Better Billboards = Bigger Results

My name is James, and I am the owner of the Washington DC based mobile billboard company https://dcmobileads.com/ We’ve been running since 2006, through four different Presidents and a lot of issues local and international. I joke sometimes that we specialize in geopolitical crisis’s and mattress sales. And we do. We’ve ran the gamut of different advertising clients, but all share the same objective- get seen. And get seen by a lot of people.

I like to work with clients and making sure they have the best billboard possible before taking a message to the streets. Finding people and putting a mobile billboard truck in front of their faces is the easy part. Designing better billboards sometime requires a little bit of thought.

I’m a reductionist when it comes to simplifying certain topics. Billboard design is definitely an area where reductionism and elimination of unneeded elements is crucial . I’m here now for you to reduce what you need to know about billboard design to a list of a few easy do’ s and do not’s.

1. Use the Three Second Rule- In simple terms, the viewer should be able to discern all of the important information from your billboard in less than 3 seconds. Keep it SIMPLE and even stupid if necessary.
2. Use a CALL TO ACTION. A Call to Action (CTA) can be a URL, a phone number, a retail address or all of these. Or it can be as simple as “Don’t Drink & Drive!”
3. CONTRAST is KING There is a good reason that school buses have been yellow for as long as anyone can remember. School buses carry precious cargo. School buses want to be noticed so people won’t drive like maniacs and endanger the small fries on their way to and from school. It wouldn’t make sense for public safety to conceal kids in dark black matte buses or vans. Being loud is the same as being safe. In the advertising world, bright colors with sharply contrasting text copy is what will get you seen. Always go for high contrast colors.
4. Don’t go thin or fancy with fonts! The thin, girlie fonts that may work for a wedding invitation or an arty online project do not translate to billboards. Bold and simple is the path to success.
5. COLOR is CRUCIAL For the purposes of simplicity, limit your color palette to three or fewer to avoid clutter, but use bright colors with high readability from a distance. Bright and bold colors like yellow, red and blue are effective, especially when paired with high contrasting text fonts.
6. GO BIG with images! Why have empty space when you can fill it with a large, eye popping graphic? Have fun, use an interesting, scary or provocative image that people will notice.