Why Outdoor Advertising Still Works

Outdoor advertising speaks to people during the hours they spend away from home, and that covers a large part of everyday life. People leave the house for work, school, errands, appointments, dinner and entertainment, and each trip is a chance to see a message. Billboards are the outdoor format people think of first, though the category also includes transit advertising, posters and signs in public places.

There is a newer reason outdoor deserves attention. People carry phones everywhere, so someone who sees your message can look up your business, get directions or call within moments. That ability to act almost at once gives billboards and other outdoor formats more relevance than they once had. A board no longer has to carry the whole sale; it only has to make the next move clear.

A good outdoor campaign usually takes on one of these jobs, and sometimes more than one:

• Reinforce. Remind people of a message they have already met on the air or online.
• Reassure. Keep a familiar name in front of the community so that choosing it feels like a safe decision.
• Direct. Point people toward your door with a name and a direction they can follow.

None of those jobs requires explaining a complicated offer. Outdoor works by being simple, repeated and in the right place.

Outdoor advertising is there around the clock. It does not wait for a commercial break or a particular time slot. People pass it on the way to work, to school and to the store, and the same commuter often travels the same route every day, which means the message gets repeated without anyone buying another spot. Repetition matters because people usually need to see a message more than once before they act on it. A board supplies that repetition, and it can complement radio, television and digital so that each exposure adds to the last.

You can mute a television, skip a podcast ad or close a browser tab. You cannot turn off a billboard. People who pass yours will usually see it, from a distance and then up close, whether or not they went looking for it. That makes outdoor a demanding place to be creative: a message that earns a second look gets remembered, while a message that blends into the scenery is wasted on every glance.

A driver has only a moment to take in a billboard, which calls for a simple, bold message. Put one idea on the board. Use a few short words and large, high-contrast lettering that can be read from the road at speed. Pair the words with an image that makes the main benefit of your product or service obvious, and add a slogan people can recall and repeat. Make the business name unmistakable. If a passing driver cannot read it, recall it or act on it in a glance, it does not belong on the board. Long web addresses, small print and crowded layouts waste the space. Getting that discipline right is a matter of creative judgment as much as production.

You will have many locations to choose from, and the right choice follows from the routes your customers actually take. Some businesses want a large board on an expressway to build recognition across a wide area. Others do better with a smaller location close to their door, where a message can direct people to turn in. Whatever the size, check a few things before you commit:

• Does the board face the direction your customers drive?
• How fast does traffic move at that point, and does that leave time to read the message?
• Is the sight line clear, or do trees, buildings or other signs get in the way?
• How does the board look at night and in bad weather?
• What does the outdoor company know about the traffic that passes the location, and what do you see when you drive by yourself at different times of day?

For a business in the Atlanta area, the practical test is simple: put yourself on the routes your customers use and ask whether the message would reach you. The page on outdoor advertising covers how that planning fits into a media buy.

Neither format wins every time. The right one depends on how often your message changes and how much repetition you want in a single location.

Outdoor is harder to trace than a web ad, so build in a signal before the board goes up. Use a short, memorable web address or a phrase customers can mention, ask each new customer what led them to you, and compare inquiries and visits during the display period with the weeks before. Over time you will learn which locations and messages bring a response. Leave the message up long enough for repetition to do its work, and change it only when you have a reason.

Outdoor earns its keep as one piece of a larger mix. It repeats a line that people heard on the radio, points toward a location after a television spot raised interest, and reinforces what shows up when someone searches for you online. It is not the place to explain a complicated offer. It is the place to remind, to reassure and to direct, and deciding how it combines with other channels is part of media buying.

A billboard's job is often to help a shopper remember a business and turn toward its door. Related reading on media buying and outdoor advertising is collected on the topic page.