Digital Billboards vs. Other Forms of Media
DIGITAL BILLBOARDS VS. OTHER MEDIA
How do digital billboards compare to other forms of advertising?
How Well Do Digital Boards Work With Other Media?
If It Ain’t Broke…
“…don’t fix it.” This cliché, sadly, rings true far too often for many marketers. And who can blame them? Increased budget pressures create increased need to prove ROI. It’s often easier and safer to use proven methods with proven analytics and access to data.
We believe marketing is at its finest when there is a strategic approach, involving integrated, coordinated tactics to engage your key audiences while building awareness and affinity among general markets.
We are confident that digital billboards, with their ability to inform more than simply advertise, offer a cost-effective and dynamic tool in your marketing arsenal.
The Elements of Great Marketing
Digital billboards offer very unique and specific opportunities for informing audiences about your brand
- Your messages, presented your way
- Bright, vibrant color
- The ability to leverage dynamic, relative content in real time
- Lower cost and production time than any other broadcast medium.
- The ability to target specific hours of the day
- Geographic targeting for proximity to your location and audience travel patterns
- The ability to “hit” your audience when they are making timely and relevant decisions
- Quick turn-around time for modifying or replacing creative
- Known audience numbers and audience habits
If you’re still not sure how you incorporate digital billboards into your mix, let’s compare them to your current tools.
Network television has been a presence in American homes for more than 70 years. Even though they currently account for 40% of TV audiences, they, unlike their cable-counterparts, are hard to target and are more casual in their viewing habits. The challenge to network television advertising is price versus viewership and the associated value of that impact.
Network TV works well with Digital Billboards:
- Remind drivers of your brand and products with highly predictable traffic habits
- Showcase your brand to consumers that match traffic profiling and socio-, eco- and demographics
- Have your message be seen by the counterparts of the network audience (younger, mobile and more-affluent)
In 1980, when first introduced on a mass scale, cable viewing was minimal compared to network television. Today, cable television offers hundreds of channels (the average American has access to more than 120) and the ability to offer targeted audiences and much cheaper rates than network television. But the numerous options and opportunities available also create a fragmented medium.
Cable TV works well with Digital Billboards:
- Digital billboards reinforce cable TV advertising messages and strategies
- Ability to extend cable advertising through other tools (social media, etc.)
- Carry over established target audience (younger, mobile and more affluent) to their daily commutes
As consumers began spending more time behind the wheel in the 1990s, radio audiences surged. Many marketers moved their television dollars to an audience held captive by their cars and the traffic around them. With the introduction of CD players, satellite radio and personal-music-player connectivity in cars, radio audiences, unlike the traffic they create, are not what they used to be.
Radio works well with Digital Billboards:
- Digital billboards allow you to “show” drivers things they may be hearing about
- Easy cross over between mediums for cross-promotion
- Extension of brand beyond the forced-targeting of radio to a general
audience that is still relevant
Newspapers are vital for providing communities a source of local news, information and opinion. Over the last 20 years, as the Internet has taken over a portion of that role and as general circulation has declined from lack of readership, the newspaper has become less relevant for editorial content and, accordingly, advertising investment.
Newspaper works very well with Digital Billboards:
- Call attention to newspaper advertising to educate consumers of presence and strategy
- Extend the shelf life (typically 24-hours for newspapers) of advertising for frequency and penetration
- Capture audiences when they are both researching options and making purchase decisions
High production quality, glossy paper, striking images and targeted readerships make magazines a typically superior print marketing investment. Online consumption of traditional magazine content, which is increasing cover prices and the presence of advertisements, leaves individual marketers drowning in competitive ads with not enough readers to throw them a lifeline.
Magazines and Digital Billboards work well together:
- Remind consumers of magazine presence and content strategy
- Extend the shelf life of magazine advertising for frequency and penetration
- Supplement targeted niche readership audience with general consumers for greater engagement
Since its introduction to American homes and workplaces in the mid-90s, the Internet has been seen as the “future” of all communication. But it remains mysterious to many marketers and most consumers view the Internet as a tool and an option, rather than their only source for information and entertainment.
Digital Billboards and Internet content work well together:
- Easily drive consumers from tool to tool using social media strategies and website URLs
- Start a “story” on digital billboards and continue it digitally with relatively low overall costs
- Extend overall audience coverage and engagement beyond targeted Internet audiences of blanket billboard audiences