Distracted driving took the lives of 3,166 people in 2017. Research shows texting while driving increases the risk of a teen vehicle crash by 23 times, and is the leading cause of teen deaths. One in three teens who text said they have done so—while driving. This is why Clear Channel Outdoor has partnered with Project Yellow Light and the Ad Council for the fourth year in the effort to #StopTextsStopWrecks.

Project Yellow Light hosts an annual nationwide scholarship competition calling for students to create a TV, radio or billboard PSA to educate the public about the dangers of distracted driving. Scholarships of up to $5,000 are awarded to those who create the most captivating PSAs promoting safe driving habits. This year, 2,709 students vied for the scholarship awards, a 69% increase from 2018!

Visually striking, vinyl-wrapped outdoor displays, Premiere Panels are informative, engaging and effective. They deliver reach, scale and frequency similar to bulletins, combined with the street level impact of transit shelters. According to a recent Nielsen Poster Study, 55% of those surveyed said when they noticed a directional Premiere Panel they changed their plans and visited the business advertised, and 60% said they are a good way to learn about sales, events and new businesses in the area. And they're memorable—those exposed 11+ times had an average ad recall of 55%.

Here are 5 reasons to add Premiere Panels to your media mix:

For grocers looking to cut through the clutter of weekly mailers, Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising has proved to be an effective partner in ringing up new sales opportunities. By using digital mobile location data, marketers can now identify shoppers’ travel patterns and behaviors in the physical world, identifying routes consumers most often travel and the optimal billboard locations to reach them.

Once consumers have been exposed to the billboards, marketers can retarget them with a digital coupon/offer via mobile and other digital platforms. Analysis of this same data delivers measurable outcomes and actionable insights to further reinforce a brand’s message among their desired consumer groups. In this post, we share a recent case study from a leading grocery chain employing this strategy.

In a city commonly referred to as Cowboys' Country and inside a state whose slogan starts with “Everything’s bigger…”, the Dallas Mavericks knew they had to GO BIG to standout in the Dallas/Fort Worth market. Heading into the 2018-2019 season, they had a clear mission: To excite, inspire and unite communities through entertainment, service and memorable experiences, creating Mavs Fans for Life.

If you’ve ever attended a Dallas Mavericks game, you've seen firsthand how the entertainment inside the arena spans far beyond the basketball played on court. Each and every game is uniquely memorable for those in attendance with immersive experiences scattered throughout the entire stadium. But this year’s mission was to unite “communities,” and not just the fans inside the building. So, how did Clear Channel combine the Mavs' experiential marketing initiatives with their dominant OOH presence outside of the stadium? 

We're happy to share Universal Studios received the 2019 OBIE Hall of Fame Award last night at the 77th OBIE Awards ceremony at the ARIA Las Vegas. Universal Studios was chosen by the out-of-home advertising industry and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), which established the OBIE Hall of Fame in 1992 to recognize brands that have built an enduring legacy through the consistent use of OOH advertising over many years and many, many standout campaigns.

Our CEO Scott Wells presented Universal Studios with the honor:

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?

QSR franchise owners are activating new tech and Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising to boost sales. And they’re doing it as part of OOH’s renaissance where this traditional form of highly-visible media is now connected to digital tech and mobile data insights in ways that make billboard campaigns even more cost-effective and measurable. Most importantly, they’re using outdoor ads to efficiently drive hungry customers into local franchises.

Using learnings from the digital media buying ecosystem, Clear Channel Outdoor developed tools to plan, measure and recalibrate OOH campaigns for brands. Clear Channel Outdoor’s (CCO) RADAR suite of solutions uses mobile data to select the most efficient billboards for a campaign’s objectives and measures whether those audiences exposed to the OOH campaign were more likely to take the desired action compared to a control group.

We're really, really pumped about the billboards we've spotted heating up the landscape across the country this spring. Naturally we love great outdoor creative, and we must confess we also love—the brooding, dark-haired, steely-eyed, "he's dead...he's not dead," never a zombie, always a hero—Jon Snow. Game of Thrones may be airing its final season, but their billboards will be forever immortalized.

Add the legend of Ron Burgundy, the fierce determination of Captain Marvel and the aerial wonders of Dumbo, and the spring batch of outdoor campaigns are scoring high with consumers. See these displays and more of What We're Loving  for your OOH cultural check:

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:

Having worked in the outdoor industry for over 20 years, many of them spent right in the heart of Times Square, I have seen it all. Experiential events, augmented reality, 3D props that move and steam, characters in furry costumes, naked cowboys with guitars...you name it. The most memorable executions all have something in common — great creative.

Whether I am in a city walking by transit shelters, traveling through airports scanning baggage claim screens or driving around town passing bulletins and posters, my eyes always gravitate up, looking for the best examples. It's natural for me to scan the landscape for these larger-than-life canvases promoting new brands, products or services that are relevant along my journey. Over the years I have seen countless examples and the best ones always have something in common. They stick to a set of tried and true best practices.

As I help lead teams of designers across the country, working with myriad brands and ad agencies, I have developed 7 fundamental ways any of them can have success when asked: "What can we do to make our billboards better?" I hope you find these easy to apply, and effective when developing your next out-of-home campaign to create impact, leave a lasting impression and drive consumer action.