Strategy
Part of What a workable out of home advertising strategy means for UK media planning
Out of home advertising planning template: columns and one row
Build an out of home advertising planning template one row per site: the seven column groups, a worked example row and what each column must record.
What to take away
- Use one row per site and one column in each of seven groupsobjective, site, audience data, cost, dates, approval and evidence.
- Give every choice an evidence column, so a later review can see why a site was picked.
- Cost columns carry media, production, installation, removal and monitoring, not media alone.
- Date columns work backwards from the live date, with a buffer before each hard deadline.
- Creative gets its own gate. IAB UK's creative best practice guidance maps well to fixed-format OOH.
Why the sheet runs one row per site
One row per site keeps every decision attached to the thing it affects. The failures a template prevents are a format chosen before the audience and a creative nobody can read from 30 metres, and a fixed set of columns makes the same questions come up every time.
Four blocks of the template
- Objective and audience
- Environment and format
- Budget and timing
- Measurement
- Evidence column for each choice
- Named owner per block
Media spend is rarely the biggest risk, so the sheet gives the other risks columns of their own. Add a column for the evidence behind each choice, because a row that cannot say why its site, format and daypart were chosen is a guess.
The seven column groups
Each group answers one question, and every row answers all seven. A row with an empty group is not ready to book.
| Group | Columns | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Objective and audience | Campaign reference, the single number that defines success, audience behaviour, daypart, geography | What must this site achieve? |
| Environment and site | Environment, format, site name, site owner, booking route | Where is it and who supplies it? |
| Audience data | Route cover, frequency, impacts for the selected audience | Who will it reach? |
| Cost | Media, production, installation, removal, monitoring | What does it really cost? |
| Dates | Artwork deadline, live date, removal date | When must each thing happen? |
| Approval | Measurement method, success definition, owner's name, approval date, status of each gate | Who signed it off? |
| Evidence | Why this site, this format and this daypart | Why was it chosen? |
One filled-in row
A worked row shows how specific each cell has to be. For a Manchester commuter push, the cells read as follows.
- Objective and audienceManchester, commuter audience on a weekday morning.
- Environment and site6-sheet on a transport corridor, with the owner and booking route named.
- Audience dataRoute cover and frequency set against 40 per cent of 25 to 44 year olds reached four times.
- Costmedia £400 a month, production £150 to £300 per artwork change.
- Datesartwork deadline and live date entered as real dates.
- Approvalthe owner's name in the approval column.
Writing the objective and audience cells
State the goal in one sentence that includes one number. "Reach 40 per cent of 25 to 44 year olds in Manchester four times" is workable. "Build awareness" is not, because nobody can tell whether the row delivered it.
Audience behaviour drives environment
Audience behaviour
- Commute into Leeds
- Transport formats
- Shop on Saturday
- Retail and leisure
- Family audience
- Retail and leisure
Environment
- Commute into Leeds
- Weekday dayparts
- Shop on Saturday
- Weekends
- Family audience
- Weekends
Timing
- Commute into Leeds
- Shop on Saturday
- Family audience
Write the audience as behaviour rather than a label. People who commute into Leeds on a Tuesday behave differently from people who shop there on a Saturday, even when the age brackets match. In the UK, Route is the audience measurement currency for out of home, so its cover and frequency figures belong in the audience data columns.
Writing the environment and site cells
Classic sites reward frequency and long dwell times. Digital sites reward flexibility, dayparting and short copy rotations. Rotation length matters as much as screen count, because a message that needs more than six seconds to land suits a format that holds attention.
Before a row is approved, check sightlines, illumination, obstruction and approach speed. Ask for a recent photograph taken at the time of day you are buying, since a site that looks strong on a map can be blocked by a new building or a bus shelter.
Give each site a consent cell too. The Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 apply to the display of advertisements on sites in England only, so a site outside England needs the rules of its own nation. Note why a rejected site was rejected, so the same argument does not return next quarter.
Writing the cost and date cells
List every cost line before you compare sites, with media, production, installation, removal and monitoring in the same sheet. A team paying £400 a month for a local 6-sheet still needs £150 to £300 per artwork change for production, and the cost columns make that visible.
Ask for a rate card that separates production from media, because bundled quotes hide the cost of a late artwork change.
Work the date columns backwards from the live date. Artwork approval, print slots and installation windows all take time, so add two buffer days before every hard deadline. Keep one version number on the sheet, because multiple copies are how errors get through.
Writing the approval and evidence cells
Set three gates in the approval group: brief approved, creative approved, sites booked. Nothing moves on without a signature and a date, and templates that skip a gate pay for late changes. Agree what counts as success, who signs off creative and who signs off spend.
Decide the measurement method before the campaign runs, because most OOH measurement cannot be retrofitted. Record it in the same row as the success definition, so the number the row promised and the way it will be counted sit side by side.
Common questions
How long should the template be?
One page for the summary and one page of detail. Anything longer stops being read by the people who sign it off.
Should the template include creative specs?
Yes. Record the dimensions, file formats and copy limits for each format you are buying, so the design team is not guessing once sites are booked.
When should the template be completed?
Before any site is reserved. A finished template should show that objective, audience, format and budget all point the same way.
