Outdoor advertising – Oldest form of advertising

Outdoor advertising is the oldest form of advertising. It is aimed at influencing the audience through a social approach. Some form of outdoor advertising was present even when humans lived in caves and created wall art to show their artistic talent. Ancient Egyptian government used images carved into stones to educate people about laws and regulation. Outdoor advertisements hence primarily dealt with billboard and has been prevalent from time immortal.

So what’s really a billboard ?

A billboard (also called a hoarding ) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboard contains more of picture then words and that’s how it makes an impact on the subconscious mind of the pedestrians, drivers and everyone who uses the road where the billboard is located.

The biggest challenge anyone faces after launching a new company or introducing a new product is to make a large number of people familiar with it.Similarly after introducing a new product the true test is how well it holds up after being introduced to the market for the first time. Here comes the power of Billboard advertising-One billboard and thousands of prospective customers.

Why should I use billboard advertising?

Owing to the density of the population in India, a grasping medium as billboard could make a difference in attracting a large scale audience in a matter of no time.Though outdoor advertisement requires high investments, an industry will largely avoid a campaign though outdoor advertisement. They would rather opt for digital media or newspapers. Nonetheless, the impact of campaigning through billboards had grasped the attention of a large audience for Videocon when they changed their logo in 2009. Outdoor advertising campaigns have a high return rate and an exceptional example of this is the advertising campaign of Uninor in Goa and Maharashtra in comparison to their campaign in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Their extensive campaign covered many cities in Maharashtra and Goa, and to an extent in Gujarat as well, however, their influence was not so strong in the adjoining states. Though Uninor did not compromise on the digital media aspect, the lack of outdoor advertisement cost them their position in the other states.

Today, the road traffic is much more than what it used to be earlier. We are always on the move. As such, our mobile society makes outdoor advertising an important and effective means of getting messages in front of people’s eyes. These mobile consumers see billboards every day while traveling for business or pleasure. Billboard has many advantages such as:

• 1High return on investment: The size and place of the billboard make it impossible to not get noticed. Normally it is huge and eye-catching attracting a number of customers.
• 2Cover a large and diverse market: Normally billboard is not for a specific market.
• 3Photogenic information: Billboard contains less word and more of picture. Strong visual effect automatically gets registered in customer’s photographic memory so they will remember it.
• 4Strength to influence: Social issues are better conveyed through billboard advertising. Its long lasting nature has an impact on the people; largely their behaviour.
• 5The Frequency of consumer exposure: Generally same people takes the same route everyday so there is high possibility that high frequency of customers are repeatedly exposed to it.
• 6No specific customers: Billboard targets all customers class travelling by car or public transport.
• 7New company or product: Advertising by billboards is especially useful if you want to create product or brand awareness for your company in the market.
• 8Rise in sales: Awareness of product leads to quick rise in sale.
• 9Audience: Placement of billboard makes sure guaranteed audience.
• 10No need to look for customer: We don’t have to go around looking for customers. Through billboard they find us since it is placed among the crowd hungry for something new.

How do I make my billboard advertisement more effective ?

We bring to you some key strategies to ensure your billboard has the highest chance of being noticed.

1. Visual Delight.

Billboard should be attractive to the passengers. The location of most billboard is such that everyone is on the move and don’t have much time to read. So an ideal billboard should contain not more than Six words. Less is more here. Go creative with your billboard ideas. A 3D billboard or a billboard having moving parts or having people interacting with it and even animated billboard has high chance of attracting customers. So Don’t Say It, Show It.

2. Avoid Distraction.

While designing a billboard one should keep into account that a billboard gets noticed by the maximum number of people but also ensure that it should not lead to kind of accident because most of the time, billboards are aimed at drivers, bikers, cyclists or pedestrians. This causes an interesting dilemma for the advertiser.

3.Not for Direct Response.

Billboards covered in phone numbers and website addresses are of no use. Without a doubt that 99.9% of the people who actually read the billboard would not have called or logged on. A billboard is ideal for brand-building and supporting a campaign, but you can’t get direct response through it.

4. Show your smartness not cleverness.

A billboard should be smart but not too clever. A jigsaw puzzle looks alike billboard will get lost on the audience as people don’t have time to scratch their heads and wonder what’s going on. On the other side, a boring billboard will be ignored. So a billboard should be smart enough to grab the attention and leave a lasting impression.

5. Single billboard can’t do magic.

Through billboards you want to capture the mass market and for that you need more than one. To get the desired impact you need a minimum of four or five billboards. As a fact, more billboard means many eyes on them. So the more the better.