Gary Dahl. Advertising for Dummies
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But outdoor advertising isn’t limited to these types of businesses. Small to
mid-size businesses that have more modest budgets than the types of compa-
nies listed above can use outdoor ads successfully. Small businesses can
make their media buys more affordable by selectively choosing board loca-
tions that are near their stores and businesses. Outdoor advertising allows
you to advertise your products where the ad can be seen by anyone who
drives in the vicinity of your store or business location.
The audience for outdoor advertising is growing steadily as people spend
fewer hours at home with traditional media and more time on the road and in
their cars. What better way to reach people in their cars than with a big, fat
billboard alongside the street or a clever ad on the rear end of that bus that’s
blocking the road up ahead?
Measuring the Effectiveness
of Outdoor Ads
Because people spend fewer hours at home, where TV, cable, magazines,
newspapers, books, and the Internet all clamor for attention, billboards may
be the way to go when it comes to advertising. People are in their cars more
than ever — daily vehicle trips continue to climb, and the number of cars on
the road seems to grow exponentially. With so many people sitting in traffic
jams, drivers and passengers are stuck with radio and billboards as their only
media options.
So how do you know for sure how many people are reading your ads? Billboard
cost-effectiveness is measured by the Traffic Audit Bureau, which sends out
spotters to sit near billboards and count passing cars. Although many advertis-
ers are local retailers, national sponsors are increasingly using the medium to
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Altoids’s refreshing boards
Altoids, the “curiously strong breath mints”
from England, made a big splash on the outdoor
scene a few years back with its wonderfully
creative copy. One board read: “Mints so strong
they come in a metal box.” And another winner
said: “Refreshes your breath while you
scream.” Very little copy, but a whole bunch of
creativity. It was a billboard campaign that put
Altoids on the map in the United States without,
as far as I know, any other media support.
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build their brands. Why? Because outdoor advertising is effective and afford-
able, and it just sits there pumping out the message 24 hours a day.
Outdoor has been called a pure advertising medium, and that may be true.
Billboards stand alone without the editorial, programming, and competitive
advertising distractions found in newspapers, magazines, radio, and
television.
Choosing Among Your Outdoor
Advertising Options
Outdoor advertising takes on many forms. Here are many examples (but not
all of them) of the outdoor vehicles for sale. It makes you wish you had unlim-
ited funds, doesn’t it?
Off-premise outdoor advertising: This outdoor advertising format
encompasses any outdoor sign used to advertise your business that is
located alongside a road or freeway, in a mall, on a bus, or flying over-
head being towed by a biplane. It is not the sign on the front of your
store or your office door.
Permanent paints: Permanent paints are huge structures on which the
message is painted on the face or printed on vinyl, which is then
attached to the face of the structure. As you can imagine, these ads are
big and expensive.
Rotary bulletins: These ads are the largest of the standard billboard
structures, measuring 14 x 48 feet. The advertising copy for rotary bul-
letins is printed on vinyl or painted on panels, which are rotated or
moved between many locations during the term of the contract. They
offer the largest impact in the marketplace and are not only big, but
costly.
Posters: The industry standard, also called 30 sheets, posters are the
signs you see everywhere. Copy is printed on posting paper and pasted
to the face of the sign. Posters measure 12 x 24 feet. Several posters may
be purchased and displayed throughout the market to achieve what is
known as a showing (the number of boards you have purchased and the
length of time your advertising appears on them). Depending on the size
of your showing, posters can be quite affordable. See Figure 11-1 for an
example of a poster that can be used either indoors or outdoors.
Junior posters: These posters are approximately 6 x 12 feet. They’re the
same as posters, just half the size (hence the name junior).
Unfortunately, they are not half the cost.
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Bus shelter ads: Bus shelter ads are 48-x-68-inch posters in backlit
frames that are integrated into bus shelters. They provide 24-hour expo-
sure in heavy-traffic areas.
Bus-side advertising: This form of advertising is available in four sizes:
• Super Kings: Available only in select markets, you can usually see
these ads located on the traffic-facing or left-hand sides of buses
and extending from wheel well to wheel well.
