How Murals are Becoming a New Face of Out-of-Home Advertising
It’s hard to escape the screens these days. From our work computers, cell phones, televisions, and more—the world today has never been more digital than it currently is. Whether you’re scrolling reels on Instagram, watching your favorite football team, or even on Miami Beach trying to enjoy the view, digital ads are nearly impossible to avoid.
In this arena of digital noise, murals are becoming a go-to out of home advertising strategy, offering brands a unique outlet to express their values and the communities they serve. Further, it offers an offline experience that crosses the barrier into digital through organic shares and photos posted on Social Media platforms that help express one’s personal brand.
Impacting community, adding to the neighborhood
Unlike billboards, murals provide something local communities genuinely want, breathing life into dull areas through color and creativity. The artwork can help increase local property value and also attract new potential tourism. Major cities, like New York, Miami, Chicago, and LA, are creating entire districts of art-forward neighborhoods that help attract more tourists, helping positively impact local businesses.
At Muros, we’ve seen firsthand how murals can transform areas. Whether it be through our annual mural festival, Titan Walls, or for our clients, like Tanger Outlets, who transformed an entire shopping center just outside Nashville into an art destination by activating fifteen murals by fifteen local and nationally recognized artists.
Transforming walls into Instagrammable billboards
When was the last time you pulled over while driving to take a photo of a billboard? Hopefully, never. Now check the photos on your phone; I’d wager you have at least a handful of photos of you standing in front of large works of art and murals.
Compared to a billboard, murals provide ample opportunities to track impressions and overall engagement — largely due to their social shareability. Unlike billboards, murals can be heavily incorporated into a brand’s social and marketing media strategy. Whether it be sponsored artist posting, social reshares, or art-forward merchandise, in many cases, the wall and artwork is just the beginning.
A recent client, Choose Chicago, executed this perfectly by partnering with local, 312 artist Katie Lukes to activate a new mural in the heart of Fulton Market. The tourism group leaned into their existing Chicago Style summer campaign, pulling in iconic places and landmarks into the artwork, displaying a variety of the cultural elements that help make Chicago one of the best cities in the world. But they didn’t stop there. Digital advertisements, an artist-meet-and-greet, social posting, and merchandising were all leveraged to amplify the artwork and their Chicago Style campaign—which helped them earn organic media from popular Chicago media outlets like NBC Chicago and ABC Chicago.
Pushing your brand forward through cultural relevance
Consumers want your brand and their cultures to mix. In fact, a recent study detailed that a brand’s cultural involvement makes up for more than 25 percent of consumers’ purchase decisions, and that number is even higher for purchasers between 18-35 year olds.
How involved you are within the cultures and communities your consumers care about can help leapfrog the competition, or, have you playing catch-up to those pushing their brand forward through cultural moments that display their brand’s authenticity.
Murals, mixed media, and other art-forward out of home capabilities, like brand popups, are a surefire way to break into local and national cultures when executed correctly.
