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Let’s be honest, all billboards on the roads are kind of like giant posters staring down at us from the highway. Traditional billboard advertising is one that focuses on brand exposure solely. Most brands in Egypt that use billboards don’t give much thought to how to make such an advertisement engaging. However, what if there is more to a billboard than meets the eye? What if a brand engages its audiences through a billboard advertisement? Billboards can do more, and this guide is here to tell you how.
Rare Beauty’s Fragrance Billboard: A Case in Point
Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty is known for always being able to push creative boundaries in a good way. Their fragrance billboard was a case study of its own. It is what we call marketing brilliance. Instead of plastering a perfume bottle with a tagline or sending out testers for influencers, the campaign grabbed many people’s attention with its modern (yet old) way of engagement. The billboard was placed near the ground and has a simple call to action: scratch to smell vanilla, pistachio, or even a hint of their caramel fragrance.
Instead of an aesthetic mood board or campaign shots of Selena Gomez (owner) herself, the campaign relied on authenticity and engagement through a simple modernization of a billboard. It helped people live in the moment. And not only did they scratch and smell the fragrance, but they also could scan a QR code that would allow them to claim a rollerball sample of the perfume via Shopify. Talk about engagement through a still figure? Rare Beauty is teaching us all that art.
Making Billboard Advertising Smart
So, how can other brands learn from this? Smart billboards in advertising aren’t about being louder; they’re about being cleverer. Think of something interactive. Something bold, not a model’s eyes that match the sea color bold. No, I mean a glowing billboard at night, something that calls for scanning a QR code for a surprise on your phone, or even a simple design that screams of creativity. This is how you transform your ad from a sign to an experience, something worth stopping at and taking a picture of, for example. Here are some factors that can help in billboard success and creativity.
- Location matters: Place it where it fits your audience’s lifestyle. The location of the billboard will help the ad connect directly with the right target audience.
- Design less, say more: Minimalism often captures more attention. This is one area where we don’t adopt the Donatella Versace mindset of adoring maximalism.
- Interactivity wins: QR codes, AR triggers, a creative design that is out-of-the-box, or motion can drive higher engagement with your ad.
- Emotion first: We already sometimes pass billboards by without giving them much attention or even glancing at them. That is why if someone happened to look, your billboard better make them feel something. This is how you ensure that your ad sticks. Whether it’s joy (a funny ad), bewilderment (an intriguing ad), or even awe of the creativity (a mixture of both).
- Tell a story: Creativity here again doesn’t mean that you have to add magic to your design. A simple creative idea that tells a short story of your brand identity will do the trick as well.
From Static to Strategic
Outdoor ads don’t have to be boring statics that are stuck in the old methods of the past traditional advertisement ways. With enough creativity and thoughtful execution, your billboard could become a moment of culture, a meme, a photo backdrop, or even something shareable for its genius. Done smartly, your brand will stick in people’s heads. It will reach people more. Egypt needs to start adopting such an engaging strategy. This way, people would actually stop, pause, take a picture of the ad, laugh at it (positively), share it, or even contemplate it. You never know the reaction you’ll spark then.
