Why Billboards Don’t Work (It’s Not What You Think)

I’ve been writing ads since the Internet was just going mainstream. Some of the first art directors I worked with had drafting tables and X-Acto knives.

That means I’ve had a front row seat to the evolution of advertising from cultural touchstone to fleeting pixel. From mystical art form to digital blot that is never more than an A/B test away from oblivion.

OK, maybe I’m being too dramatic about it. There’s still lots of great advertising being made. And I believe that the old school billboards you see clinging to buildings and standing awkwardly beside the road still work, even if we can’t measure their effectiveness as easily as ads on Google or Facebook.

I believe the reason they work is because humans are social animals. We’re wired to detect social status. Have you ever heard someone complain about being snubbed in some small way, then a moment later retort, “Whatever, I don’t really care”?

Well, they care.

We all care. Our social awareness is conscious and unconscious. Mass advertising like billboards, TV and radio tap into that awareness. When you see a 10"x'30" billboard for an investment company, for example, that brand automatically becomes part of your social landscape. You think other people must be investing there. It must matter.

This doesn’t mean you immediately invest yourself. But it might mean that when the topic of investing comes up at a dinner party, you mention that brand to signal that you know what’s up. Another guest might reinforce your knowledge. And when that brand is suggested by a financial advisor, it will feel more familiar and easy to accept.

So why do I say billboards don’t work?

The problem is the creative

I’m constantly disappointed by the copy and art on billboards. I know that in Toronto, they cost from $2,000 to $20,000 or more per month. I get a sick feeling when I think of all that money being wasted for nobody to get the message

Billboards often look like full-page ads that someone crammed into a different format. It reminds me of bilingual marketing: You can merely translate English into French, or you can hire a French writer and do it properly.

Billboards deserve custom-made creative, not a retrofit. The viewer is moving, which means they have less time to get the message. They have less attention to spare because they’re busy steering their vehicles and trying not to walk into poles. On top of that, they might be looking from a distance or at a weird angle.

If you’re thinking about advertising on a billboard, or if it’s your job to create a billboard for a client, here are three things I would like to see you do:

Be less clever

Metaphorical, yet brilliantly simple

If your billboard requires much thinking, like having to follow a set-up and punchline, or unravel subtle or complex metaphors, that's probably more than I can handle in three seconds driving past with Celine Dion cranked on the stereo.

Cleverness that works in other ad formats can be too much of a cognitive load on a billboard. Sacrifice the thrill of being clever and say what you mean.

Dead before I got the message

Say less

If your billboard has a headline, an image, a line of body text, a logo, a tagline, a call to action and a phone number or URL, my eyes are going to dart between every element and absorb nothing.

Aside from naming your product or brand, what single piece of crucial information do you want to get across?

Use gigantic text

THANK YOU

If your billboard cannot be read by a half-blind person squinting through a dirty windshield at high speed, make the font larger.

Guy Kawasaki famously recommended that the smallest font size in a PowerPoint presentation should be the age of the oldest audience member divided by two. With billboards, you should just assume that everyone is really old.

People have been making billboards forever, from chiselling inscriptions on Egyptian monuments to nailing up wanted posters outside the saloon. In each case, billboards have had social currency and the potential to get people buzzing.

Make sure your billboard counts.