Hyper-Local Strategies: Root Car Insurance OOH Success

Objective

Root Car Insurance wanted to raise awareness and increase downloads of its insurance app, which records a driver’s performance to offer more fair and fundamental coverage vs the big guys. They wanted to test awareness to help achieve their high growth targets (CPAs/CPIs) with the overall aim to assess performance and apply the same strategy and comparable tactics to all test market considerations. Their goal was to understand the impact on interest that an awareness takeover effort would provide in each city.

Activation

PJX helped select the OOH test market, ultimately choosing Columbus, OH Root’s home town, a mature market vs a new/expansion market. PJX conducted a detailed audience analysis resulting in two tailored personas. Format and placement selection were then scrutinized for optimal inventory.

The activation was designed around hyper-local placements in downtown pockets with high concentrations of the profiled audiences. To maximize the budget and demonstrate smart, scrappy ideas that matched Root’s startup / challenger ethos, media was scheduled in dominant, non-standard increments to achieve ownership / high SOV across placements durning key moments over the course of the 8 week campaign. Root was featured on Bulletins, Wallscapes and Spectaculars with clusters of Street Furniture (Bike Racks and CityRacks). Events / PR like the Ohio State University home opening football tail-gate were built into the effort to amplify messaging.

Results

Root saw an increase of 85% in site traffic with a 300% increase the day the static paid campaign elements launched. OOH delivered 29MM impressions (7MM more than planned) with Bulletins accounting for 50% of those impressions.