Standing Out is Good, Resonating is Much Better
Driving to work yesterday I noticed a billboard that was hung upside-down. I glanced at it out of the corner of my eye and wondered if the outdoor advertising company hired idiots to hang their boards. Later that day, I saw the same billboard in another location, also upside-down. I felt sorry for the guys who had to hang it, because they probably have more sense than the people who told them how to do their job.
Advertising is effective when you send the right message to the right audience using the right method of delivery. The billboard in question is for a car dealer, and their message is OPEN SUNDAY. Outdoor advertising is the right medium because the signs are placed where people who drive will see them. The message was good, the delivery method matched the audience, yet they took a simple formula and screwed it up. They disrupted the delivery and damaged the message.
Outdoor advertisers struggle with the same problem that online advertisers face. How do you insure an ad gets noticed in an ad saturated landscape? Bright colors, drawing outside the lines, adding dimension, and yes, flipping things over are all effective ways of getting noticed. It is commonly recognized among the outdoor advertising community that turning a message upside-down increases its noticeability. But that doesn’t mean it’s good for the brand. In theory, everything you do contributes to brand resonance. If a device for getting noticed doesn’t also reinforce the message, it’s not resonant; it’s disruptive.
Online advertising is chock full of attention-grabbing opportunities. In the end, it’s not about being noticed, it’s about being heard. And if the message resonates, it will stay in the mind. I got the car dealer’s message, but it didn’t resonate with me. It wasn’t persuasive, it wasn’t clever. It might have even turned me off a little. Mostly, it was a squandered opportunity to make an enduring impression.
Do something resonant, and your impression will endure. At the very least, make sure the message you want your audience to hear isn’t tripped while walking down the aisle.
Share this post/Save for reference
Comments
One Response to “Standing Out is Good, Resonating is Much Better”
Leave a Reply
February 2nd, 2010 @ 7:50 am
Finally, somebody else dislikes those billboards as much as I do…very disturbing…and there on every road I travel. Only two things I hate worse on billboards is bad text kerning, and babies & kids used as photo subjects in lieu of real creativity.