AdQuick Partner Spotlight: Q&A with Wrapify's Valerie Carboni

There are many myths about out-of-home advertising, but the one that irks us the most is the misconception that out-of-home (OOH) begins and ends with roadside billboards.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Outdoor advertising is a diverse and dynamic channel, spanning dozens of ad formats and enabling unparalleled creativity.  From massive wall murals to branded pizza boxes to “street furniture” (i.e. park benches and urban panels) to car wraps, out-of-home advertising includes virtually any real-world surface that a brand can plaster its message on.

And Wrapify, a leading provider of wrapped car advertising, exemplifies this as much as anyone else. Trusted by Fortune 500s like Zoom, Amazon, and Petco, Wrapify provides high-recall OOH advertising via their ever-growing network of 500,000+ drivers throughout the United States.

We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Wrapify’s new VP of Marketing, Valerie Carboni.  Read on to hear Valerie’s take on:

• the top 3 tips for success with OOH advertising,
• the biggest myths and misconceptions about OOH,
• why it’s important to think “beyond the billboard”,
• and much, much more!

AdQuick: What do you view as the biggest benefits of OOH?

Valerie Carboni: If I boil it down to a few things, I think it’s reach and impact. At Wrapify, we often say you can “put it where you want it”...and by “it” we mean your ads. OOH can have such a wide reach by being mobile, being in many places at once, and being where the most people congregate. Now, you could say that digital ads have more reach - everyone has a phone and is on it seemingly 24/7 - but that’s where impact comes in. Digital natives aren’t seeing ads anymore. They are scrolling right past them, or in some cases, not seeing them at all due to high competition and expensive bidding wars. That’s why I think OOH is so beneficial, more so now than ever, because it is catching people’s eye and making them pay more careful attention.

AQ: Why should brands think beyond the billboard for their out-of-home media strategy?

VC: Simple answer, because they can! What used to be a medium with only one option has now expanded dramatically over the last few years. I myself as a marketer didn’t realize the amount of opportunities that were available - from installations, to truck sides, to phone-charging stands at airports. Your brand can be almost anywhere.

The main thing I would recommend looking into (if you are looking beyond the billboard) is what type of media is grabbing the most attention. In 2019, Nielsen did a study about OOH mediums, and in the category of “moving OOH” wrapped vehicles had the highest recall compared to any other format. It’s because it’s unusual. People are accustomed to seeing billboards, but ads on cars!? That’s something entirely new.

AQ: What are your top 3 tips for success with OOH advertising?

VC: I love this question because I was just writing a case study for one of our clients, and I felt they hit the “advertising trifecta” with 1) Timeliness, 2) Targeting, and 3) Measurability. There are so many things to consider in OOH advertising, but if you nail those, I think that’s where the magic happens.

For the client I mentioned, this was an Urgent Care facility who was looking to navigate the harsh extremes of COVID peaks and lulls. One month their centers would be packed, and the next no one would be making regular visits for fear of long wait times. They ran ad campaigns during the times when they could accommodate more patients (timeliness), and used moving OOH in order to reach customers in suburban areas (targeting), and finally, tracked the results and implemented more campaigns once they achieved success (measurability). It was a fine-tuned campaign that we were happy to be a part of.

AQ: What is one thing you wish more OOH buyers knew about the medium?

VC: That it’s not just a brand awareness play. AND that you can measure it. Those are the two misconceptions we hear the most. Because of how long the OOH industry has been available to marketers, it’s seen as an outdated medium that doesn’t play nice with technology. But the industry has taken huge strides in the last several years. I think the OAAA is doing an excellent job at gathering relevant research that proves OOH works just as well as TV & Video advertising, for example. Our platform was based on the theory that OOH can work, if it’s measurable, and we’ve proven ways to do that for our clients. It’s an exciting time, we just need to work hard to educate more marketers on what OOH is all about!

AQ: COVID-19 has undeniably impacted many businesses. How did Wrapify adapt?

VC: I am new to Wrapify, but I was recently writing up a timeline of our achievements to add to our website, and I got to 2020. I asked James, our CEO, what he wanted to write about that year. He said simply “we kept going.” That made me smile because I’m very grateful that they did.

As for the “how” - I would say that around that time, Wrapify had found its product-market fit. The operations, the ad tech, and the value props came together at just the right time. I recently came from the travel industry, and 2020 was difficult for us, too. But we had high hopes that “revenge travel” would bring us back on top in 2021. For the companies that persisted in 2020, Wrapify being one of them, 2021 brought them back on top. It was a rough patch, but didn’t have staying power. Just like travel, OOH is back!

AQ: Many marketing campaigns are so memorable that they become part of the culture.  What is your favorite OOH advertising campaign from history?

VC: I hate to call the 90s “history” because it makes me feel old, but I have to say the “Got Milk?” ads. You couldn’t escape them. Every celebrity wanted to be on them. And it was about, of all things, that drink my parents forced me to have at dinner every night. It’s funny to think about now, but you have to admit, it sure was effective.

AdQuick makes it easy to launch every kind of OOH campaign – from premium billboards to wrapped cars – in minutes!  Connect with our team of OOH experts to learn more!