A gas station forecourt gives modern marketers a home court advantage. Using it, they can deploy digital out-of-home (DOOH) and point-of-purchase (POP) materials that capture, captivate, and drive consumers to desired actions. Merging the two into a multi-pronged, multi-sensory strategy has been proven highly effective for promoting brands, marketing limited-time offers, persuading behavior change, and more. From retail brands to government agencies, the gas station forecourt is a must-include venue for media plans seeking captive audiences.
Advantages of Captive Audience Marketing at Gas Stations
- High dwell time
- Low distractions
- Proximity to purchase
Not all marketers see the opportunity a gas station forecourt presents. They opt to silo their messaging, treating DOOH and POP as separate strategies. When DOOH and POP are combined, they don’t just add ROI to the marketing budget; they multiply it.
What makes it work? Gas station forecourt advertising puts multiple marketing tools at a marketer’s disposal. It also delivers a captive audience. Consumers are tied to the pump, waiting for their cars to fill up. Doing so can take anywhere from three to five minutes. That’s an immense amount of uninterrupted, totally stationary dwell time when consumers are open to and interested in paying attention to signs and videos to pass the time.
How to Put DOOH and POP to Work in the Gas Station Forecourt Media
Just because DOOH and POP work simultaneously, it doesn’t mean they achieve the same thing. Marketers should be strategic about the application of gas station forecourt media and the messages spread across POP and DOOH placements.
Best Uses of DOOH in the Gas Station Forecourt
Dynamic video content on fuel pump screens is typically the first point of customer contact. But immediacy isn’t its only advantage. DOOH offers many benefits, including same-day deployments, data-driven campaign strategy, and the ability to scale quickly and effectively.
Choose DOOH for:
- Dayparting
- Programmatic targeting
- Context-rich messages
Best Uses of POP in the Gas Station Forecourt
Pump toppers, window clings, nozzle signs, wrapped ice coolers, and other in-store signage take the DOOH messaging a step further. In fact, it is often what brings the conversion from idea to purchase. POP campaigns scale easily, can be validated through auditing/reporting, and can be built to support location-specific goals.
Choose POP for:
- Limited-time offers
- New product/size launches
- Bundled offers
Essentially, the strategy behind using DOOH and POP comes down to two ideas: “entice” and “close.”
DOOH allows retail brands to say, “Here’s what you should want.” Then POP campaigns follow up with “Here’s how to get it right now.”
Let’s dive into an example. A driver steps out of the car to fuel it. As they stand up and prepare to make their fuel selection, they watch the DOOH screen promoting a cold beverage. Moments later, the driver is directly facing a pump topper with an offer from the cold beverage brand. Then, just a few steps away, is the store entrance, with the brand’s offer displayed in the windows. Once inside, the driver encounters additional POP materials to ensure the last mile to conversion is successful by eliminating doubts or reasons to skip out.
What has been built is something far greater than awareness. It’s a strategic and structured nurturing of the customer’s behavior. You have awareness, consideration, and action in one uninterrupted sequence.
Tips for Top-Performing DOOH and POP
- Assign a task/role/purpose for each placement
- Sequence messages and avoid duplicating them exactly
- Make offers clear and easily actionable
Brands Win With Gas Station Advertising
Brands that treat the gas station forecourt as an integrated marketing environment will outperform those that treat it as a fragmented space. The shift in mindset elevates strategic planning and broadens the use of formats. The DOOH content becomes richer with context-aware messaging. Meanwhile, POP reinforces motivations and triggers as the customer walks from the pump into the store. At every step, the customer is marketed to with clear, immediate calls to action.
The gas station forecourt is among the few places where a brand can control the initial message and what’s delivered at the moment of purchase. It allows for both storytelling and incentive/offer selling. When used in tandem, DOOH and POP turn a routine fueling stop into a likely conversion opportunity featuring awareness and action.
Ready to Deploy Programmatic DOOH and POP Marketing at Service Stations?
DOOH and POP materials deployed across the gas station forecourt and store are just one aspect of in-the-moment marketing — a strategy created by Momentara. We turn in-store, out-of-home, and event promotions into useful touchpoints that sync with your customers’ routines to encourage behaviors. The Momentara approach makes your marketing messages a welcome, impactful, and natural part of the customer’s day.
Whether your media buying needs are focused on improving DOOH and POP gas station marketing, or you’re intrigued by the in-the-moment opportunities offered by Momentara, we invite you to reach out. We bring you the technology, experience, production, scale, resources, and national presence to build certainty and programmatic success.
