Ping: JiMGA (Billboard Sales and Random Advertising Questions)

[sterlingice]

Random advertising question of the day. I always drive by a bunch of billboards on the way to work and some have new ads, some are blank, and some are advertising crap from like 6 months ago ("Come see Chipwrecked!")

How do billboard sales work?

How much does one run and is there a certain limit like "you have to buy at least 5 different billboards for $500 per month"?

Or is it "You can pay for the space and however many months you want it there for like $500 but it costs $4000 to plaster a billboard so you'd want it up for a few months".

I've wondered why we don't see something like "to my cat Fluffy" more often and it must be because of cost. Is it cost prohibitive? But, if so- is a billboard really great return on dollars? Sure, "to my cat Fluffy" isn't worth $5000 over 6 months but would $5000 for Coke be better spent on a billboard or on tv and radio ads? Or is there a minimum length or stringent rules on content or it has to be part of a larger ad campaign to be cost effective, etc?

SI

[stevew]

I saw one the other day that was still up for an electoral race from last fall. I'm assuming they don't always take them down, if there is nothing to go up?

[kcchief19]

JiMGA can probably offer more details, but here's my take based on my past experience with billboard ad buys.

Yes, you usually buy a billboard for a specific timeframe. The price typically depends on market, location, size and duration. A large billboard in a high-traffic location can bring in thousands (or tens of thousands) per month, while a smaller poster billboard might be a couple of hundred. CBS and Lamar here locally will usually throw in posters (smaller billboards, I think maybe 10x6) for free if you buy a bunch of larger billboards (if you pay the printing costs). Like a lot of things, the more boards you buy for longer the time, the cheaper the costs.

Good generic example: we had an even we would buy billboards for. We would usually spend in the $7-10,000 range for about 12 full size-billboards, then get maybe 20 poster billboards for free for three weeks. Those weren't all A locations, some were B and C.

I see "personal" billboards more in smaller towns where the prices are lower. We bought digital billboards in Lincoln, Neb. for a few hundred dollars a month, where in KC the price is 10 to 20 times that. In Lincoln, there are a lot of birthday and new-born billboards, whereas you never see those in KC. For some reason, digital billboards in KC are ridiculously expensive.

As far as what you do with billboards that have expired buys, I think it depends on the company, location and product. Lamar here in KC seems to do a lot of in-house ads or PSAs on their empty/unsold boards whereas CBS will leave them up after they expire. A billboard for a movie that expired or an old political campaign is more likely to be left up if its unsold because the billboard isn't really giving anything away for free -- doesn't really do any good after the movie is out of theaters. But if Coca-Cola buys a billboard and it expires, it's probably coming down next day.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Okay, let's see here

-- the unit cost is extremely variable. It's primary about the traffic count - the number of people who are estimated to pass by that location every day. Market size contributes to that equation, as a high traffic area board in Philly generates more eyeballs than a high traffic board in Boise.

By variable, I mean to the extent of like some boards in Atlanta I can buy for $500/month and others here can be $20k to $25k per month.

-- as for limits/requirements, you can either "spot" place your boards, pick your location & if it's available then you take that one single facing for a month (often 3 month minimums on single, can be 6 or 12 mos if it's a high demand/popular board). The other main way to order is "I need a 50 showing" aka "50 GRP showing". In other words, I want a combination of boards that produces impressions equal to 50% of the population of the market. That might required 10 board facings, that might require 30 or 50, just depends upon what's available & what they're trying to fill at the moment.

-- re: one-offs for "Fluffy". It's usually cost prohibitive but not necessarily from the space cost. Production costs are what can eat you alive on that kind of thing, not unusual for the cost of producing your "paper" (the old style boards that were pasted up one strip at a time) or your vinyl (usually bigger, a large single piece of vinyl that hangs over the board structure) to end up being more expensive than the actual cost of the space itself. Fluffy on a $250/month board might be cute, but $350 - $500 in production & installation charges added to that is less cute usually.

Outdoor companies use printing as a profit center so it's easy to get raped on that sort of thing, but even if you've got a reliable independent printer, the material & time & set-up charges for a single unit still get pricy. Depends upon the size, what you're doing, etc

-- re: best use. Some of that is a matter of philosophy of course. Outdoor only examples that work might be the "We Buy Ugly Houses" boards that you may have seen. They'll have 50-100 of those up on some of the worst locations in town, but they're buying the cheapest inventory available so if they actually churn a deal or two they're getting their ROI.

