Outdoor Advertising Really Works [Back]
The Long and Short of It
You’re sitting in your car at a stoplight, and a city bus zooms by. On its side is a large poster that catches your eye. In the five seconds you have to absorb the message, you register “5-7-January-NEW!” and a vague impression of shapes and colors. Was this advertising money well spent?
It’s been said before and bears repeating: money spent on visual marketing only pays off if the message is appropriate to the delivery system. This is particularly important when it comes to outdoor advertising, because there is so little time to take it in; whether it’s the message that moves or the viewer, the relationship is fleeting. There is simply no time to read; what is conveyed has to be conveyed immediately, at first glace.
What It Is Not
This all sounds perfectly obvious, yet it’s amazing how often this common wisdom is forgotten when it's time to make marketing decisions. Along with conventional print, broadcast and the Internet, outdoor advertising can seem like just another vehicle for the same message. It may have to be shorter, certainly, but the message is the same, right? Well, no. Not usually. In fact, outdoor advertising generally should not just carry a shortened version of some longer message, but must be thought of in an entirely different way. It communicates something different, and its effect is different from other advertising media.
Outdoor advertising that can only be seen for a few seconds needs to function in your overall marketing plan in a particular way. Rather than informing the viewer, it reminds the viewer. Rather than describing something, it evokes something. Outdoor advertising isn’t well suited to explaining much of anything, but it's well-positioned to create an interest that can be fully explored elsewhere. In the long run, outdoor advertising can do one thing well, and cost-effectively: create interest.
Everybody’s Talkin’
To best utilize outdoor advertising, put yourself in the place of the viewer. Almost all of this kind of media will be viewed from a car, after all, so get in your car and drive. We’ve all heard the “rule” about billboards: no more than seven words, right? Keep that in mind as you drive (safely) through town. Even as you're stopped at a traffic light in front of a bulletin-sized billboard, exactly how much will you remember that is contained in the form of a word-driven message? And what if one of those seven magic words is a phone number. Do you have a pad of paper and pen handy to jot it down? It’s not likely that many people will, and the number will be forgotten when the light changes to green.
What you will remember from your encounter with outdoor advertising is your immediate impression: a few clear visual cues that stay in your eye and mind. Whatever you expect the public to carry away from this encounter, it needs to be simple, memorable, and largely non-specific. For instance, if your business’ phone number happens to be 288-8888, great; that might stick in the mind. But if your phone number is 876-5730, forget it. Nobody is going to remember that, no matter how big you make it. They had better pick up on your business’ name, because they are going to have to go home and look up the number anyway. Guaranteed.
Focus On What’s Important
The best way to take advantage of these vehicles is to use them to spread an awareness of a simple idea. A bold, clean logo and a word or two (or image) that pertains to your business will go much farther than phrases, phone numbers, web addresses, and illustrations all piled up together. One striking image and a logical, easy-to-remember web address can drive the viewer to a place where, in the proper setting, they can delve deeper.
Consider the following example:
There is not a lot of information in this (fictional) billboard; just the basics. And it's easy to understand why each piece of information seems vital. But imagine driving past this billboard on your way home from work—where would you focus? Or maybe the better question is, how many places are there to focus? How many pieces of information could the average viewer possibly register and remember in the few seconds they will have with this image?
With that in mind, take a look at this alternate version of the same board:
This may, by comparison, look empty and a bit unfinished. But consider its benefits over the other. It offers one simple visual message: luxury. By omitting the nice background image it may seem less developed, but in return it allows the viewer to concentrate on the one image that really matters. Paired with this instantly grasped visual message is a simple identifier: desirable product, and the place to get desirable product. The web address simply repeats the company name. It is arguably true that more viewers will carry away the important message—buy luxury vehicles at Harbour Motors—by seeing this board, than would by seeing the previous one.
Putting It Simply
A “simple” message is a relative thing. What is easily digested and remembered in one context is not at all easily handled in another. Outdoor advertising is, generally speaking, a place where “simple” means very simple. But that doesn’t have to mean unsophisticated. Less, when carefully thought through and selected for specific impact, really can be more elegant, more refined, and most importantly, more successful. Conversely, insisting upon “getting more for your money” by including more information, can actually weaken the impact of your advertising and create a clumsy impression. When it comes to outdoor, keep it real simple.