Billboard Ads in Montgomery
Header Image Credit: Pixabay1
Contents
What Is A Billboard?
A billboard is a large outdoor board for displaying advertisements.
Wikipedia further defines a billboard as:
A large outdoor advertising structure…, typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers. Typically showing witty slogans and distinctive visuals, billboards are highly visible in the top designated market areas.
Billboard Origin & History
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons2
“Billboard” is an American English term dating to 1845 meaning “any sort of board where bills were meant to be posted.”
Billboard is a blended word derived from bill, meaning “written public notice,” and board, meaning “table upon which public notices are written.”3
The first large scale use of the billboard as an advertising tool was as circus posters printed or secured on horse-drawn trucks that would precede a show to town in order to increase interest and attendance.4
What Is Billboard Advertising?
Billboard advertising is a traditional form of Outdoor Advertising Media.
“Out of Home” Ads
According to Wikipedia:
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising… is advertising that reaches the consumers while they are outside their homes…
OOH advertising is also referred to as:
- Outdoor advertising
- Out-of-home media
- Outdoor media
Call Me Alabama!
Regarding the billboard seen in Figure #1, and according to the AL.com article “Alexander Shunnarah legal empire built on thousands of billboards”:5
Shunnarah has… a massive advertisement campaign with 2,000 billboards…
Outdoor Advertising Association of America
Image Credit: Outdoor Advertising Association of America6
The Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) is the national trade association for the out-of-home (OOH) advertising industry.
According to the OAAA website:
OAAA is a unified voice, an authoritative thought leader, and a passionate advocate that protects, unites, and advances OOH advertising in the United States.
Outdoor Advertising Options
There are a multitude of outdoor advertising options, all of which offer their own unique impact:
- Billboards
- Walls
- Bus, airport, and rail media
- Street furniture
- Specialty advertising signs
- Mobile billboards
- Sports media
- and more
Many outdoor media options are available as multimedia, digital displays.
Outdoor Advertising Benefits
Traditional media is often ignored or tuned out, but careful marketers might benefit from the results offered by advertising billboards.
The billboard ads that line our highways and populate the city landscape offer a glimpse into our national psyche. Billboards are our latter-day town criers that announce what’s hot and what’s not; they define the trends, anoint the celebrities, and create the buzz.
Brands are built on our roadways, where your audience is receptive to buzzworthy advertising that billboards have always offered. Billboard signs quench our thirsts, cure our aches and pains, and help us decide what to eat, all while fashioning brands into household names.
At times, they act as guides, directing us to hotels, eateries and amusements. Billboard ads help us find businesses and services and help businesses find customers.
Also, outdoor advertising is ideal for political advertising and campaigns.
Offering a reflection of our time, place, and mood, billboard advertisements are outdoor’s great communicators.
Billboard Prices in Montgomery
How much does a billboard cost in Montgomery, Alabama?
Billboard lease rates depend on your marketing budget, what you want to achieve, and several other factors, including:
- Format/Type/Size – Examples: traditional billboards, digital billboards, posters, etc.
- Circulation – Total volume of traffic that passes the billboard, which is derived from transportation authorities.
- Demographics – Breakout by age, gender and income level of people who typically pass by a billboard
- Impressions – Number of people who actually see the ad, based on the size of the billboard, visibility, the speed at which people are passing, etc.
For details about billboard pricing, contact one of several outdoor billboard advertising companies in the Montgomery, Alabama metro area.
Types of Billboard Advertising
Highway Billboards
Highway billboards, or “Bulletin” billboard ads, impact our mobile population.
Bulletin billboard signs offer month-long presence and the visibility to influence commuters everyday.
Bulletins are some of the most cost-effective and noticeable advertisements.
Located on high-traffic expressways, major roads, intersections, and choke points to all major cities, highway billboards offer you unparalleled advertising locations.
Bulletin advertising puts you in touch with our increasingly mobile population – and with adjacencies to major shopping areas, billboards are the perfect point-of-purchase media.
Month-long presence and tremendous visibility to vehicular traffic allow billboards on highways to reach on-the-go commuters and influence their purchasing decisions at just the right time.
Offering one of the largest formats for creative advertising, bulletin advertising provides the high-impact canvas you need to make a major splash in your market.
Digital Billboards
Electronic Advertising & LED Signs
Digital billboards have revolutionized the industry with cutting-edge digital technology and premier locations in the most desired markets.
Digital billboards have brought Out-of-Home advertising to a whole new level. With the latest eye-catching LED technology, and locations throughout the most in-demand markets in Alabama, LED signs have streamlined the Outdoor advertising industry.
With messages that are easily changed, you can display different ads at different times of the day during your electronic advertising campaign, making your message not only relevant but timely.
Posters
Posters are typically made of polyethylene printed copy (some are 100% recyclable) and are highly visible to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
These big, bold, and environmentally friendly boards are visually superior to traditional 30-sheet posters – regardless of weather conditions.
Posters are seamless, guaranteeing consistent color tone across the surface of the board. Neighborhood penetration makes posters the ideal point of purchase media. Demographic- specific locations bring your ad directly to your target audience.
Achieve dramatic large-scale impact and frequency with multiple units strategically located to maximize your advertising potential for both local and retail advertisers.
Junior Posters
Junior Posters, or Jr Posters, are about half the size of a regular poster and typically located along primary and secondary roadways in urban areas.