• Kings: You can affix these ads to the traffic side of buses, but they
are somewhat shorter in length than the Super Kings.
• Queens: Check out these ads on the curb sides or right-hand sides
of the vehicles.
• Tails: As the name implies, the Tails (short for taillights) bring up
the rear and are quite good for reaching a captive audience (such
as you when you’re just sitting there inhaling the diesel fumes).
Aerial banners: Aerial banners are in-your-face outdoor advertising at
its apex. You’re watching a football game, minding your own business,
when you look up and see an airplane towing a banner that reads: “Eat a
Heap Cheap at Joe’s.” Aerials are flown over sporting events, other spe-
cial events of every description, and even at beaches — areas where
other forms of advertising are nonexistent. This mode of outdoor is also
good for birthday surprises when you really want to show off.
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Other outdoor media formats
The number of different outdoor advertising
methods you can choose from are almost infi-
nite. In addition to the ones covered in more
detail in this chapter, you can also advertise in
the following places:
Airships (blimps)
Bus benches and shelters
Bus interior cards
Gas pumps
In-mall kiosks
Parking meter cards
Rest areas
Restroom walls
Shopping carts
Stadiums or arenas
Subway and commuter rail ads
Taxi tops
And that ain’t the half of it. Outdoor advertising
takes on so many forms that it can, at times,
become overly intrusive. If you call a local out-
door advertising company, you can get a full list
of what’s available to you. I’d need another book
this size to describe them all.
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Figure 11-1:
This poster
can be hung
outside a
building, in a
window, or
from a store
ceiling.
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Designing Memorable
Outdoor Advertising
The number of options for outdoor ads may seem overwhelming, but the
processes for designing them are identical in most cases. When deciding how
to set up your campaign, the important thing to keep in mind is, exactly what
makes a great outdoor ad campaign? How many words should you use? What
colors work best to attract the attention of passing motorists? Should you
use graphics or just stick with hard-hitting copy? Ask a dozen experts, and
you may get a dozen different answers. It’s the beauty (and the bother) of the
business.
But in my opinion, you need to know two primary measuring factors for out-
door advertising:
Impact: The ability to grab a viewer’s attention in a matter of seconds.
Appeal: Persuasiveness and positive response by the viewer to the
creative content.
Figure 11-2 shows a sign used inside a bus terminal. The ad was a success
because it immediately caught viewer attention with its simple message, bold
color, four-word header, and colorful product images. Viewers didn’t need to
engage in a lot of reading to get the message, learn the product name, and
know how the product would benefit them.
Eyeball-popping creative content, readability, simplicity and clarity of mes-
sage, and, of course, memorability (just like creative content of any advertis-
ing media) are the keys to a successful outdoor ad. The fact that an outdoor
ad, at least on a billboard, must be seen, read, and remembered while the
viewer is otherwise distracted with driving a car down a hostile freeway
makes simplicity and clarity of message the most important part of the equa-
tion. You only have a couple of seconds to grab the viewer by the eyeballs, so
your copy had better be brief and very fascinating. If you’re using a graphic
element, it too needs to be unique, relevant, and easy to understand.
Outdoor is one medium where simple visuals and word puns are appropriate
and highly effective. In your outdoor ads, strive for simple, readable, and cre-
ative ads, a welcome diversion to the monotony of travel.
I honestly believe that if you can encapsulate your message onto a really
good billboard advertisement; if you can project your message quickly and
with clarity; if you can generate some truly creative copy (a message that’s
brief, perhaps funny, and eye-catching), you’ve designed your entire ad
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campaign. If you can boil it down to six or eight perfect words, then you, my
friend, have made it so easy on consumers that you can hardly miss getting
their attention. The ad you’ve written to create a memorable billboard can
translate beautifully to any media. It is for this reason that your outdoor
advertising copywriting effort deserves serious time and attention.
The following sections cover how to make your outdoor ad readable, clear,
and memorable — which is all you need to get your message across to poten-
tial customers!
