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Creative quality plays meaningful role in OOH campaigns

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May 18, 2026

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Creative quality plays a meaningful role when it comes to out of home campaign performance.

The aspect is a key factor in determining why some OOH campaigns outperform others, according to an analysis from Clear Channel Outdoor and Super Optimal.

Drawing on 27 RADARProof studies conducted with Kantar, the analysis incorporates creative scoring from Super Optimal to compare campaign performance across key brand metrics including ad awareness, favorability and purchase intent, according to a press release.

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. provides an OOH advertising platform. Super Optimal is a design intelligence platform built specifically for the OOH advertising industry.

In 70% of the measured campaigns, creative quality aligned with brand performance outcomes.

Campaigns with stronger creative scores were more likely to deliver higher brand lift, while weaker creative was more often associated with underperformance.

"Creative is one of the most controllable drivers of campaign performance in OOH, yet it's often under-leveraged as a strategic input," Mike McGraw, senior vice president and executive creative director at Clear Channel Outdoor, said in the release. "By bringing structured creative scoring into measurement frameworks, we can help advertisers understand not just what worked, but why, and use that insight to continuously test, refine and improve campaign performance over time."

This analysis also builds on broader industry findings, including Clear Channel and Kantar's recent study analyzing thousands of brand campaigns that showed OOH ads prompted an average 13.3% growth in ad awareness, outpacing TV (10.2%), digital (3.9%) and connected TV (2.2%).

"There is immense value in bringing data and consistency to something that has historically been subjective," Neil Morris, founder at Super Optimal, said in the release. "This analysis reinforces a simple truth: out-of-home works best when creative is intentionally designed for the medium. By testing creative within a consistent OOH-focused framework, we can validate what drives performance and offer clear, practical insight."