Jr Posters are highly visible to vehicular traffic and offer point-of-purchase opportunities for local businesses to drive traffic to their stores.
JR Posters can target neighborhoods, shops, and diverse areas. Their smaller canvas allows these signs to be placed in local neighborhoods where bulletins and posters are zoned out.
Wall Billboard Ads
Wall Billboards, also referred to as “Wallscapes” and ”Wall Murals,” are affixed to buildings in heavily trafficked areas and visible from a great distance.
Wallscapes provide maximum impact for:
- Conveying your message
- Supporting your brand
- Keeping your message top of mind
Wall murals vary in size and are ideal for penetrating urban centers, offering endless creative options and point-of-purchase exposure in major shopping districts.
Walls offer the exact type of high-impact advertising that billboards are known for in major metro areas.
Transit Advertising Displays
According to Wikipedia, Transit Media is:
Is a form of out-of-home advertising that displays advertisements in or on the outside of vehicles…
Moving Billboards
Moving Billboards are affixed to moving vehicles!
Various types of transit media are available to advertisers.
Whether you’re looking to target a bus-friendly audience or a rail/subway-friendly audience, Transit Media can bring your message to their eyes in a powerful way. Transit display advertising has adapted to make an impact on an increasingly youthful and difficult to engage demographic.
Most outdoor advertising vendors carry a strong inventory of interactive and digital media for transit sign advertising that’s sure to keep your message strong in the minds of consumers between and during daily commutes.
Bus Advertising
Image Credit: Pixabay7
Buses go where people go – where they live, shop, work and play – and so does the advertising on buses.
The strength of a bus transit display is its constant ability to find a crowd. A bus transit sign “mingles with consumers,” and follows the flow of shoppers and their spending power – speaking, showing, and selling along the way.
A bus ad ignites trends and fuels demand for the products and services they promote as they connect the dots between where the journey begins and ends.
Advertising on buses builds and reinforces brand images as they go with the flow.
Airport Advertising
Airport advertising is positioned in the common areas of transit stations, terminals, and airports.
Interior displays can be freestanding or affixed to terminal walls, windows, columns, ceilings, or floors.
Airport Advertising is located throughout the terminals and concourses:
- Arrival and departure areas
- Ticketing areas
- Baggage claim
- Gate-hold rooms
- Entrances and exits
- Retail shops
- VIP lounges
The majority of interior airport displays are backlit. Exterior displays are available along airport/terminal roadways as billboards, LED, or overhead signs.
Airport advertising formats include:
- Kiosks – 3 or 4-sided freestanding units located throughout the airport’s terminals and concourses.
- Showcases – Highly visible units that allow advertisers to display their products and services.
- Exhibition/Promotion Areas – Allow advertisers to communicate directly with the airport audience to educate and inform passengers about products and services.
- Courtesy Phone Centers – Allow passengers to dial direct the accommodation of their choice.
- Digital Screens- Full-coverage networks of LED screens or television monitors providing advertising and information in the airport at high-traffic passenger cluster areas.
- Baggage Cart Sponsorships – Panels located on baggage carts delivering total audience coverage with message frequency.
- Dioramas – Back-illuminated units deliver higher reach and frequency.
- Spectaculars – Larger-size, back-illuminated units designed to break through environmental clutter delivering greater passenger reach and impact.
- Wraps – A pre-printed adhesive material applied to flat surfaces (walls, windows, and floors) giving passengers the illusion that they are part of the existing terminal structure.
- Posters – Non-illuminated units distributed throughout terminals.
- Baggage Carousel Units – Advertising panels that replace the existing panels on baggage claim carousels to target arriving passengers.
- Airport Bus Shelters – Highly visible back-illuminated units seen by the total airport audience.
- Exterior Sponsorships/Landmark Spectaculars – One-of-a-kind exterior units that act as airport ambassadors, welcoming passengers to the airport or to their destination.
Is Billboard Advertising Right for my Business?
It depends on many factors.
It’s important to note:
- Outdoor advertising simply will not work for every business.
- “Circulation” data does NOT take into account whether passersby actually see your ad.
- It can be difficult to track your return on investment.
Billboard Tracking Tip: Regarding bullet #3, using a vanity phone number or custom domain name helps you track your return on investment (ROI) by providing a unique identifier so you can monitor how your customers learned about you.
Vanity phone numbers and domains are also eye-catching, contribute to your branding, and help people remember your business.
Outdoor Advertising Media Spend
What is the 2017 market share for outdoor advertising expenditures compared with other marketing channels?
Image Credit: OAAA8
- Magazines: 3.9%
- Outdoor Advertising (OOH): 4.2% <<
- Newspapers: 5.6%
- Radio: 7.4%
- Cable TV: 16.1%
- Broadcast TV: 17%
- Digital (Desktop/Mobile): 45.8%[*]
Sources: OAAA, MagnaGlobal, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Bureau of Economic Research
[*]Note: Shares based on MagnaGlobal total core media. Digital media definition expanded in 2015 to include desktop & mobile search, video, social, display. Prior to 2015 digital reporting included internet display only.
Integrating Outdoor Advertising
- Do you need to integrate your online advertising with an outdoor advertising campaign so you receive the biggest bang for your buck?
- Are you looking for affordable alternatives to billboard advertising?
- Not sure where to start?
Contact Bizeeo Marketing Agency for a free consultation.