Pursuing potential customers
Before you can come up with an award-winning slogan, you must know who
your target audience is. Who is most likely to buy your product or use your
service? Of course, this is true of ads in any medium: Check out Chapter 5 for
a refresher course to make sure you’re targeting the right people for your
business — and that you can reach them via outdoor ads.
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Figure 11-2:
A success-
ful bus
terminal ad.
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Making your ad readable
If customers can’t read your outdoor ad, then what’s the point? Your design
should be connected with a simple, clean text in a very readable type font.
Prioritize the keywords of your copy and keep your copy short and full of
punch. Use humor, but get to the punch line quickly. Vary the font size, avoid-
ing copy set in all capital letters. People are used to reading text in a combi-
nation of uppercase and lowercase, so outdoor ad copy should conform to
this format.
Six words is the most favorable number for billboard readability, but keeping
your message that short is often impossible. Try eight words if you must, but
any more than eight could be dangerous to the health of your ad budget.
If you’re using a graphic element — a picture, drawing, or logo — make it big
and keep it simple. Don’t force your viewers to search for the message. They
don’t bother. So make it clear immediately. How many billboards have you
seen that, like so many poorly designed newspaper ads, contain enough
information to fill an encyclopedia and the advertiser’s logo so small you
can’t read it with binoculars? The message is lost in a jumble of words, type
fonts, graphics, and a cacophony of background colors. Viewers drive right
on by with only a confused glance at the ill-conceived board. The ad is a total
failure. And the money is wasted.
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Getting help with your outdoor ads
Getting started with outdoor advertising is
easier than you may think. For starters, check
out the Web site of the Outdoor Advertising
Association of America (OAAA), the trade orga-
nization for the industry and the epicenter of
reams of information about who, what, when,
and where. Find this complete informational
source at www.oaaa.org. Or call 202-833-
5566 to reach a live person at the OAAA who is
happy to answer your questions.
You can also call outdoor advertising compa-
nies that are operating in your area, accessible
through another great source: SRDS Media
Solutions’s
Out-of-Home Advertising Source
.
This book can not only steer you to the right out-
door company, but it also gives you a list of the
company’s rates. The book is available for sale
in hard copy or electronically at www.srds.
com (click on “Subscription and Product
Information”); you can also call to order the
book at 800-232-0772, ext. 8020 (or you may find
it at your local business library). You can do a
search of local companies in a number of ways:
by type, geography, or company name. These
companies can help you through the complete
process — from concept to creation, from print-
ing to posting, and even to tracking your results.
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Be sure to use colors wisely. Strong color contrasts between the background
and the copy and graphics is absolutely essential. Use primary colors — yel-
lows, reds, blues, and good-old black. Use bright shades of colors rather than
darker tones, which retreat from the viewer. A bright yellow background and
black letters would be the optimum combination (hey, the publishers of
this book knew what they were doing, didn’t they?). Using colors isn’t
complicated — just shoot for the best possible readability from a long way
off, because that huge billboard looks like a postage stamp from a distance.
Keeping your ad clear
Viewers don’t want to be teased; they want to be informed. And with a bill-
board, they need to be informed in a split second, so don’t get too cute. Be
clear, concise, and direct. Relate your message to familiar experiences and
situations. Emphasize your product or service as the answer to the viewer’s
prayers. If you’re showing the product, make it big, bold, and brazen.
Also, make sure you limit the number of elements in your ad. A graphic, logo,
and headline only gets more complex — and therefore easier to ignore — if
you add elements such as the hours you’re open, your address, phone
number(s), and URL. Less is generally more, so add other information with
care and restraint.
Clarity is more important than cleverness. Don’t make the joke so subtle that
no one gets it — that only causes annoyance. And if you do use humor, be
sure it’s relevant to the experiences and knowledge of your target audience.
Don’t use East Coast humor on a California billboard. And try to create a tight
connection between your product’s benefit and its relevance to the viewer’s
life; create a problem and solve it in eight words or less.
