Successful Mobile Billboard Campaigns: The ONLY Rule You Need to Know!
Are you considering mobile billboards as a part of your current advertising campaign? I’d be more than happy to tell you how to do mobiles and how to do them right. It comes to down to one simple rule- You need the RIGHT Sign, at the RIGHT Place at the RIGHT Time.
Read on if you are interested! I’ll explain the three “right’s” listed above in reverse order, easiest first.
The Right Time is an easy proposition for billboard trucks- the audience for mobile billboards is largest at peak hours of the day or evening. Business hours are usually best, as are afternoon rush hour. Midnight to 6AM is pretty much dead, but some campaigns have a night time appeal, ie clubs, restaurants etc. Weekends are always busy, as many people are out on the road in shopping or recreation mode. With Mobile Billboards, crowded streets and busy intersections are not the enemy- they are an asset. Time your mobile billboard campaign for the best time to reach your goals….
The Right Place takes a little more thought than the Right Time, but is fairly easy to deliver. You want a mobile billboard in areas important to your campaign. Geographic flexibility is key! You can target specific zip codes for marketing and politics; target the CBD of your city or maybe a huge stadium or ball park event. Market to specific income or ethnic groups based on demographic data. Even better- market to many of these diverse elements all in the same campaign. A few hours here, a few hours there can broaden your reach exponentially….
The Right Sign takes a little more of the planning and thinking process. The Right Sign means you have an effective graphic; something eye catching and legible from a city block or more away. I’ve made signs for years and have always stressed the importance of loud signage that pops out at the viewer. People have short attention spans and they are not going to read a “short story” or a run-on sentence. People instinctively avoid advertising (how many web page banner ads have you ignored today?) and focus their eyes and minds elsewhere. Color and images are important too. Proper color contrast (like these black letters on a white background) make a sign much more appealing, as do huge and unusual images Can you offer something different and something that people will want to see, or in some cases- can’t avoid seeing? (As a subtopic, I follow another rule, the rule of H’s, which is to say all signs should make the viewer HUNGRY, HA-HA, HAPPY, HORNY or HORRIFIED, but I will save that for another article.)
The Right sign also means the right kind of deal or price when it comes to retailers. I’ve told people for year that thousands of eyeballs will see their signs every day if they advertise with us. I then tell them that if thousands see your sign that reads “FREE APPLE PIE”, they are going to have bake a lot of apple pies to keep up. Then I tell them if they run a billboard that reads “APPLE PIES- $75”, they probably should not bake many at all. Sure, the same thousands of people will see both the free pie billboard just as they do the overpriced apple pie billboard. But people react to discounts and deals, and just because an advertisement is seen by a lot of people does not translate to the same number of conversions. Every business has a different price point and unique hook. I can’t tell you what yours is, but you may be able to tell me. It may or may not be the same pitch you want to use in print or web advertising. Maybe “$5 Happy Hour Burgers” works for a restaurant, while “Arlington Condos Under $299K” works for a builder. Again, everything and everyone is different and what works for Paul may not do it for Patricia.
I can elaborate on these three key tenets for hours. I’ll spare you. If you are interested in getting some big exposure, I will be glad to consult and give you some options and insight and see if mobile billboards are right for you. We serve DC/Baltimore/Richmond and maybe some other places. James 703.372.SIGN (7446)
