Fake out-of-home ads—how they help and hurt brands and the OOH industry

Posting out-of-home ads on social media sites including Instagram and TikTok has emerged as an increasingly popular tactic for brands. But not every billboard exists in real life. Fake OOH, or as some call it, “FOOH,” involves displaying images of often-Photoshopped billboards in a move to drive attention for marketers operating on tight budgets. Ad Age A-List & Creativity Awards Final deadline approaching for annual program Enter here Supporters of the practice, including some inside the OOH industry, say it is a good and often creative way to draw eyeballs without paying for actual billboards. But some experts argue that fake OOH ads could erode brand trust. “In today’s day and age, when consumer trust is so hard to get and easy to lose, I think we should stay away from fake and fraud,” said Anna Bager, president and CEO of the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA). One of the most attention-grabbing fake out-of-home efforts in recent months came from L’Oreal cosmetics brand Maybelline, which in the summer posted a TikTok video showing a train in London with a fake eyelash on top of it getting a swipe of mascara from a giant Maybelline mascara wand as it pulled into the station. The TikTok caused some confusion among TikTok commenters who seemed excited to go and find the train in real life … only to find out it was created with computer-generated imagery (CGI)—the fake eyelash and wand weren’t actually at any train stations in London. “Who knows which line it is? Really wanna have a look,” one TikTok user commented, only for Maybelline to reply with a perhaps more confusing wink emoji and heart emoji. Maybelline did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. @maybelline 📣 All aboard the Sky High Mascara Express ✨🚄 After hitting the NYC Streets, we’re taking over London💂🇬🇧 We are on the move with #SkyHighMascara elevating your lash game to new heights🌤️ 🌇 it’s guaranteed to serve limitless lash length 📏 and full volume😍 #Maybelline ♬ original sound - Maybelline New York Despite the potential for confusion, plenty of brands are using the tactic, including beauty brands Tower 28 and Glossier, as well as olive oil company Graza, and humidifier brand Canopy. Brand marketers who have experimented with FOOH say it has advantages, including as a cost-effective way to garner social media engagement. Also read: DTC brands are increasing out-of-home marketing Beauty brand Tower 28’s Founder and CEO Amy Liu said in a recent interview that putting a fake billboard with an on-brand message on social media is a fun and low-stakes way to communicate what the brand stands for as it grows in popularity. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tower 28 Beauty (@tower28beauty) A fake OOH ad created with Photoshop that beauty brand Tower 28 posted on its social media A recent fake billboard from Tower 28 did not include the brand’s name or logo—just the phrase “It's okay to outgrow people, places, things,” a phrase with a similar ethos to the brand’s motto, “It’s okay to be sensitive.” Posting an unbranded message would be a risky approach for a real-life billboard, especially for a brand such as Tower 28 that does not yet have widespread awareness. Liu joked that when it comes to real out-of-home ads, “I’m like, make the logo bigger.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Canopy (@get.canopy) Dickieson confirmed that this Canopy billboard can’t be found anywhere in real life Kendall Dickieson, the founder of Flexible Creative consultancy, which has created fake billboards on social media for Graza and Canopy, said that she thinks the strategy is “a fun way to help lean into the tease phase of a collab or new launch.” The biggest benefit of fake billboards is their cost, Dickieson said, as it’s naturally cheaper to create a fake OOH ad internally and reap the benefits of it on social than it would be to spend the money on a real campaign. There’s some evidence that OOH posted to social channels can drive sales—48% of users who notice OOH ads on social media platforms engage with the advertised company online, according to OAAA and Harris Poll research published last year. (The study did not distinguish between real and fake OOH, merely asking respondents about their behavior after seeing an OOH on social media.) Real out-of-home, however, still has the upper hand when it comes to virality, according to Dickieson. “The downside of ‘fake’ is you can’t create distribution from it,” she said, noting that with billboards in real life, the brand can leverage the resulting user-generated content created when people see the billboard and tag the brand on social media. Brian Rappaport, founder and CEO of OOH buying and planning agency Quan Media Group, put it succinctly: “If you want to see yourself in out-of-home so badly, then spend on the channel, trust the channel.” But other major OOH industry players suggested that even though OOH sellers are not benefiting from fake billboards, they could still benefit from the trend. Because once brands experiment and see positive results, they might become more curious about investing in the real thing. For example, a brand putting fake OOH on their social media account could legitimize the “creativity and impact” of the channel, Jodi Senese, CMO at Outfront Media, said in a recent interview. “Out-of-home makes extraordinarily powerful social content. And this is just another proof point of that,” she added. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Glossier (@glossier) A Glossier spokesperson confirmed that this billboard is fake, and was created by Glossier’s in-house team to promote its “You Look Good” tour, Bager said all the fake out-of-home ads on social media have put a spotlight on the channel at large. “People ask about it—they definitely ask our members about it: ‘Can you do that? Where did that happen? How can we do something similar?’” she said, adding that the trend not only drives attention to out-of-home but also “shows how powerful it can be.” Senese said that she’d be “thrilled” to work with any brand that has experimented with the fake OOH trend on social media because she thinks “what we could deliver in real life, amplified on social channels” would give those brands “a lot more benefit” than a social media post of a fake billboard can. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Graza (@getgraza) A fake billboard that Dickieson created for Graza In Kantar’s 2023 Media Reactions study, the top three “attention capturing” media types for consumers worldwide were “all OOH or digital OOH media types,” Dan Levi, executive VP and chief marketing officer at Clear Channel Outdoor said in an email, adding that OOH should be “about creating brand experiences and advertising that consumers like, appreciate, pay attention to and actually want to share.” “Yes, faux OOH ads get social media attention. But real OOH ads get actual consumers to pay attention and respond,” he added. Bager echoed the sentiment, saying that “smart brands” will soon realize that “it's better to actually be in the place where you claim to have the ad,” especially for targeting reasons. After all, real OOH ads are location-based, and placed in certain locations so that the best audience for the brand is likely going to interact with them. This leads to even more user-generated content in terms of views and shares, she said. Subscribe to Ad Age Sign up now for the latest industry news and analysis Click here

Fake out-of-home ads—how they help and hurt brands and the OOH industry

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