Out of Home (OOH) advertising has a long and storied history. It can be traced back to the earliest civilisations when Egyptians built tall stone structures to publicise laws and treaties. Remarkably, due to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, we also have evidence of hand-written notices in Pompeii advertising shows, similar to modern posters. Fast forward to the 1830s in the USA, and we see the first billboards popping up. This historical lineage highlights the enduring nature of OOH advertising as a medium for public communication.

Jump to the digital age, and one of the rising stars in the OOH-game is Augmented Reality (AR) due to its ability to create interactive experiences for consumers. The most popular methods used are with QR codes. These codes can be displayed as printed material or on digital screens. When someone points their phone camera at the QR code, it triggers an AR experience on their phone’s screen, such as 3D animations that interact with the real world, games, a link to a website, or detailed product information, or even competitions.

AR experiences are inherently interactive and engaging, and this encourages consumers to spend more time with the advertisement. The immersive nature of AR makes it more likely that consumers will remember the advertisement and the brand. AR in OOH advertising creates a bridge between the physical and digital worlds, offering consumers interactive and immersive experiences that traditional advertising methods simply cannot match. These user generated, screen recorded videos are ideal for sharing online to further the reach of your audience.

The landscape of content sharing has evolved dramatically. Bloggers publish around 7.5 million posts on the internet per day, while close to 70,000 photos and videos are uploaded to Instagram every minute, alongside an average of 510,000 comments made on Facebook. TikTok alone sees 625 million videos viewed every internet minute. With the introduction of digital screens and techniques like forced perspective and anamorphic content, OOH campaigns have started making their way online more often, creating a vibrant and dynamic advertising environment. And no other campaign understands this environment quite like FOOHs do.

So, what exactly are FOOHs? Fake/Faux Out-of-Home (FOOH) advertisements are digital creations that appear to be real-world installations, captured in the moment. They typically combine real-world footage with added visual effects (VFX) and 3D elements to craft social media content that is memorable and, more importantly, shareable.