In today’s digital era, where brands are just a click away on social media and various online portals, are traditional advertising like billboards still effective? Billboards take up space and are costly too.
But it manages to reach mass audiences. With the turn of the century, billboard advertising became digital too. It can easily be linked to mobile phones. With digital screen billboards, broadcasted messages can rotate and allow consumers to see a range of products they would not spend time looking at while online. Moreover, outdoor campaigns can be customized at specific events and billboards can be more targeted in specific areas to reach consumers.
Well Positioned
Marketing experts say the most effective billboards are strategically placed along routes that have the greatest impact on consumers. Billboards work because they are positioned in places where commuters frequent. According to Arbitron National In-Car study, 71& of people consciously look at billboards while driving, of which 26% noticed and remembered a business’s phone number, and 28% remembered a website or physical address. The study highlighted that 58% of viewers went to an event or restaurant after seeing a billboard advertisement and 37% of drivers look at an outdoor advertisement.
The location of the billboard either makes or breaks the ad campaign. Marketing experts agree that billboards should be ideally placed somewhere that receives high amounts of both vehicle and foot traffic, like a busy stretch of highway that has some malls etc.
Effective and Calls for Action
Besides strategic positioning, the content on billboards has to be effective and attractive. It needs to call for action. The audience needs to be compelled to act on the information they see, meaning either calling the business to have questions answered or receive a free quote etc, or visiting the business’s portal. As such, the content has to be concise and eye-catching and not too lengthy.
