IMPORTANCE OF OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

Outdoor advertising essentially communicates the message to the general public through billboards, posters and so on. Outdoor advertising is an important form of advertising as the ads are huge and are visible to everyone when they are out on the road. Every ad agency knows the importance of this, hence put extra effort into making them eye-catchy. The most important part of this and any other form of advertising is that the message to be delivered should be unique and to the point. Though images can be used, they should not be used excessively. Everything should be presented to the viewer in a format where the viewers make up their minds to buy that particular product or service. For any marketing agency, it is a great responsibility to make an ad that is attractive enough to make people buy the product/service.

 

The message can be an ad to buy a product, take a trip, or give it to a charity. Millions of dollars are being spent on outdoor advertising each year and the figures are expected to keep growing. The reason behind this is the fact that outdoor traffic keeps on growing every year and hence the target audience for outdoor advertising is ever increasing.



Even though the print and newspaper advertising takes up a huge part of advertising but outdoor advertising is distinctive in its own way. It is a tremendously cost-effective method of advertising. All an advertising agency needs to do is to design a billboard and get it printed as compared to the television advertising where an entire 30-second commercial has to be produced and developed. If these outdoor ads are strategically placed, on popular spots and where there are more traffic and signals, it can guarantee substantial exposure for a very little cost. That is why outdoor advertising has proven to be very cost-effective.

 

Different industries make use of outdoor advertising in their own different ways. For instance, restaurants and eateries on the highway make use of highway billboards to draw the customer to have a bite and rest a little at their place. The automobile and tourism industries make use of the billboards to advertise their tourism plans. These prove to be successful because of the fact that people on the highway are on the lookout for such information.

There are several other forms in which outdoor advertising can take place apart from the billboards, for example, beverage companies make use of sporting events and arenas to display their products.

The OAAA has divided the Outdoor Advertising into four major categories: Billboards - These typically account for almost half of the revenue of outdoor advertising. Then there is a transit system and mobile advertising which also takes up a major part of outdoor advertising. Advertising on public furniture is also used comprehensively these days globally. Last but not least is alternative advertising. Such advertising can be in the form of Corporate Blogging, which is an important form of advertising these days.

 

To sum it up, we can say that outdoor advertising, if used wisely, with good strategic placement and excellent visuals are very powerful and cost-effective.