Your new customers have just gone through an emotional roller coster. They are now somewhat settling into what looks like the new norm for the next few months. Understanding your customer’s emotions is key! Getting back out there on a billboard means you will need to connect with your customers and audience better than ever before.
The mood of the general public will be of excitement and cautiousness as they are gradually allowed to interact with people, places and things they once loved. Connecting with their desires, excitement and eagerness to move forward needs to play out in your advertising campaigns.
“What’s important in this pandemic is for brands to be nimble, get the message out at the right time more than ever…” said Anna Bager, president and CEO of the Out of Home Advertising Association of America.
As the travel industry takes a hit, like never before this summer there will be lots more families staying put for the summer holidays. The roads will remain busy for essential services and gradual use of more local services.
WHAT DO I REALLY NEED TO ACHIEVE FROM MY NEXT AD?
First, spend some time thinking about the aims of your campaign before you begin your design. Take a step back and understand what is important for your customers to know about you or what you are offering. Here is where we see some businesses go wrong – they launch a brand awareness campaign, which is great for letting people know who they are and what they do, however, they are after high volumes of calls! There is no strong call to action, no message that would make the viewer visit their website or business right away for the problem they are solving.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What is the best product or service that I offer, that would draw more customers in?
- Are my customers wants / needs during this pandemic considered in the messaging?
- What kind of response do I want when the ad goes live?
The artwork design will play a huge role in being able to effectively measure the ROI of your billboard campaign. Without a well thought-out, simple, strategic design your campaign can get little to no reaction from its audience.
ADDRESSING THE SITUATION
In a study carried out by Smartly.io on how consumers are viewing social advertising during the pandemic, a vast majority (83%) said that they would like to see brands react in their advertising with messaging about preventative measures like social distancing (28%). Also, of importance were products that are useful to the stay-at-home economy (31%) and philanthropy (24%) says Robert Rothschild, VP and Global Head of Marketing, Smartly.io
If you offered a product or service that was valuable pre-pandemic, rest assured that it probably still is considered handy now! You now need to adjust how you get your business to the consumer and your messaging needs to clearly show how your customers can interact with you.
Restaurants – now offering take away & safe delivery
Skips / Waste Management – helping people clear out their properties for a clutter-free work from home environment
Schools – safe distancing open days or measures put in place for safe teaching
Kitchen / Bathroom – Promoting virtual displays available online or appointment only showrooms
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- Soul Church Billboard Norwich
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- Mead Open Farm Milton Keynes
HOW AIDA HELPS YOU DESIGN BETTER
If you are thinking about your first billboard campaign or looking to take on another, the AIDA model helps to guide you on the important information needed on your poster and where to place it. AIDA is a marketing model that identifies the stages an individual goes through during the buying process that aids in making the final purchase.
Our expert billboard design team, breaks it down further and applies it to billboard designs:
A (Attention) – The first thing we need to do is grab the attention of the potential client, this is done by having a large, bold tagline situated at the very top of the artwork.
I (Interest) – Once we have grabbed attention we need to generate interest, this is done using the visual icons and descriptives to garner interest in the service being offered.
D (Desire) – Again like with the interest we’ve also used the visual icons to generate desire in the service, this will lead a potential client to the next stage.
A (Action) – We then push them to take action, this here is done by having clear, bold contact details (the ones we want them to use, no others to allow them to escape our conversion strategy).
