In any type of advertising, there are certain components that just cannot be ignored. Omitting to focus on certain components can mean the difference between a wildly successful billboard campaign and a total waste of a marketing budget. Here are some of the vital components that must be considered when putting together a billboard campaign:

1. Brand positioning: It must be clear what the image of the brand and its target customer should be. The positioning is used to influence how the audience views or feels about a brand. It must represent the character of the brand and advertise in a manner that appeals to specific demographics.
2. Execution of the campaign: The advertisement must deliver a message that is memorable and persuasive, and it has to say something profound about the brand. The approach should be quick, clear, and penetrating to gain the attention of passers-by or motorists because they only have a few seconds to observe the billboard. The ad should be different from others in order to stand out above the competition.
3. Drama: Billboard advertising does not always need to be dramatic, but if drama is used it can be enormously effective. The drama of the product or service can display why people should invest in the brand. Ideally, the drama should be presented in a realistic and welcoming manner in order to appeal to a target audience.
4. Emotion: The billboard should evoke emotion in the audience. It should tell a story about the brand that makes the audience feel attracted to the product or service being displayed. Hard-hitting advertisements are memorable and endear people to the brand, and therefore they will be more invested in the brand. Emotions such as disgust, pleasure, accomplishment, relief and many others are all used very effectively to market brands.
5. Entertainment: People love to be entertained, especially during a boring commute. Offering them something entertaining to look at can have a huge impact, and if the billboard is entertaining enough, they will even tell others about the brand or the story or share it on social media, and thereby acting as social marketers of the brand.
6. Sentimentality: This includes mainly the “mom & pop” store, historic or small-town warmth in the advertising campaign. Typically, people view these types of environments as warm and welcoming, and it associates it with family and love. It also brings back old school sentimentality which makes the advertisement more memorable.

It goes without saying that all these elements should be kept in mind during the design of visual and textual elements of the billboard. For more information about important components that should feature in your billboard campaign, contact our specialists at Face First Media.

Marketing and advertising rely heavily on proven strategies. It is essential that the correct demographic is targeted in a way that the people who form this category can relate to the advertisement and be enticed by it. Masses of research studies have been conducted on the science of different media and the strategies to employ in order to increase effectiveness. When it comes to billboard advertising, a variety of popular strategies are employed. These include the following:

• Comparative advertising: Typically used to compare specific characteristics of a brand to the competition (without using names of brands), this type of advertising shows how a brand performs against others. It is usually employed by follower brands wanting to gain a bigger market share.
• Inoculate advertising: The goal here is to introduce the potential customer to a campaign in small doses over time so that when the full campaign is launched the audience is much more receptive to the brand and its message.
• Refutational advertising: This type of advertising is not used very often because it presents possible legislative issues. It states claims made by the competition and then refutes these claims, and redirect focus to the benefits of the advertising brand. When legislation doesn’t apply, this can be a very effective billboard advertising strategy.
• Endorsed advertising: Endorsements are very popular and effective. A famous or well-liked celebrity, expert or public figure act as a brand ambassador and testifies publicly to the effectiveness of the brand and the reasons others should choose to use this product or service. It lends credibility to the brand and can quite effectively increase market share.
• Distraction advertising: This approach aims to distract the attention of the audience with clever design, music, artwork, colour, moving imagery or text. This distraction makes the billboard hard to ignore and therefore gains a larger audience. This strategy works particularly well with digital billboards.
• Unique selling point: The brand shows the audience what makes it different (and more effective) than competitive brands on the market and emphasises the benefits of the brand. This means that the brand must have a unique characteristic that other brands do not possess, and the focus is shifted specifically to this unique selling point. The aim is to increase sales, and the unique selling point must be persuasive or important enough to entice the desired audience to invest in the brand.

For more information about effective billboard advertising, contact our team at Face First Media!