The DO’s and DON’T’s of Outdoor Advertising It happens so often with new advertisers in OOH media, whether they have prior experience working with other media or not. Most advertisers usually get shocked when they know the prices of the OOH locations… but because OOH is essential to their strategy, they decide to go for it, and why not? To get the most out of it! But trying to get the maximum out of your OOH campaign may mean including the minimum in your OOH campaign! Contradictory, right? Well, let’s clarify it! If you think you paid too much and you should put everything on the OOH ad space, just remember that this OOH ad space is seen on the road as a business card. Of course, you may think: if my company history fits on the business card, why shouldn’t I include it? Sure, the more they know about you, the better for the business! But consider that turning the OOH location into a classified ad may not be so useful for your marketing strategy. What every advertiser should understand is that an OOH location on the road has a Visibility Area, a Clear Visibility Area, and after that it is all a Blind Area. So we need to understand two factors, and two factors only, that control our ad message delivery to the audience, no matter the OOH location of the ad: Visibility Duration: this is the time of your ad message appearance; this time, it starts counting from the moment the ad appears to the viewer on the road and ends when it disappears from his field of view. When you look at the graphic below, it may seem a good stretch of time, but in reality, it just means that “something” is seen in the distance: all the audience can actually perceive is the overall color of your ad, perhaps the shape of the billboard. Now, the stretch when the audience actually sees and reads the ad is called the Clear Visibility Duration – during this time, the artwork, copy, and contact details are in full sight to the viewer. Typically, the Clear Visibility Duration lasts about 8-12 seconds in the flowing traffic. Visibility Distance: this is what the techies usually measure to guarantee that your artwork elements will appear correctly to the audience and will not be too small to be seen. So the more you include, the smaller the elements will have to be, and therefore, the less your audience will see! Now everything starts making sense, right? In the graphic above, you can see the transition from the Visibility Area to the Clear Visibility Area, and eventually to the Blind Area. All you have to do is ask yourself: how much information can I comprehend in just 8-12 seconds? Have a look at the next table; it provides a thorough guide for the artwork and production items that will guarantee the readability of the text on any OOH message. This table follows the standards of the EU and US, and it is listed within the OAAA (Outdoor Advertising Association of America), FEPE (Federation European Publicite Exterieur, international association of outdoor advertising) and EOAA (European Outdoor Advertising Association) guidelines. You may be thinking now: “Yeah, maybe if I put too much, my text will not be seen.” But you need to go further than that: you need to consider that the artwork will also affect the message's visibility and delivery. Yes, we know: it is harder than you thought! So many numbers and parameters to consider! Not to worry: we have put together the following tips for you; these are your new DO’s of Outdoor Advertising, and they will really help to increase the readability of your ad: Increase the contrast between the text and the background to make the text more visible and maximize the reading average distance Make your ad an added value to the atmosphere. Just think of how the background of the ad affects the ad style, and try to make them match, just like a piece of street furniture Equalize the lights of the ad to match the location's atmosphere. Remember that the lights around the outdoor ad affect the ad visibility, and you want your ad to be read day and night. Of course, you cannot always control the atmosphere of the location – especially in Greater Cairo, where booking locations sometimes gets too complicated; it is difficult to control how the environment will affect your ad. So let’s try to focus on what you should avoid at all times, no matter your location or background. This a comprehensive list of DON’T’s to ensure you make the best out of your artwork: Avoid patterned text backgrounds or distorted backgrounds in general Don’t implement fast animation on the roads; that’s for the digital screens Stay away from crowded layout designs and overwhelming details Forget images with very small details – it is always better to use close-up photographs Don’t use similar foreground and background colors or any other low contrast Not a good idea to use mixed glossy materials or reflectors for different elements in the design; choose one element only to highlight Don’t use weak lights on roadside billboards And don’t forget Creativity! You can always go the extra mile! The tips above will really help you create a good ad in all technical aspects, but if you really want to add value to your ad message, don’t forget that nothing beats a great idea in the artwork or the text copy. Just remember: only great ideas generate stories that are told (several times over!); average ideas usually live a short life.
