Why use highway billboard advertisement signs for marketing?
Have you seen a highway billboard advertisement lately? These large billboards are usually focused on high traffic areas to give most impact and visual appeal to these massive signs. But you might ask, why would I use one of these signs in a marketing or advertising campaign? What can they do for me?
Build your brand
The biggest way they can help, is by building your brand. These large signs are seen if placed in a high traffic area by thousands of people every day. In fact some of the best locations receive over 300,000 views per day, usually off of major highways or intersections in metropolitan areas. Seeing your branding on these billboard advertisement sparks appeal and interest in your brand that can be recalled with another marketing campaign that is online focused.
A good case study on this is Chipotle. Chopotle uses billboard advertising in large metro populated cities to advertise their tex-mex infused dishes. They aim to target their audience of young adults, nerds, geeks and others who crave the cilantro lime rice bowls piled high with their choice of toppings. The campaign works along with strong word of mouth marketing and other online marketing campaigns.
Another company who uses billboard advertisements would be Apple. You will see Apple signs along highways and again in large metro populated areas like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston. Apple sticks to one category such as using one of their products in an ad. Lately, they have been pushing their iPad device. They are securing market share with a new vertical (tablets) and helping user adoption. It makes sense to advertise this device.
If you are building your brand with large, national hopes. A billboard advertisement campaign might be a good idea if you have the cash to sustain such a marketing move. Most signs start about $1000 bucks per month, with higher more predominant position costing upwards of $7000 bucks or higher.
Industry Events
Are you an exhibitor for a industry trade show? Want a very effective way to get industry veterans, press and potential customers to find out about your company? Plan a billboard advertisement campaign around the host venue of the industry show. You have a large audience dedicated to your vertical or industry at the event in a concentrated area. This works wonders with billboard campaigns. Even if you aren't exhibiting you can still have a presence related around the show with a billboard. Point the viewers to your booth or work in a campaign about your overall brand on the billboard. You could even add in a search marketing campaign to the mix. This is true multichannel marketing.
In the tech arena? Pay to advertise in silicon valley. You could get picked up by a major news outlet, or a potential customer might see the billboard ad and pick up the phone or start typing in your web address.