KISS: Keep it Simple, Stupid

This AdRants post says the best practices for billboard advertising better than I ever could. What is the expression, “The more you add the more you take away”? (Or something to that effect.) I wish more billboard advertisers would heed the sage advice of AdRants imparted in the last paragraph:

It’s unfortunate most agencies and marketers don’t realize the billboard medium is at its most powerful when it’s used for simple, direct messaging. Two to four words and a simple visual is about all the medium can take. Too many marketers and agencies try to cram the entire marketing plan onto a single 14 X 48 foot space which is usually seen for less than three seconds. For billboards, simplicity rules. In creating this McDonald’s billboard, Leo Burnett clearly understands this.

L.A.'s Outdoors go Digital

Hello! We here at Marketing Through the Clutter are back from our summer vacation and ready to resume our critiques of the good and the bad of marketing in today’s busy world. 

Circa December 2006 I wrote about Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin vetoing plans by a few outdoor advertising companies to erect digital billboards in Atlanta.  But over on the Left Coast, there’s no such ban and some Los Angeles residents are pretty upset.

Clear Channel is doubling its number of digital billboards in L.A.  To paraphrase the company’s president and COO, the more congested a city, the better it is for billboards.

So he’s saying that the worse the traffic, the better it is for advertisers to use billboards.  I can see the logic that if you’re sitting in traffic and need to stare at something, why not make it an advertisement?  And why not make it a relevant ad since these digital billboards can change their messages pretty quickly? 

Those who live near those billboards can tell you why not.  The flashing lights are garish and disruptive as they stream into the windows of nearby apartment dwellers.

As I said before, I think this is a bit Big Brother-ish, but not a bad marketing tactic.  I just prefer marketing methods that are more one-to-one rather than one-to-anyone who happens to drive by.

Atlanta Billboards Not Changing Soon

I’ll be curious to see how the Atlanta City Council decides to regulate digital billboards. Talk about getting your message across in a busy marketplace! I loved the mention of a restaurant being able to tailor its pitch for different meal specials throughout the day.

This topic interests me for several reasons. I am a native Atlantan and like to track how the visual landscape of the city evolves over time. But as a marketer, it’s nice to know that I won’t be subjected to the same, irrelevant messages for extended periods of time.

But how exactly can a billboard operator monitor how many people view each ad (as the above article mentions)? So it’s great that an advertiser can measure its ROI, but there’s something about it that seems a bit Big Brother-ish to me.