emotionally but it obeys some of the Branding Rules in our Perfect Poster book – limited elements in an ad, strong colours, and distinctive colours for the brand.
2. Strongbow: “Take a Bow”
Our second ad for Strongbow was the best emotional performer of the posters we looked at, achieving a 3.2-Star Rating. Strongbow are in the second year of their “Take A Bow” campaign, and the new tagline is prominent on posters where the product is very much the hero – big, simple shots introducing new Strongbow Zest Cider alongside Tropical Cider. “Tropical’s Got A Zesty Besty” is the strapline, which helps drive the higher emotional response to the ad with an entertaining pun that grabs attention and makes audiences curious. The short, fun copy and the big product shots are both things we recommend doing in our Perfect Poster guidelines, too.
3. Wrigley’s Extra Gum: “Be One With Your Gum”
Our third OOH highlight comes from Wrigleys Extra gum – “Be One With Your Gum”, exhorts a poster with a smiling young guy, gum between his teeth. An Extra pack shot and the brand’s “Chew Good” strapline sit below. This ad is a solid all-round performer but particularly strong on JCDecaux’s Attention metric, where it was the top performer. You can see why – simple, bold colours, a strong pack shot and a poster dominated by a human face, all of which are things that get audiences to take notice.
