The out-of-home creatives we work with are blessed with an enormous canvas to display their vision, influence opinion, drive purchase and inspire hundreds of thousands of consumers that pass their billboards every day. There's power in outdoor, and the OBIES honor the best of the best each year. Here's a preview, but first—what are the OBIES?

Besides warmer weather and lighter skies, spring brings tax refunds helping to cushion the expense of improvements, and with an improved housing market, the remodeling and home-repair industry is expected to gain steam. Home improvement retail sales in the United States reached $394.6 billion in 2018, while homeowner expenditures on improvements and repairs rose 5.3 percent to approach $340 billion.

Owners will spend more on home upgrades, replacements and routine maintenance as remodeling activity continues to be encouraged by rising home values and tightening for-sale inventory.

Here are ten tactics to effectively use OOH to attract consumer attention and drive sales in the home improvement and services category:

After the decorations and holiday lights were finally stowed...(wait, you don't still have your lights up, do you?), we hope you've caught up on your "To (Binge) Watch" list. It's about time you found out what all those people on YouTube walking around blindfolded with birds on their shoulders, walking into walls are doing—and what they've been watching. And then there are your neighbors tossing boxes out front, proclaiming "This doesn't bring me joy!" What's going on? Here's a hint, check out these displays in Times Square and more of What We're Loving for your OOH cultural check:

Regardless of issue, affiliation, party, candidate or zip code, only one thing will make a difference on November 6th: Showing up. Of the myriad challenges political candidates face today—delivering campaign messages to their voters, getting new voters to the polls, standing out against their opponents—what they need most is for their constituents to move beyond social media posts and dinnertime debate and to VOTE.

Billboards deliver by building brand awareness, driving action with no interruptions, reaching voters by district, demographics and behavior and by being omnipresent. While  political campaigns have traditionally placed their buys on television, many are becoming more savvy in their planning and using out-of-home strategically, including Vote.org, which placed their messaging on more than 2,500 billboards in nine states, including Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.

With unusually warm weather lingering across the country, the only thing making it feel like fall again − is football season!  Tailgating, trash-talking, high-fiving, Super Bowl-predicting fans dominate the chatter at the office, on social and in our very own kitchens, Thursday thru Monday. Ok, it's ALL THE TIME...up until the Big Game in Atlanta this February.

While you may think of NFL fans as glued to the screen, they're on the move:

• 59% are more likely to have a daily commute of 30+ minutes
• 52% are more likely to travel 500+ miles a week, and
• 124% are more likely to take 3+ personal vacations a year (maybe they're checking off that stadium bucket list one by one?)

With 256 regular season games and over 17 million fans heading to stadiums each season, there is huge upside for advertisers to align themselves with game day. Whether your brand's focus is local or more of a national play, out-of-home is an unskippable medium that reaches consumers en route to the game, those picking up eats for their own turf, and those reliving every blissful touchdown during their drive the next morning. 

Not since childhood have we been so terrified of the water, thanks to this haunting visual of summer fun that's about to turn horrifying. The Meg, is apparently not the nickname for the cute, friendly lifeguard at the neighborhood pool, but a prehistoric-sized creature that likes tubes, legs and all things made of flesh. Check out this adrenaline-boosting out-of-home creative that may make some weekend warriors change direction while en route to the beach:

Sports Tourism is a hot and fast-growing sector of the global travel industry. Ranking high on the bucket list in the U.S. are the Super Bowl, the Masters, the Triple Crown of Horse Racing (Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and Belmont), the NCAA Final Four, Daytona 500, the US Open of Surfing, and the US Open Tennis Tournament. Recent trends show that these travelers want an authentic experience, extending their stay to get a taste and feel of the city they're visiting.

Step outside, and look up as you stroll through your neighborhood. You may just have a special message waiting for you, especially if you have social cred and influence. This summer, Adidas is showing the love to their family of brand ambassadors in LA and NYC with personalized messages brought to life on super-sized outdoor displays. Promoting Adidas Originals and the P.O.D. shoe, this campaign brings the one-to-one connection to a medium that reaches many.

Why is it we always discover we're thirsty once we're in the car and en route to our next destination? And then when the traffic hits -- hello, super-thirst! Thankfully, billboards offer refreshing, visual suggestions on what to drink and where to find it.

According to Nielsen, 58% of consumers buy a product as a direct result of seeing an out-of-home ad 5x. Whether targeting daily commuters or those adventurous friends and families road-trippin' this summer, use outdoor advertising to blanket markets with cool creative and watch your beverage sales soar!

Jockey, a 142-year-old brand recognized around the world for its premium underwear and apparel, announced the next chapter of its inspiring brand campaign " Show 'Em What's Underneath, Show 'Em Your Jockey." Conceived by marketing partner Pure Growth Consulting, the #ShowEm campaign features gold medalist and motivational speaker Victoria Arlen, who shows the incredible power of keeping faith after spending four years in a vegetative state.

Victoria Arlen is truly an everyday hero, defying the odds of paralysis and becoming an accomplished motivational speaker, actress, model, swimmer and one of the youngest on-air talents hired by ESPN. Her victories include winning three silvers and a gold medal for swimming at the London 2012 Paralympic Games and achieving world, American and Pan American Records, a childhood dream.

As part of the inspiring brand campaign, Victoria Arlen was featured in Times Square on five full motion digital screens, giving Jockey the opportunity to digitally sync their #ShowEm campaign, for 20 consecutive minutes at the top of the hour, every hour, in the crossroads of the world. And best of all, after a morning show appearance, Jockey surprised Victoria with this out-of-home show, check out her reaction: