The Power of OOH Special Builds

In the Creative Solutions team at Talon it’s our job to create stunning, spectacular and unique campaigns for our clients; from bespoke LED installations, 3D architecturally mapped projections to large format special builds, our campaigns and ideas must be as creative and unique as the brief we’re given. Wowing clients with amazing creative ideas can be the easy bit but proving that brands should invest their budgets into an idea which we cannot guarantee will have the impact they need can be harder. Would I take the risk if it were my budget? 

We wanted to be able to prove that there was little risk. That special projects, bespoke installations and campaigns created to generate PR were more than just award-winning ideas. That they are impactful, they do work, and they do lead to changes in consumer behaviour. So, the Creative Solutions team and the Insight team got together to find proof. We chose a campaign where we had clear client and campaign objectives, stand-out artwork, a planned and booked special build campaign supporting regular media and OOH. 

Over Christmas, we executed a festive campaign with Sainsbury’s looking to champion key Christmas products through OOH. As part of that campaign we created a series of bright, slick special builds to stand out and entice consumers to think about Sainsbury’s food when catering for Christmas. Highlighting the glitz and glamour of the festive season they included 3D elements such as cutlery and confetti. The special builds were an integral part of the OOH campaign for Sainsbury’s and we sought to measure the role they played along with the effects they brought. 

Partnering with Dipsticks Research, we conducted over 300 face to face interviews with UK consumers exposed to different elements of the Sainsbury’s OOH campaign to see what impact exposure to the special build had on the performance of the overall campaign.  

The results showed that special builds deliver something above and beyond helping position a brand as more exciting and innovative. With over 7 in 10 consumers saying the extra elements really stood out, 67% also commented they positioned Sainsbury’s as an exciting brand. 

Innovation was another effect, with a 23% uplift in consumers’ association of ‘Sainsbury’s as an innovative brand’ and a +16% shift in consumers agreeing ‘Sainsbury’s offers interesting and exciting products’. Exposure generated a 35% increase in consideration to purchase some product lines.  

Not only are these results great for this campaign, they really help us position and plan the best creative solutions to match objectives and brand stand out and the role for this type of creativity. 

As this campaign proved, our builds - as original OOH formats - make a significant difference to media and OOH activity. They can help key parts of a campaign stand out. They make a brand more exciting and distinctive. And they help consumers move towards purchase by driving these emotional reactions on top of the media and OOH campaign effect. 

Catherine Knight is creative solutions project director and Emily Alcorn is head of insight at Talon Outdoor