Outdoor advertising and getting creative!

The concept of outdoor advertising – it is what it says, advertising outdoors – is not new and is sometimes underused. This is particularly true in the way it is done, as the basic billboard is the most obvious method of utilising outdoor advertising.

However, the advertising world is full of creative individuals, so surely someone can come up with a more innovative and interesting way of utilising the outdoors in advertising terms? They have, and they do – let’s talk about some more interesting incidences of outdoor advertising.

Look to the sky

It’s there all the time, it’s vast and it’s underused; the reason is clear as to why that I, however, for to get an advert into the sky one has to have an aircraft.

Still, more than one company has done very well out of utilising aircraft as outdoor advertising mediums, and the legendary tyre manufacturer Goodyear is perhaps the best known of these. The Goodyear airship is internationally famous, an enormous dirigible that carries the company name in huge letters, and is seen at many notable events each year. It brings with it an image that is unforgettable, and has inspired many companies to use airships as advertising.

Conventional aeroplanes are somewhat less successful, however; painting messages in the sky cartoon style with smoke is not practical, and towing a banner – although sometimes used – expensive and relatively ineffective.

So what other methods of outdoor advertising are there?

Light is sometimes thought to be as underused as the sky, but there are increasing incidences of people using lasers and projectors as outdoor advertising methods. More than one company has advertised by projecting an image onto a famous building – a very well known occasion saw a popular men’s magazine project the naked image of a TV starlet onto the Houses of Parliament in London – and many more will see the benefits of doing so in the future.

This form of outdoor advertising is, however, very much temporary and, while attracting media attention, relatively little seen. Technology may progress to the point where night-time advertising is more popular, but costs will keep this method down to the minimum at the moment.

Popular outdoor advertising

Back to the basics, then, and the popularity of the billboard is not on the wane; however, advertisers have seen the need to address the main problem with these, this being that an advert will be read once, and then will become boring to the reader.

The answer has been the introduction of electronic billboards that change their advert every few seconds, and can accommodate several different ads in one position. This has, in turn, bolstered the benefits of the billboard while adding to the cost effectiveness that comes naturally with outdoor advertising.

Outdoor advertising is a method of marketing that is far from past its best; instead, it simply needs the introduction of creativity and a fresh approach. We are not likely to see adverts in the sky in prevalence, but we will continue to see the benefits of outdoor advertising for the foreseeable future.