“We love seeing your boards. They’re easy to read and understand. And they don’t have a lot of clutter.” Anecdotes are not reliable scientific measures, but word of mouth in this day and age does mean something to marketers and more specifically, consumers.
The number of drive by impressions depends on the location of your outdoor advertising and the message presented on that billboard. It helps further if your board stands next to a major route that’s regularly used all year long. By extension, we have a second board similar in concept, but unique in their message and brand positioning. So, we have 2 boards that run in rotation, that second board can be anywhere so as long as it’s on a major highway or road that allows for a reasonable “read.”
A lot of commuters, vacationers et al travel our interstates. Traveling north/south is straightforward from 95 in New Haven, CT then onto 91 right up to the Vermont border. The east/west channel has the Mass Pike [I-90] running from Boston all the way to eastern New York.
Springfield, MA’s DMA [Designated Market Area] is ranked 117 in the USA. A short 25 minutes south, is Hartford, CT, ranked 32.
We do get our share of leaf peekers, second home owners in Berkshire County, skiers, campers, fly-fishers, boaters, hikers and everything else in between.
Demographically speaking, there are key influencers and decision makers who receive multiple impressions from our messages.
But before any creative goes up, the content must deliver a quality that most viewers/drivers can identify with. As a brand, our firm is known for long-term strategies, growth, and a conservative though modern approach for reinforcing our values. And since our beginnings, we’ve positioned all our clients as the assets that matter; it dovetails with our commitment as fiduciaries: we work in the best interests of our clients.
We also partner with non-profits, either through co-branding or providing the space for however they’d like to use it. Any proposed artwork needs to go through our compliance & legal departments.
Travelling on the highway, you have less than 1/30 of second to glance at a board, any board. We make every effort to keep the content simple and relevant to our clients and prospects. There’s been no shortage of motifs to help develop content. For example, there’s been a growing interest with Artificial Intelligence [AI] and the world of autonomous electronics or in applications that can generate text that’s easy to read and perhaps follow. ChatGPT comes to mind. It’s not unusual in our digital world today where you could make it easier to create something that refines efficiency while reducing complexity. Robotics come to mind.
When I started here , I pushed for the use of white space because it adds, 1) a sense of calm & order, and 2) it delivers a focus that helps you think . David Ogilvy, the grandmaster of modern advertising and branding had a tenet that has stuck by me: “Keep it simple and do not talk down to your audience.” A lot of outdoor advertising is overloaded with info. It’s as if the strategy is to include as many benefits and attributes in the space. I refer to it as putting 10 lbs of “stuff” into a bag that holds only 5 lbs. Simple concepts are often better if only because they can be easier to remember.
As an advertiser, having the right message delivered in a relatable way means the viewer can identify with what’s being said. The short version of that is referred to as having “emotional ownership.”
When a message strikes a chord or brings forward a detail that sticks with you, then emotional ownership has taken hold.
Carlo Centeno 