IMO, outdoor works best when paired with another medium. I like it particularly paired with radio since, if you're doing it right, you can actually get a simultaneous impression: they're hearing your spot & looking at your board at the same time. If the retail location you're pushing them to happens to have their big sign in the consumer's windshield at the same instant, all the better. That's about as good a sales opportunity as you're going to get right there. You're telling 'em why & what, you're showing them what, you're giving them easy access, and the dual method actually implies a greater sense of importance for some consumers ("it must be good/important if they doing boards AND something else at the same time").

Quite a few ways to give outdoor a chance to work for a lot of campaigns, just have to figure out what combo works best for your goals (part art, part science IMO)

-- re: copy changes - Outdoor companies vary about this. Those who have bigger staff handling installations are more likely to do take downs when something expires. Those who outsource that labor are likely to leave your stuff up until it literally falls off the board if nobody else comes along looking to buy that particular space.

-- re: how should Coke spend? Well, when you've got Coke money, you do everything & hope something sticks. Big budgets can simply overwhelm the consumer with messages in every medium & not necessarily care exactly what did the work, even subconsciously if it's being seen/heard then it's having some impact (hypothetically). The question about $5k being spent on outdoor vs TV or whatever is one of those "tell me what you want to accomplish" things. If you're trying to build brand awareness, outdoor can be a good way to prime the pump for a follow-up TV flight. If you're trying to highlight a specific location, outdoor probably does that better (if you can get a board at the right exit or interecetion). If you're trying to drive customers & ring registers immediately, I'd lean TV (assuming that it's a market where $5000 actually buys a decent number of spots). The right mix of advertising depends upon goals, as well as things like availability/demand and pricing. Not really one always-right answer to the question really.

Hope that helps.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Is it cost prohibitive? But, if so- is a billboard really great return on dollars? Sure, "to my cat Fluffy" isn't worth $5000 over 6 months but would $5000 for Coke be better spent on a billboard or on tv and radio ads?

Here's the argument the billboard ad guy would make -- you spend $5,000 on radio and you're only getting a small slice of the audience that happens to be listening to the radio at the time. And you know people are always switching stations during commercials. How you do you know how many people you are actually reaching?

But a billboard is always on -- everyone sees it every time they drive by, no matter what station they are listening too. And traffic is really slow here during morning and evening rush hours, so people have nothing better to do than see your billboard.

To me media buys are more of an art than a science. It seems to me that a lot of companies -- soft drink companies are a great example -- seem to have completely disappeared from radio but still have a healthy budget for outdoor advertising. Some people swear by billboards, others think they are a waste. I think it depends on the product, your budget, you audience and your objective. I think billboards are a great reinforcement and reminder campaign, but I wouldn't make billboards the centerpiece of a campaign.

[Ksyrup]

My argument as a billboard guy would be: we made Tim Tebow a starting QB in the NFL. Beat that!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

But a billboard is always on -- everyone sees it every time they drive by, no matter what station they are listening too.

And to add the counter to that argument, with the stations you're able to tailor your message to a targeted audience. With outdoor, it's whoever happens to drive buy & there's a ton of wasted impressions.

Also, you're getting fewer uniques with your impressions being spent over & over on the same people driving in to work the same route everyday.

---

One of the advantages to outdoor is the high repetition, you can get good frequency with the same people if you're on a popular ingress/egress work route. Good option for branding/imaging if the price is appropriate. Not so good if you're goal is to sell milk on special this week & bread on special next week.

[sterlingice]

Many thanks to both of you for the insightful answers.

I was really kicking it around in my head the other day because I've been driving by the same spot practically every day for a year and a half now and it changed from "Pay your last respects not your last dime" for a funeral home (Just what you want to see on the way home) to some recycling thing and I realized I know very little about advertising outdoors like that.

SI

[Buccaneer]

I drive by the huge iconic Apple billboards off the Bay Bridge in SF several times a year. I can't imagine the cost of those - probably makes Atlanta seems like Boise.