A strong OOH campaign starts with a clear brief that helps the agency understand what you want to achieve, who you want to reach, and where your brand needs to be seen. The better the brief, the better the media recommendation.

Here’s what to prepare before starting your OOH campaign:

Start with The Business Objectives

Before thinking about locations or formats, define the real business goal. Are you launching a product? Building brand awareness? Driving store visits? Supporting a digital campaign?

Your OOH objective should connect to a measurable business or marketing outcome. “Get noticed” is a direction, but “increase awareness among urban Gen Z consumers” gives an agency something to work with.

Define Your Target Audience

“Everyone” is rarely a useful target. Share your audience’s age, lifestyle, income level, interests, and most importantly, their daily movement. Where do they live? Where do they work? What areas do they commute through? What places do they frequently visit?

Because for OOH, where your audience goes can be just as important as who they are.

Share Your Campaign Timeline

Good OOH planning depends heavily on timing as well. Tell your agency your campaign period, launch date, key moments, and any deadlines for production and installation. This helps determine which media assets are realistically available.

Set Your Budget Range

Having specific locations in mind can be helpful. Just make sure to share your expected media investment as well. This gives the agency a clearer picture of your priorities and helps them evaluate whether those locations are the right fit or recommend alternatives that better align with your brand’s objectives, needs, and budget.

Bring Your Creative Assets and Brand Guidelines

Share your campaign concept, key visual, logo, brand guidelines, copy, and any existing digital assets. This helps the agency assess whether your creative works for OOH or needs to be adapted for the physical environment.

Because a design that works on a phone screen may not work on a billboard seen in a few seconds.

Share What You Already Know

Previous campaign results, preferred locations, competitor activity, or past OOH learnings can make the briefing much stronger. The goal is not simply to invest in a media. It is to give the agency enough context to build a smarter media strategy.

A good preparation means giving your media buying investment enough information to figure out why, where, and how your brand should appear in the real world for an impactful campaign.

Get your OOH campaign planned and executed with the right strategy with Nord & Smith, the most accurate data-driven OOH agency you can definitely trust.