Outdoor advertising is a method that has been used for millennia. There are even records of it being used in ancient Egypt. Over the centuries it has persevered, but the design has changed quite a bit. Nowadays it’s known as out-of-home media and some people think that it’s an archaic kind of marketing gimmick. Here are some reasons why that isn’t true.
It Lets You Have a Larger Reach
In today’s fast-paced world, it’s difficult to hold anyone’s attention for too long. This holds especially true online, where a few seconds is all the time your ad gets to influence people. And this is only in one location. Outdoor marketing has the upper hand in reaching people more often. A billboard placed in a busy square with high-traffic will certainly get tons of exposure. Unlike websites or TV ads, you aren’t taking any chances on whether your target audience can see it. You can click away from an ad on the internet, and change the channel on the TV if you don’t like the ad. A billboard on your commute to work is basically unavoidable.
By combining the right colors, illumination, and size you can create a pleasant viewing experience. This is essential for reaching a huge audience. Anyone walking or driving by will get a very good look at the ad. Keeping it looking crisp is crucial, and it isn’t too difficult with some know-how. Not to mention modern billboards have a variety of advancements like 3D effects, computerized painting, and LED technology. These significantly help grab the viewers’ attention.
It’s Cost-Effective
Renting out-of-home methods might be expensive, but per view, it’s way less expensive than other forms of advertising. Renting an ad on television will cost you loads of money, and the ad will only show for a brief period. Billboards, on the other hand, are paid for once and stay up a significant amount of time. This is why they are especially good for small firms with a limited marketing budget.
This doesn’t mean larger companies don’t consider billboard advertising. They just up the ante quite a bit. Renting several billboards in a row on a long road is standard procedure. A stretch of highway can be used to show-off your brand countless times, and this leaves an impression on drivers. It’s hard to do that with in-house ads.
It Can Be More Sophisticated
Ads on other platforms don’t have the luxury of being there for a long time. This is why they are concise and straight to the point without any creativity. A billboard can hang around town for months at a time, giving you the opportunity to tell a story. O2, for example, used lines of code that represented an advertisement when deciphered. This specifically targeted programmers and piqued their interest. These billboards were then strategically placed near campuses. This is something you can’t do if your ad is thirty seconds long on television.
You can get pretty creative when combining ads with technology. Facial recognition allowed Women’s Aid to have a very successful campaign against domestic violence. Every time someone looked at the ad, the face of a battered woman would heal slightly, showing that awareness is key. With billboard technology, there are hardly any limits to what you can do when it comes to ads.
Great for Increasing Brand Awareness
There are very few things in advertising as important as brand awareness. Often a product will have tons of competitors, and brand name recognition is the key that sets it apart from the rest. Outdoor methods in marketing help you build your brand more than other forms of advertisements. A billboard won’t instantly make someone go and buy the product, but it will keep the product fresh in their mind for later. Brand recognition has become the main goal for advertisers in today’s’ market.
Billboards are great, but you might find that fences do the job even better. Having advertisements stretch around a construction site or building means you get a lot of exposure for your brand. For the right kind of ad space, you can look into banners. Onlookers will find it difficult to ignore well-placed fence ads.
Automation is a Wonder
Of all the technological wonders in advertising, programmatic is probably the most advanced. Advertisers can rest easy knowing that their billboard will do their job for them. The rise of programmatic has drastically influenced how targeted ads work outside. It can detect if a person approaching is listening to a music app, and then choose an ad they have already seen on the app to show them.
Imagine not having to worry about whether you are reaching your target audience. The program is going to show the right ad to the right person at the right time. It’s hard to compete with this kind of precise advertising. Not only is the program more effective at showing ads, but it also bolsters brand recognition through repeated views. It’s considered a jewel in out-of-home marketing by advertisers.
Conclusion
Out-of-home advertising is an extremely useful tool in marketing experts’ tool-belts. It’s hard to have a high-quality advertising campaign without billboards and fences alike.
Combining these old-fashioned methods with new technology has proven more effective than any other form of advertising.
If you want your brand to stand out, you should keep them in mind.
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