from Trung Phan | by Trung Phan

1/ Brex raised new funding at a $7.4B valuation. Interestingly, the corporate card startup launched in 2018 with a very successful $300k out-of-home (OOH) ad campaign. Here's a breakdown of Brex's OOH strategy 🧵 t.co/gw8n4cP7oh

2/ First, what are out-of-home (OOH) ads? There are 4 major categories: ◻️ Street furniture (bus benches, phone kiosks) ◻️transit (taxis, busses, airports) ◻️place-based (arenas, shopping malls) ◻️billboards (traditional and digital) Billboards make up 60%+ of OOH inventory. t.co/DCzQj5WIey

3/ What's interesting about OOH is that if used correctly, the cost to reach 1k people (aka CPM) is cheaper than other ad options. t.co/78qhaOQ6zl

4/ In OOH campaigns, there is usually a trade off between: ◻️ Frequency: How often your target demo sees an ad ◻️ Reach: How many *total* people see your ad Brex launched to a very specific demo (startup founders in SF), so it optimized for frequency: t.co/mzAM6q7pTM

5/ Brex spent $300k for a 3-month campaign to "dominate" its chosen area. "Dominate" entails: ◻️ Owning 50%+ of the ad inventory in a selected region ◻️ Capture attention quickly and be omnipresent Brex really did feel like it was "everywhere" t.co/7zSVPIC2hI

6/ Brex used the "Anchor and Amplification" strategy. An ANCHOR is a big attention-grabbing ad unit that a large % of your audience sees (eg. Brex took over the platform station next to Oracle Park) Once you establish an anchor, AMPLIFY your message around the city w/ more ads. t.co/PUq6pcz5x9

7/ Choosing locations With so many options, it's important to do "market rides" (a "from-the-ground" POV) A well-known Brex billboard is “Money Tree”. This ad space was long devalued b/c a tree obstructed it. A market ride found it had the opportunity for a clever creative. t.co/7lxABy04Nf

8/ Creative tips #1 ◻️At the start of a campaign, the message should be very direct and clear ("the first corporate card for startups"). ◻️ After brand is more established, you can ad some mystery ("this will catch your 'interest'") to drive curiosity t.co/IhReFlOYvh

9/ Creative tips #2 ◻️ OOH happens in a flash (keep copy to 7 words or less) ◻️ Color contrast is key to make ads -- often seen at a distance -- legible (stick to primary/complementary color combos) ◻️ Don't forget the CTA (t.co/ZBSQXFJo4H) t.co/ScmbNggCvV

10/ The playbook is from a Q&A I did w/ Brex's Head of OOH last year for Trends. Brex rolled out a similar strategy for 2 other demos: ecomm (in LA) and life sciences (in Boston) For more biz gold, smash that FOLLOW: @TrungTPhan t.co/sfXmozSpcF

11/ Read the fulls Trends Q&A here: t.co/tH0cMpa2oJ

12/ More OOH Resources Geopath (for initial OOH mapping and measurement): t.co/kYz7i1pMQ0 List of 200+ OOH ad companies: t.co/LdXcqb67SJ Rate card for Clearchannel (an OOH vendors) to see inventory costs: t.co/XyY7S9wbQY