Outdoor Advertising: Marketing to Repel Immunity

This is a term paper that I wrote for "Intro to Communication" during the Fall '08 semester. I really enjoyed this assignment, and learned a tremendous amount about the subject.

Imagine a family living so far out in the country that several miles separate them from civilization. This same family eventually decides to move from the peaceful country setting to a new home within sight of an active railway line. For the first couple of months, every single train that roars past disrupts this family who is still used to the peaceful country setting. Immunity is slowly developed, however, and they may no longer notice the train, even though the frequency of times the train passes by has not changed.


This family is an analogy to what outdoor advertising strives not to do. People are exposed to outdoor advertising on a daily basis whether they are commuting to and from work, enjoying a day at the park, or running errands in town. I feel the goal of the outdoor advertiser is to avoid a potential consumer from becoming immune to advertisements, resulting in the ineffective quality of the message. When the same techniques are constantly used such as a traditional billboard along the interstate, then people driving past will tend to blot the advertisement out just like the family eventually blotted out the sound of the train.


 In the article Summer Silliness Brings a Pizza Field and a Giant Oreo, Pete Blackshaw said “Advertisers are being pushed to creative extremes, partly because its just so difficult to get consumers’ attention these days.” When a new innovation to traditional outdoor advertising is introduced, it tends to turn heads because it is not something that people are used to (Clifford 2). In this paper, I will briefly touch on how outdoor advertising ranks in media evaluation. I will then cover a traditional style of outdoor advertising, such as the billboard, followed by examples of how more innovative eye-catching messages are being created, and the creative extremes that companies are willing to go in order sell their products.


When looking for a place in the media to launch an advertising campaign, an advertiser has to evaluate every medium to determine which one will be the best fit for the purpose. When considering the four questions on frequency, reach, selectivity, and efficiency that are asked of the media, I would consider outdoor advertising to have average results. While each medium for advertising has its unique pros and cons, I think that outdoor advertising has a much sharper set of pros and cons to weigh than some of the other options available such as television, radio, magazines, and the Internet. While individual radio and television stations only reach a certain audience, outdoor advertising reaches every single person who travels outside of their homes. Another advantage for outdoor advertising is exposure to consumers for 100% of the time, unlike other mediums such as television which is strictly limited in the area of time (Entrepreneur.com). Reaching out to millions of people for long periods at a time is a positive advantage, but outdoor advertising has its sharp disadvantages. Out of the mass of people exposed, the actual selectivity of target consumers for any particular product is very low. In addition, outdoor advertising is one of the most expensive methods of advertising available (Dominick 345). As the creative gears turn faster, the prices rise higher.


Simply stated, the moment a person walks out of the front door of their home, they are immediately prone to be exposed to outdoor advertising. Just by standing on the front porch, one might look towards a neighbor’s house and see a brand new Saturn sitting in the driveway, the brown UPS truck parked in front of a house, a For Sale sign from Remax in the front yard, a little boy riding past on his Pacific mountain bike, or a neighbor mowing his yard while wearing a green, John Deere shirt. As silly as this sounds, these are some of the simplest forms of outdoor advertising out there.


When driving on the interstate, an icon to outdoor advertising is the billboard. Companies rent space on large boards raised high over the roadway portraying messages that make drivers want to stop and check company products out. Billboards come in various types such as traditional words and pictures that appear within set dimensions, and electronic billboards that can be automatically updated. Some companies can hook their store’s inventory computer up to a billboard; if a certain product sells out, the computer will send the message to the billboard and it will discontinue advertising that product until a restocking takes place (Street Advertising gets stock-savvy). Because traditional billboards are an icon to travelers, the risk of becoming immune to their presence is very high. That is why creative teams work around the clock to produce innovative ideas that catch the eye of the consumer in fresh, new ways. I have paid attention to billboards and a recent feature that I have noticed are the three-dimensional billboards. This type of advertisement, which goes outside the normal dimensions for a billboard, stands out like a sore thumb because my eyes are not used to seeing something like it. The website inventorspot.com displays several examples of the wackiest 3-D billboards ever developed. The billboard I especially enjoyed promoted a razor, and a large replica of an actual razor stood up against a blank white board at the end of a field of tall grass. A strip the width of the razor was mowed down very short to represent facial hair being shaved very short. This article does not indicate how successful this ad campaign was, but it must have attracted many people. These innovative ideas are very effective in today’s society because they allow people to draw their own conclusions. Instead of using descriptive words to atract potential buyers, this advertisement provides a visual example of what the razor does, and then leaves it up to the consumer to fill in the details. Other variations of billboards can include interactivity, or even making use of the surroundings and weather conditions. The possibilities are endless.


