A Day Tripper’s Guide to Liverpool’s OOH Advertising
Fresh off the press is new Route data, Q3 2024 (R52), released earlier today! With that, I decided to kick off Route’s location-specific out-of-home (OOH) series, where for every new Route release I explore a part of Great Britain to take a deep look into what OOH looks like. For the first one, I thought I would be a day tripper and head to Liverpool to see what OOH looks like in this vibrant city.
Liverpool Media Wall
After a 2-hour train ride to Liverpool, I stepped off at Lime Street Station, and was immediately greeted by the massive Liverpool Media Wall, owned by Ocean Outdoor, telling me I had made it! This frame –unsurprisingly – leads Liverpool with the highest number of impacts, engaging commuters, shoppers, and tourists alike. Just to its left, a giant poster from Blow Up Media advertising KFC. My first few moments in Liverpool were striking, and a clear signal of the city’s strong OOH presence – foreshadowing a fantastic day ahead.
According to the latest Route data, the Liverpool conurbation hosts a total of 5,232 OOH ad locations, including 352 digital screens. These span multiple advertising environments, including buses, rail stations, roadside, train carriage interiors, and taxis, collectively delivering 151 million impacts on a weekly basis.
A few minutes into my walk, I found myself on Church Street, one of Liverpool’s pedestrianised shopping streets near Lime Street Station. What stood out to me was the abundance of digital inventory, both in small and large formats. This is prime real estate for DOOH in Liverpool, with most of these screens ranked in the “Great” and “Fantastic” tertiles out of all digital inventory in Liverpool, according to our frame ranking tool (see below for more info). The 17 digital screens on both Church Street and Lord Street alone deliver over 1.4 million weekly impacts. Our dashboard below allows users to explore all OOH inventory in Liverpool and see how frames are ranked dynamically based on weekly impacts and are grouped into tertiles. A tertile is a statistical term that refers to one of three equal groups that a set of data can be divided into. In this case we rank the frames in Liverpool by their weekly impacts and split them into three equally sized groups from good, to great, to fantastic.
Got a ticket to ride? Buses play a very important role in Liverpool’s OOH landscape. They account for 37% of OOH frames in Liverpool, and around 33.5 million weekly impacts – 22% of the city’s total impacts. Unsurprisingly, roadside frames come in second, accounting for 34% of total frames but racking up a massive 57% of Liverpool’s weekly impacts.
Now, as a Beatles fan, I was really looking forward to this trip. After a couple hours of taking photos of OOH inventory (as one does), I had to go to the Cavern Club. While there are no OOH ads directly on Mathew Street, where the Cavern Club is located, the surrounding 200-metre radius has 40 OOH frames delivering 2.8 million weekly impacts. Given the constant flow of tourists in this area, this can be a great location for advertisers looking to engage with a captive audience. The OOH opportunities here do not only cater to everyday commuters but also to more specific groups like university students and international tourists, who are drawn by the city’s deep connection to music, sports, and history.
After this short detour, I left the Cavern Club and continued my exploration. One area that could be a good opportunity to drive impacts in the 18 to 24 age demographic is the Liverpool Knowledge Quarter – home to both Liverpool John Moores University and University of Liverpool. On Brownlow Hill Street, in particular, there are many students walking up and down, and has high pedestrian traffic.
Along Brownlow Hill, there are 14 roadside frames that collectively deliver 318,490 weekly impacts. These frames present a great opportunity for advertisers targeting university students.
Open Media's newest site in Central Liverpool
A Chat with Anna Hunter from Open Media
To gain an insider’s perspective on OOH in Liverpool and understand how it’s evolving, I had the great pleasure of meeting the wonderful Anna Hunter, Data Strategist at Open Media. Founded in 2016, the company now operates 10 frames across the Liverpool conurbation that are measured by Route, with 5 located in Central Liverpool. Anna offered a plethora of insights which truly brought everything to life, and even took me on a tour of Open Media’s Central Liverpool sites. Here is what Anna shared about her journey in OOH:
What is your favourite OOH ad location and why?
“My favourite location changes quite frequently, but right now, it’s our site The One, Liverpool, right in the heart of Liverpool's shopping centre, and my hometown. The screen quality (like all our screens) is outstanding, spans an impressive 25m² and is visible from up to 250 m away. The location is perfectly positioned on Church Street, one of the busiest intersections in Liverpool City Centre, and reaches thousands of pedestrians every day.”
The screen right outside of the One Liverpool shopping centre is Open Media’s newest site in Central Liverpool and will be measured by Route for the first time in this release, R52. This digital screen generates 158,711 impacts per week on a 10 second spot, 50 second break schedule.
What do you like most about Liverpool?
“Liverpool is absolutely bursting with culture, and the sense of community here is truly unmatched. One of the things I love most is how you can walk from one end of the city to the other in about 30 minutes - everything is so close, yet there’s always something new to explore/do. And for fellow shopaholics like me, the shopping and leisure opportunities are endless - whether it’s huge department stores, charming bookstores or cinemas, you won’t be disappointed with the opportunities here.”
What do you like most about working in OOH?
“The things I like most in life are rooted in a strong sense of community, and much like my home city, the OOH industry is small but very exciting. There are endless opportunities within this industry, especially at Open. I take great pride in being part of such an amazing company like Open, which was my first role straight out of university. Open has set the bar high and I absolutely love coming to work every day to collaborate with such amazing people in such an exciting industry.”
What is something you are really proud of, but don’t often get the chance to talk about?
“Something I am really proud of is how far I have progressed as a person over the past 5 years. I have grown in so many areas of my life and overcome some tough challenges along the way - so I would say what I’m most proud of is my personal & professional growth.”
So, what do I think of Liverpool? As Anna emphasised, and beyond my tangible excitement of going there as a Beatles fan, when it comes to OOH, Liverpool truly comes together. With its dynamic and diverse inventory, high-impact digital screens in the busy pedestrianised shopping areas, to the city’s deep connection to history, music, sports, and culture, Liverpool is a brilliant location to advertise in North West England.
