Outdoor Media Use in Strategic Communications
Bus, Billboard Advertising Signs in Public Relations Campaigns
Jun 12, 2009
Outdoor advertising can include waste bins, bus shelters, bus or park benches and recycling bins and seeks to reach communications objectives by targeting audiences with creative images and text. The key to good outdoor media campaigns is using these tools by applying the key principles of communications management:
- Define communications objectives for the outdoor campaign
- Does the public relations campaign seek to guide people to a service location?
- Does the outdoor media support a broader branding campaign?
- The outdoor media message should be a call to action such as asking viewers to call a number or visit a website
Outdoor Media Sizes Part of Communications Management
Billboard advertising appears in three basic sizes and should be chosen based on the public relations campaign goals. Bulletins are the largest standard outdoor media, measured about 14-feet high by 48-feet wide. Long-term messages appear most frequently on bulletins so they are sold on a four to 36-month basis. Most are illuminated and typically handmade in a studio.
The most common billboard types are 30-sheet posters that measure about 10 feet by 22 feet with the panel either preprinted or silkscreen and pasted up on location. These large posters can be illuminated and bought for a minimum of a month and last for a few years if needed.
The third type of billboard advertising is an eight-sheet poster, commonly called Juniors, which measure five feet by 11 feet. Juniors are often used for local promotions, near a point of sale or are used to direct customers to a business location.
Design Key to Strategic Communications Using Outdoor Media
Designing an effective outdoor public relations campaign is perhaps the most difficult of all forms of advertising. Most outdoor media, particularly billboards and bus advertising, are hard to read and must capture the attention of people driving.
Get advice about design from an experienced advertising agency, the outdoor advertising company or a good commercial art studio.
For all outdoor media locations, ask for traffic flow data for each billboard or outdoor advertising location to evaluation and monitor the campaign as a form of media coverage. Do not use gross circulation, which includes all cross traffic. Use daily effective circulation which is the real audience that will pass the advertising location each day heading in the correct direction.
PR Campaigns Use Outdoor Advertising for Social Marketing
Public relations campaigns focused on managing communications around social issues are becoming a more common objective for outdoor media. For example, during a high profile trial, a Canadian wing of the Hell Angels put up billboards in the city of Toronto headlined: “Still fighting for democracy and freedom” and directed people to a website with facts about the organization’s activities.
The World Wildlife Fund used a climate change bulletin board in a creative manner. The awning of the billboard cast a shadow that rose throughout the day with the movement of the sun under a headline: “Ocean levels are rising faster than ever.”
Outdoor advertising signs can be an initiative used to strategically communications to target audiences during public relations campaigns. The key is to focus on audiences, the design of outdoor media and create a call to action in order to reach objectives.
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