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Out of Home for Pharma: Why Sometimes Going Big Is Right on Strategy — and Exactly What Your Brand Needs
Pharma marketing has mastered the art of precision. We organize audiences by condition, behavior, what they’re searching for, you name it. But when it comes to efficiency, something big got lost — literally.
Out of Home (OOH), one of the oldest and most powerful awareness channels, has been pushed to the side as digital steals the spotlight. You might be thinking I’m old school, but I’m not alone. OOH is still booming in other industries, even hitting a record high last year to reach $9.13 billion. Billboards, street furniture, transit — spending for all of those was up. Apple took the top spot in OOH advertising for the third year in a row, followed by McDonald’s and Amazon.
And yet, pharma marketers continue to pass on incorporating this approach into their marketing plans.
This isn’t to say that digital doesn’t matter, because it does. But OOH — including digital (dOOH) — can make a major impact on top of your other media plans. Sometimes, going big isn’t reckless — it’s right on strategy.
Why Out-of-Home marketing still works
Over the past decade or so, marketing has gotten more optimized than ever — programmatic ads, social targeting, SEO, and data-driven everything. These tools are essential, sure, but every brand has these capabilities.
OOH has power that digital alone doesn’t. It reminds people that your brand is real, visible, and worth noticing. Without algorithms or filters, it shows up in the physical world, where credibility carries weight.
Let’s break it down:
- Visibility equals credibility. Being seen in the real world creates trust and legitimacy, especially in an industry where skepticism runs high.
- Reach and frequency still matter. OOH delivers repeated, unavoidable impressions in key places — think medical corridors, hospital districts, and commuter routes frequented by HCPs and consumers.
- Context is power. The right message in the right location drives action, like a clinical trial awareness poster outside a cancer center or a campaign near related specialty clinics (like our tongue-in-cheek billboards about painful periods).
- Creativity is endless. OOH allows for powerful visual storytelling, and it’s a rare channel where simplicity and emotion shine.
Like everything in marketing, OOH doesn’t work in isolation. In combination with supporting media plans, OOH can power awareness across every channel, making your brand unforgettable.
When going big is exactly what your brand needs
- Brand launches: Nothing builds awareness faster or says “we’ve arrived” louder.
- Awareness campaigns: Perfect for broad education about conditions or symptoms (like when we placed bright barstools into bars and posters in bathrooms to get people talking about their colorectal cancer risk).
- Reputation-building: Forget misinformation or competition when physical visibility cuts through the noise.
Doing OOH marketing the right way
Going big doesn’t mean throwing all strategy to the wind. Smart OOH still means planning around your audience, integrating with the rest of your marketing, measuring smartly, and keeping creative clean, emotional, and impactful.
I’ve been in the game long enough to say that Out-of-Home marketing isn’t a nostalgia play. It’s part of a larger strategy for visibility. If your brand feels like it’s getting lost in the noise, it might be time to take up a little more space. Sometimes, the most strategic move you can make is to be seen.