Out-of-home advertising, also known as OOH, has stood the test of time as a reliable and powerful advertising medium. However, even the most beautifully designed billboard or poster won’t sell your product or service if it is not carefully thought out. Advertisements need to be carefully thought out and planned out. The media selection process of a billboard or other OOH advertising contributes to the success of an advertising campaign.
Goals and Objectives In the Process of Media Selection
The initial step in the process of media selection is to consider what you wish to achieve from your outdoor advertisement. What is the primary goal? Is it to increase sales? Is it to establish a brand presence? Or is it to promote a particular event? Setting these goals at the beginning of your project will map out the necessary efforts to achieve these specific objectives.
Media Planning and Strategy Audience and Demographics
Many factors go into media selection, but many focus on your audience’s characteristics. One of the first steps in media planning and strategy is identifying the target audience, which will help you focus your marketing efforts and budget on groups most likely to become customers.
Your advertising campaign can only generate business leads well if it’s effectively exposed to the target audience. Even an outstanding billboard will fail to meet your goals if you target the wrong audience or are in the wrong location. Media choice is determined by the number of viewers and other target audience demographics such as income, gender, family size, and education level. If product demand is higher within a particular demographic, you can research design and communication trends that cater to that audience, which you can later incorporate into your advertisement.
Competition and Product Demand
Market research into your brand’s competitors is crucial to media planning. You don’t want your ad to be drowned out by competing ads. You also don’t want to take the same approaches your competitors take. Ultimately, you want to stand out and be memorable.
Placing your advertisement in areas where product demand is high can increase your market share in the area. On the other hand, strategically placing advertisements in areas with lower product demand can boost brand presence in a new geographical market.
Market research will give your team valuable insights into product demand according to the location and demographics mentioned previously.
Media Planning and Advertising Budget
For your business to generate a profit, you must invest in a media planning and advertising budget. Having a budget will help you better understand advertising requirements and their costs, helping you monitor expenses and ensure advertisement activity is within budget. Setting a budget will depend on existing market share and competition, product life cycle, and frequency of the advertisement. Billboards in high foot-and-vehicle traffic areas can be more costly, but they can also generate a more significant ROI than choosing an affordable billboard with less viewership. An inaccurate budget can increase overall costs if the target of the original budget can’t be met, so it’s essential to consider the budget carefully.
Media Type, Location, and Season
Once a budget is set, the next step of the media selection process is determining what type of billboard and which location is the best for your advertisement. Marketing teams should ask themselves:
- Which billboards are most appropriate for their marketing goals?
- How can your message be communicated in the most effective way possible?
- Do you want to make your ad digital, or is the old-fashion static billboard the best route?
It’s crucial to leverage key locations that match your target demographic. If you are a company selling luxury goods, you’ll want to advertise in areas that will allow you to get the correct information to the right people.
Companies can also leverage the season they choose to advertise. If you’re promoting a new children’s toy, an optimal time to advertise would be during the holidays. If you’re advertising your new pool cleaning service, you might want to advertise during the summer. Being mindful of different consumer holidays and seasons with increased product demand can help ensure your ad gets delivered to your consumer at the right time.
Effective billboard designs
The design and message of your billboard will capture the viewer’s attention. There’s no one-size-fits-all design technique for a billboard. However, bright colors and sharp contrasts make for an attention-grabbing billboard. Proper font usage and readability will also play a role in increasing reach. The key is to keep it simple. A rule of thumb is to use fewer than seven words and more irregular than three visual elements. You want your billboard to be easy to understand and digestible.
Grabbing the consumer’s attention is half the work. The next is to get them to take action. How can you design your billboard in a way that will want people to act on your message? Thoughtfully planning the different design elements of your billboard will allow
bMedia – Puerto Rico’s Advertising Experts
bMedia are Puerto Rico’s advertising experts. If you want to grow your business on the island, we’re here to help make that happen. Let our team of experts guide you through the media planning process from beginning to end. bMedia has a wide selection of outdoor media, like billboards, to choose from. On our website, you can click on each billboard type and learn more about the specific advertising format.
Our seasoned team can work with you to plan and execute your next extensive advertising campaign. We have the reach, analytics, and knowledge to help you get your message out to the public in the most effective way possible.
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