I have to laugh every time I am sitting at the traffic signal waiting to turn onto the street that leads home off the highway. A couple of years ago about 100 yards down from said traffic signal, an LED billboard was installed. What a great concept – rotating advertisements on one of the busiest sections of road that regularly has backed up traffic.
Why do I chuckle you ask? Well, the main reason is that regularly at least 9 out of 10 of those advertisements have so much detail that you can’t tell what they are even for. They can sell thousands of cars driving by each day, but they cannot make general recommendations on what kind of ad works on the giant screen?
On the flipside, there’s a financial advisor here in town that must have had a million and a half vinyl logo stickers printed and passed them out to everyone he could find a few years ago. I would see those stickers in bunches everywhere – lampposts, garbage cans, skilifts, car windows, water bottles…name it, they were all over the place.
Of course I exaggerate on the sheer number of stickers that were out there in this smallish community, but I can tell you that if you knew what that near rip-off of the Rossignol logo on a blue, round sticker was, you recognized it straight away. Add to that the polarizing nature of the volume. Some people were deeply offended and would never use this company for their financial advisor just because of little logo stickers everywhere like litter. I’m sure that others found it to be an act of genius in getting the name out there and gaining all that exposure.
Let’s examine this in a digital format – Google (before you do a search) is like the giant billboard – really the biggest one out there. The largest advertising medium ever that covers everything plus some.
The logo sticker is like a targeted ad based on past search history and general interests from how you behave online. It’s the smallest targeted ad you can place that actually lasts for a really long time. One has to be a super fan to adorn their car or water bottle with YOUR logo sticker, right?!?
That being said, what’s a better value? Big billboard that may or may not be readable for one, and the audience may or may not have any interest in your product or service. Or, are you better off with something like a high quality decal that, thanks to teenagers & companies like HydroFlask® who produce powder coated mini billboards. My 14 year-old daughter must have at least 8 of these things and every one of them is covered with stickers from her favorite brands, places we’ve travelled, and just one’s that she thinks look cool. My bet is on the latter – if you want give it a whirl check out StickerMule. Could even give coasters or magnets a try….