Making it worth remembering
When your goal is to create a memorable ad for any media, imagery is often
more important than words. The use of a hard-hitting visual element can gen-
erate more memorability for the viewer. Use images that are easily recogniz-
able — like the beer mugs, anvils, and bloody teeth that comprised the signs
for saloons, blacksmiths, and dentists hundreds of years ago. Include light-
hearted, spirited elements that generate excitement, but try to ensure that
the viewer can relate to the person or situation being depicted. Possibly your
best solution is a bold display of your slogan, package, storefront, or logo.
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The San Francisco Zoo did a series of billboards that was very memorable,
including one that featured a large photo of an anteater and, in black lettering
on a white background, the copy: “Eats 30,000 termites per day. Sorry, not
available for rent.” Now that’s creative!
Above all, make the message simple and easy to recall. Use bright, eye-catch-
ing color and brief, well-written copy. You only have a few seconds to make
an impact on someone who is already preoccupied driving a car.
For more tips on how to create memorable ads, check out Chapter 19.
Looking at a Success Story: Chick-fil-A’s
Billboard Campaign
Sometimes a product just cries out for a billboard campaign. It lends itself
beautifully to this advertising genre and, with a fairly heavy dose of creativity,
it can make all the difference. For example, Chick-fil-A’s signature product is
the chicken sandwich, served primarily during the lunchtime hours — which
means the restaurant chain competes in one of the fiercest battlegrounds: the
fast-food restaurant market. When compared to giants such as McDonald’s,
Burger King, and Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A is outnumbered in store count nearly
four to one and outspent in media tenfold. Moreover, each of these compet-
ing chains has already etched distinct images in the minds of consumers.
Faced with these David-versus-Goliath odds, Chick-fil-A gave its advertising
agency, The Richards Group, a tough assignment: Develop an integrated
advertising campaign that clearly positions Chick-fil-A as a preferred alterna-
tive in the burger-dominated fast food marketplace. In the following sections,
I outline how Chick-fil-A used outdoor advertising with great success.
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When all else fails . . .
The sign companies with which you do busi-
ness have design and production departments
whose only goal in life is to make your outdoor
advertising successful. They know how to
design a board, how to write brief, hard-hitting
copy, and where to place your outdoor ads for
the optimal impact. The creative specialists in
outdoor, like the specialists in any media, under-
stand what works in their particular field.
You certainly have your own ideas of what you
want, and you likely have at least a copy outline.
But you may do well by letting the professionals
put the final touches on your creative strategy.
This design service is, by and large, available to
you at no extra charge. My advice? Take advan-
tage of it.
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Aiming for the target audience
The Chick-fil-A target audience differs from the average fast-food clientele,
which includes many teens and children. The market for chicken is com-
prised of more adults, more females, and people with a higher level of educa-
tion and income than the hamburger market. Customers have a more active
lifestyle and are likely to be in white-collar jobs. Mindful of these demograph-
ics, Chick-fil-A avoided the usual fast-food locations to build their restau-
rants. Instead, they chose to operate in suburban malls and neighborhoods
with a high concentration of their potential customers.
Setting up the marketing strategy
In order to efficiently reach the adult, professional, and mobile target audi-
ence, the media strategy emphasized outdoor and radio. The budget was allo-
cated: 70 percent outdoor, 25 percent radio, and 5 percent print.
Capitalizing on the creative strategy
The Eat Mor Chikin campaign was launched. And it cleverly spotlighted a
little known fact: the poor spelling ability of your average cow! On billboards
everywhere, one three-dimensional cow statue stood on the back of another
cow statue and, with paint brush in hand (or hoof) and black paint dripping
down the stark white billboard background, the cow had scrawled the words
“EAT MOR CHIKIN.”
Reaping the results
During the Eat Mor Chikin campaign, same-store sales were up four times
over the industry average. It was a thoughtful and clever way to differentiate
the Chick-fil-A stores from their burger-dominated competition. Using cows to
deliver the self-serving message (I mean self-serving for the cows, who do, of
course, prefer you eat chicken rather than beef), Eat Mor Chikin was a bril-
liantly conceived and executed campaign.
It proves that clever copy and a great creative concept can cut through the
advertising clutter like a hot knife through butter . . . or is that chicken?
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