Creative design work for effective OOH advertising 101

Written by Noluthando Ngubo | Graphic Designer & Marketing for Billboard Finder

Okay, so you have located your perfect billboard space and have signed all the paperwork and secured it with the media owner or Billboard Finder sales team. Now its time to be creative and use the left side of the brain to get your advertising message across to your target audience.

Here are a few guidelines to ensuring that your OOH campaign hits home and speaks to your audience:

Get to The Point

Aim for seven words or less. If that seems impossible, aim for one really strong visual and your logo that speaks a thousand words.

Contrast is Key

When working with fonts, backgrounds, images, or colours, maintain a level of contrast that keeps your OOH design legible and engaging from a distance.

One Message Only

Make sure your audience knows the one thing that will get them to react the way you want them to. Too many messages or objectives will confuse and distract your audience from your desired goal.

Make it A Campaign

Avoid using one design. Always enhance your message and campaign with multiple designs. There's nothing worse than being bored to death by the same design that covers an entire city. Keep consumers interested by showing all your brand has to offer.

One Point of Contact

Try to stick to one or less. It's hard to write a phone number down, so we recommend a just using your company website details. Keep in mind that people will just Google the company name.

Short Dwell Time

Keep in mind that the average dwell time for a road time static billboard is approx. 7 to 10 seconds and for digital it is even less at 3 to 5 seconds. Keep your design short sweet and impactful.

Some examples of effective OOH Campaigns:

DSTV OOH Campaign 2018
Uber OOH Campaign 2018
Coca Cola OOH Campaign 2018

Get help with your OOH campaign by getting in touch with support@billboardfinder or contact 012 665 5933 and spea to Nolo to assist you with your design work at a small fee.

Outdoor advertising is even more effective if you get the creative right.

Outdoor advertising can be highly effective and engaging but it is important to spend time on your creative to get the highest return on investment for your marketing campaign.

As obvious as this may seem being creative and doing so in often a short period of time with crunching deadlines to meet so we can get the campaign up and running can be very daunting for a creative. However if executed well the return on investment on your rand spent we believe can be as much as 300% more a poorly executed rushed job creative. It is therefore vital that media owners and clients ensure that sufficient time is allocated in planning for creatives to be sent and that deadlines aren’t given that unachievable.

This been said there are numerous examples of outstanding creative work been done and outdoor advertising has been the rock star of the mediums accounting for consumers evening talking to peers and spreading the brand message even further. This is the ultimate example of the best use of creative design but not always achievable. Worst case scenario we recommend that creatives should follow these simple rules or tips for designing effective artwork for outdoor advertising:

Tip 1: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!

Tip 2: Less is more!

A simple, single-minded message has great street presence. With only a few seconds to create an impression, it is essential to clear away the extraneous. Focus is the key.

Tip 3: Consider the distance from the road.

Distance is a variable that must be considered. Because the audience is often in motion, the viewing time of the creative is sometimes limited to just a few seconds.

Tip 4: The Use of Colour.

Effective use of colour is one of the most important considerations when designing for outdoor advertising. See below for example:

Tip 5: Correct font choice is very important!

Factors such as space, style and most importantly legibility are very important in ensuring that your message is seen by passing consumers. See below for a few examples of great font choices:

Most importantly our team at Billboard Finder are here to guide and assist you with your creative design and will ensure that your creative is most effectively used at the right time and in the right location.

Give us a call on 072 473 4382 or pop us an email on info@billboardfinder and we cant wait to get creative with you.