If the most innovative form of the billboard still ceased to faze the focused consumer, one step further involves creating a scene or image that turns the heads of the most oblivious people out there. One such genre is inflatable advertising. It doesn’t matter if someone is a daydreamer, a distracted cell phone user, or a focused mother trying to get her kids to school on time; if a giant inflatable along the way then eyes will turn. There is a wide range of ways that a company can integrate inflatables into their marketing. One such example is the skydancer, which is a long, tube-like structure which dances, sways, and twists with the aid of powerful fans at the base. Companies can use inflatables to promote a new store opening, or to distinguish their store from the rest of the pack during busy sale seasons such as Thanksgiving. Even if a skydancer fails to attract a consumer to walk inside and buy something, they will take pictures that ultimately are shared with family and friends, who may decide to go out and buy something from that store.  While inflatables only attract consumers who travel in the direct vicinity of the establishment, there are other eye-catching traps that lure attention from miles away. One example is using the Hollywood-style spotlight. Only used at night, these powerful lights beam bright messages into the sky and make any person say “whoa.” The company using the spotlight does not really have to do anything off-the-wall to grab attention from the road; instead, with the use of electricity, they can attract curious people following the mystery light in the sky. Another example of an eye-catcher took place in Manhattan at a busy mall elevator (Clifford 3). An agency known as Draftcb launched an outdoor campaign for Oreo cookies which was so successful that it went viral and appeared in countless YouTube videos. A large sticker resembling a glass of milk was placed onto the glass wall at the bottom floor of the mall surrounding where the elevator car went up and down. The glass wall of the elevator car itself contained a large sticker that resembled an Oreo cookie. Whenever the elevator descended and ascended, it looked like the Oreo was being dunked into a glass of milk (Clifford 3). Just like billboards, the possibilities to attract people are endless.


Sometimes, advertisers will think completely outside of the box and will produce an advertisement campaign that is nothing short of a publicity stunt. These almost always produce a buzz among the people who witness them and can prove to be extremely successful for the company if executed right. One such example of a publicity stunt that got people talking was when a team of “hired help” headed for the subway trains in London. Their objective was to effectively “pitvertise” for Right Guard deodorant. They had small video screens under their shirts which played simple Right Guard commercials as they held the overhead bar in the train car. Hundreds of unlucky passengers who were seated on the subway got exposed to the “pitvertisement” by staring into someone else’s armpit (Clifford 3). No matter what the reaction is, I feel that a stunt like this is an instant success because it becomes the talk of the town. If someone reacted positively, they cannot wait to tell their friends and family about the wacky deodorant advertisement they witnessed on the subway that morning. The person who saw it has then spread the word around to more people in a positive light and everyone will then have to try Right Guard. If someone reacted negatively, then they will still tell others about it because it was an event that took place out of the ordinary.


An even more massive campaign, which reached thousands of people nationally, was when Pepsi revealed a massive monster in downtown New York.  A 60-foot inflatable monster appeared and started giving away Pepsi tokens and gift certificates that could be redeemed for free drinks (Zmuda 1). A “mild frenzy” among the New Yorkers resulted as they came to see what the big monster was all about. Before it was all said and done, Pepsi revealed its monster to the Super Bowl, television ads, and in the movie Cloverfield (Zmuda 2). Even though Pepsi probably spent billions of dollars on this massive advertisement campaign, the way it impacted people was tremendous. It not only packs a “wow factor” for the ordinary person in New York who witnessed this giant Pepsi monster on the street; giving away free valuables always draws a large crowd no matter what the occasion. I can imagine that those attending the Super Bowl were awed at the magnitude of the monster, but those who saw the inflatable previously in New York had an even greater impact because they have pictures to prove that they were up close and personal with the now nationally famous advertising icon. I can only imagine the positive results for Pepsi from their extremely creative use of the inflatable advertisement.


Outdoor advertising continues to thrive, and is a rapidly growing medium used in the attraction of consumers. In fact, studies have shown that outdoor advertising is growing by ten percent each year (Ruben 2). Why is this a larger moving trend? I think it is because of two reasons. Obviously, the first reason is because people are spending more time outdoors and traveling around rather than sitting and being cooped up in their homes. The second and the biggest reason why I think outdoor advertising is such a growing trend is because the drive for catching people’s attention is very high due to the immunity that is developed from old ideas. If companies do not get on the band wagon and set the creative services team loose on new ways to turn more heads in the outdoor advertising genre, then that company will struggle much more than the competition. As long as their are blank walls in classrooms, bare asphalt on the interstate, and dull luggage compartments in airplanes, outdoor advertising has plenty of room to grow in the years to come.