- Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By: Admin Super
Billboards have captured people’s attention for hundreds of years. Many marketing campaigns in the early days of the United States used billboards to create brand awareness and brand loyalty. Like other things in this country, technology and innovation have enabled this concept to evolve and remain relevant.
However, unlike other products and services, the “older” method for billboards never became obsolete. Static billboards remain as prominent and relevant as they have ever been. Meanwhile, digital billboards are experiencing rapid growth in many markets. If you recently examined your marketing budget, you may have been confused about which one is best for your business. This article will compare each type in some key categories to help you decide.
No matter how you slice it, impressions have to be a key metric for your marketing strategy’s rationale. Both static and digital billboards produce significant impressions, but static billboards will often have the edge in this category. This is because a static billboard is always displaying your image while a digital billboard is rotating through multiple advertisements on the screen.
When looking at Philadelphia billboards, static billboards generate a whopping 1.5 billion median impressions over a four-week campaign! If a company goes the digital route, Philadelphia billboards have a median of 221 million impressions during the same span. For context, Philadelphia is the sixth-largest city in the country with a population of more than 1.5 million people.
While impressions are important, the effectiveness of your marketing spend might take precedence. Using the same example of Philadelphia billboards, the median CPM for static is $3.59 whereas the median CPM for digital billboards is $3.68. This shows that the two strategies are nearly identical in this key metric. You will need to do more research for your specific market and analyze the CPM for each. Depending on the market size and what the advertising companies are charging for each type, digital billboards may have the better CPM in your area.
Even if digital billboards offer the best CPM in your area, this is a moot point if you can’t afford them. Budget constraints may force you to choose static billboards initially and eventually expand to a digital campaign. These numbers also vary based on the market, but you can often expect digital billboards to cost three to five times more than a similar static campaign.
New digital billboards are installed daily in the United States, but static billboards maintain a substantial advantage in this category. If you desire to create brand awareness by having your logo appear in numerous places, static billboards will likely give you the best chance to achieve this. Thanks to a lower cost and hundreds of additional locations in most markets, you can create a more sizable campaign with static billboards rather than digital.
Digital billboards hold the edge in this category. Although static billboards can clearly display high-resolution images to people at a large distance, digital billboards have several advantages over their counterpart. In addition to possessing a high-definition display for clear viewing, digital billboards allow far more creativity and originality with your designs.
With a static image, you are limited to one design that will remain there for a long period of time. With digital billboards, you can have multiple designs or messages that change as the billboard rotates through the advertisements. This means daily commuters or other people who see your billboard location multiple times each week can potentially see different advertisements for your company instead of the same image repeatedly.
Another advantage is with moving images or changing messages. For example, a digital billboard can have an animation to catch more people’s attention. This can also be used to display a countdown clock or an updated sales price if you are trying to increase buzz for a specific event. These options are not feasible with a static billboard because of the cost and time barriers for frequently changing the display.
Billboards continue to be an effective marketing strategy for businesses. This holds true in the country’s biggest markets and the nation’s more rural communities. Within the category are two distinct types of billboards. While digital signage gives companies noticeable advantages in design, static billboards still reign supreme in cost and quantity. Ultimately, it is up to you to research and determine the most effective type for your business, but these key metrics should guide you to ask the right questions and understand which data points hold the most value to obtain your optimal results.
