TOP 10 MUST KNOW OUTDOOR ADVERTISING TERMS
Outdoor advertising is an exciting branch of the larger world of advertising. As a whole, outdoor advertising refers to anything that can be seen outside of the home. We want to help you understand a bit more about this great opportunity for any business to grow. Here are 10 top must know outdoor advertising terms.
1. Billboard
A billboard is large, outdoor display. Generally, billboards can be seen from long distances. This include distance up to 50 feet. They are placed in high traffic areas including the side of highways and busy downtown areas. Times Square in New York City is a prime example of billboard displays. The content can include any time of advertising.
2. Circulation
Circulation was once a common marketing statistic. However, recently it has been replaced by more relevant terms. Basically, circulation refers to the number of people who could potentially see an out of home display ad. It is more of a guestimate than an actual number. Therefore it is not as relevant as other metrics.
3. Commercial Audience
The number of people who are exposed to a particular advertising is referred to as an audience. This is an important figure to be aware. It can actually be more accurate than other metrics.
4. Digital Billboard
As referred to earlier, billboards are large posters that can be seen from distances of up to 50 feet. Older billboards rely on manual labour to paste posters on to them. Modern billboards are digital in nature. This is a win-win situation for both the company that runs the billboard and the company using the billboard to advertise.
Content is easy to transmit and can even be updated before running. Companies that oversee digital billboards require less manual labor to update a new ad campaign. Furthermore, digital billboards often cycle through different content, say every 10 seconds. This allows for more adverting opportunities. As well, changing content is better to get one’s attention.
5. Frequency
Outdoor advertising frequency refers to the number of times that someone sees an out of home ad. First, a period of time is established to measure the frequency. This could be one week or one month. Then, the number of times a person sees that advertising is measured. For example, if a billboard is placed near a major commuter highway, then the frequency that someone would see the outdoor advertising would be 8 times in 1 week. This includes each time someone goes to work and back home.
6. Impressions
Impressions is an important figure to track with outdoor advertising. It can greatly translate into sales. An impression counts as any time someone is likely to notice a piece of outdoor advertising. This could be the target audience. It could also be someone else. Impressions are usually further broken down into the number of people that live in the area. It also includes the number of people that live outside the area.
7. Location List
Creating a location list is important to begin with. It will ultimately determine how successful your outdoor advertising campaign will be. Locations should take into account the target audience of your campaign. Having outdoor advertising locations in popular tourist locales will mean that your target audience will be tourists. If this is not who you think will buy your product, then you will need to rethink your location list.
8. Mobile Billboard
A mobile billboard is smaller than a traditional billboard. This is because it needs to be able to fit on top of a car or truck. A mobile billboard can also move. This allows it to go to where the most amount of people will be.
Examples of mobile billboards exist on taxis or delivery cars. The popularity of food trucks is also a new venue for mobile billboards.
9. Street Furniture
Street furniture, as the name suggests, is any furniture that is outdoor with advertising. Examples include bus shelters, newsstands, and kiosks. Increasingly, companies are becoming more creative with street furniture. IBM, for example, used intriguing benches as part of their latest ad campaign. The result was public awareness and a lot of organic exposure on social media.
10. Target Audience
Deciding on the target audience of an outdoor advertising campaign is one of the first steps when creating a marketing plan. Information includes sex, race, geographic location. It could also include other specific information about potential customers.