Creative Guidelines

When creating a marketing message it’s tempting to go overboard. This can ultimately detract from the message you want your audience to see. With billboard advertising, simple is actually better.

Most of your audience will see your message while driving, and you’ve only got a few seconds to convey your important message.

Keeping your message at or under 7 words will ensure that your audience will see your message. Find a way to consolidate the unique selling proposition of your message for maximum impact. Some great examples that illustrate this principle are:
 

• The Most Interesting Man in the World (Dos Equis)
• Get a Mac (Apple)
• A Diamond is Forever (De Beers)
• Where’s the Beef? (Wendy’s)
• Thank You, Mom (Proctor & Gamble)

This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many billboards use smaller text in order to cram in more information that visitors won’t see anyway. A concise message with large text gets results!

The reason for this is to make sure that you’re offering compelling visual appeal to grab the reader’s attention without detracting from your message. Imagine if you had a bright yellow background with white text. This would probably annoy your viewers or worse, get them to ignore your message entirely.

Your audience needs to know how to respond to your ad, so you need to tell them exactly what to do (i.e. call a phone number, turn right at next exit, visit a website, etc). Be sure your call to action is clear while keeping in mind that you you have a short window of opportunity to convey your message.