Out of Home and the Reminder Effect
Subhead: New research from PML Group shows repetition across places strengthens brand memory – and Heinz times a summer push to exploit that effect
Aaron Poole of PML Group and AdWorld this week set out a neat reminder for planners: advertising rarely works in a single moment. In a piece published on June 26, 2026 on AdWorld, PML Group’s first wave of research into what it calls the Reminder Effect argues that repeated, cross-place exposures help advertising stick, and that Out of Home – OOH – plays a distinct role in reactivating memory when people are out and about. See the original write up on AdWorld. (https://www.adworld.ie/2026/06/26/the-reminder-effect-keeping-brands-in-mind/)
What the study found
– Frequency and cross-context exposure matter. Among Dublin respondents, 86% agreed that seeing an ad more than once helps them remember the brand, 79% said they remember ads better when they see or hear them in more than one place, and 72% said the same ad appearing in different places makes it stand out more. These are the topline findings PML reports via AdWorld.
– OOH has a clear reminder role. More than three quarters of respondents agreed that ads seen outside the home can remind them of ads seen elsewhere, and 72% said OOH helps keep brands in mind while they are out and about. Younger adults are receptive too – agreement was 75% for 16-24 year olds and 76% for 25-34 year olds.
– Familiarity and action follow recognition. Three quarters said OOH makes brands feel more well known; this was especially pronounced in C2 respondents where agreement reached 86% and among AB respondents at 83%. On behavioural intent, 74% agreed that seeing an ad in different places can remind them to buy or act later; 73% gave the same response specifically for ads seen outside the home.
You can read PML Group’s broader thinking on OOH and attention on the PML Group site. (https://www.pmlgroup.ie)
Why this matters for Irish planners
The Reminder Effect reframes repetition as qualitative rather than purely quantitative – it is not only about piling up impressions but about placing creative cues across complementary environments so memory traces can be reactivated at the right moment. That has three practical consequences for campaign design:
– Targeting and audience mix should be objective-led. The research shows different audience segments gain different benefits – AB and 35-44 audiences over-index for cross-place recall, while younger cohorts show stronger out-and-about cueing. That suggests planners should not treat OOH as a uniform reach play but as a strategic layer targeted to the audiences whose memory paths it strengthens.
– Creative restraint can win in cluttered outdoor environments. The Heinz summer executions demonstrate how product-led simplicity – big bottle, signature red, short copy – can register in seconds and then be recalled later when purchase occasions arise. Creative that leans into recognisable brand assets will tend to perform better in the reminder use case.
– Measurement demands more than correlation. The Reminder Effect is convincing as behavioural narrative, but advertisers will want causality and ROI. Planners should couple reminder-focused OOH with robust test-and-learn frameworks – geo experiments, footfall attribution in retail, uplift measurement tied to real purchase events – so the memory claims translate into commercial evidence.
A timely summer play from Heinz
Kraft Heinz has deployed a summer OOH campaign across roadside, bus T-sides, mall digital formats and retail-facing screens, running through June and July 2026. The timing is no accident. Met Éireann forecast highs of 25 to 31 degrees in the week of 22 to 26 June 2026, with Friday June 26 2026 reaching up to 29 degrees in places, creating the seasonal occasions – BBQs, takeaway chips, outdoor socialising – where ketchup naturally belongs. See Met Éireann for current forecasts. (https://www.met.ie)
Planned by dentsu and PML with creative by Kraft Heinz, the execution is deliberately simple – copylines such as “Got Sauce?” and “When the BBQ is ready and someone asks…” play to instinctive purchase moments. The mix of moving formats and retail-facing screens aims to close the street-to-store loop: broad visibility during travel, and proximity when shoppers are in buying mode.
Critical takeaways and caveats
PML’s findings are useful, but they should not be read as a universal panacea. A few pragmatic caveats for advertisers:
– Representativeness and scale. The published figures focus on Dublin respondents in wave one. National behaviours, rural patterns and category differences may diverge. Marketers should ask for full methodology and weighting before scaling conclusions.
– Attribution complexity. OOH excels at scale and presence, but proving direct sales impact remains challenging. Brands should insist on blended measurement that combines OOH exposure modelling with on-the-ground metrics – retail uplift, store visits, and incrementality tests – not just stated recall.
– Cost efficiency versus precision. Outdoor can be very cost effective for building mental availability, but if the objective is narrow, short-term conversion among highly defined niches, digital channels with richer targeting will often deliver better precision per euro spent. The optimal solution is a joined-up plan that uses OOH to prime availability and digital to capture intent.
What to expect next
PML Group says the next phase of this research will move from memory into moments – looking at when advertising comes back to mind and how context shapes what people notice, remember and do. That is a credible and necessary follow-up. If the industry wants to make the Reminder Effect operational, the next questions must be temporal and situational: which specific moments produce the strongest lift, how long does reactivation last, and which creative cues are most portable across channels.
For now, the practical headline is clear. OOH is not just an attention channel – it is an availability channel. When used thoughtfully alongside other media, and measured with rigour, it can increase the probability that a brand will be the first to come to mind when a summer occasion or a shopping decision arrives.
Source: AdWorld / Aaron Poole, PML Group. Original article: https://www.adworld.ie/2026/06/26/the-reminder-effect-keeping-brands-in-mind/
