How to Plan Your Next Holiday Campaign Using Billboards: A Webinar Recap
The holiday season is here, and you know what that means.
(Besides festive stress.)
It means millions of Americans will be taking to the streets for everything from visiting family to shopping for presents and checking out awesome Christmas light displays.
There’s no better time to get your tinsel-covered message in front of those eyeballs (especially when you can turn it around quickly with a digital billboard campaign.)
Last month, the Blip team held a live webinar all about spinning up and launching holiday billboard campaigns. The panel – Andy Rocker (Director of Customer Success, Blip) and Chris Farnkopf (Director, National Sales, Adkom) – discussed:
- Why digital billboards are perfect for the holiday advertising season
- How to incorporate billboards seamlessly into your other holiday campaigns
- Building the best attention-grabbing designs with proven templates (and where to find them)
- How to tweak your holiday design for maximum ROI
It was a joyful affair, and if you missed it, we’re giving you the greatest gift of them all: a webinar recap.
Here we go, dashing through the snow…
Why Digital Billboards Are Perfect for the Holiday Season
We’ll start by saying we think digital billboards are perfect for any season.
But when it comes to the holiday season specifically, the big, bold, eye-catching nature of billboards is a powerful marketing tool because the masses flood the roads and sidewalks in these cold and cheery months.
Case in point: according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, 47% of consumers will travel this holiday season, and 69% of those will travel by car. Those who travel will also spend roughly $1,000 more per person than those who stay home.
As Chris pointed out, the more people who are out and about, the more eyeballs will see digital ads. Studies have shown that billboards spur action (especially right before people will make a purchase).
When put together, it’s a no-brainer that high-visibility ads should be shown during the biggest shopping season of the year.
(And 2022 should be a big one: spending this season should grow by 6-8% over 2021 to just over $960 billion.)
But what about your other channels? Chris laid it out: Billboard advertising shouldn’t be the only thing you do, but it should be a cornerstone of your plan. “Channels play off each other,” said Chris. “Billboards, digital, and radio do an incredible job of driving that frequency that encourages consumers to act.”
In other words, the more people see your ad, the more your key message is reinforced. It can spur action right away, or it can put your brand top-of-mind when they eventually decide to spend.
But it’s also important to know how trends are changing. Andy and Chris discussed how they don’t really pay attention to ads on their mobile devices, and how that’s a growing trend among consumers today. So, when consumers are moving around, they may place even more credibility on a billboard ad than a far more obtrusive placement on their phones.
As far as when you should start advertising, it really depends on your product. As Chris points out, the time horizon for evaluating a potential purchase is a lot longer for a mattress than, say, a gingerbread latte.
Given that the holiday season is, well, here, you shouldn’t delay if you want to fire up your billboard campaign to take advantage of the holiday time horizon. But a print campaign may be out of the question for you, given how much lead time you need.
Fortunately, digital billboard advertising through Blip can take hours to days to set up and launch, instead of weeks.
(Hint, hint.)
Building Memorable Holiday Campaigns (and Getting More ROI)
When it comes to advertising for the holidays, it doesn’t take much to make big moments.
Andy reminisced about sitting in his living room in North Carolina when he saw the Coca-Cola polar bears – one of the most iconic, all-time advertising campaigns – for the very first time. He was amazed. It was a memorable moment.
(Then, in a completely unscripted moment, Chris brought up a certain plush item he had sitting nearby: his very own stuffed Coca-Cola polar bear. Can’t make this stuff up, folks.)
Holiday ads can stand out in our memories more than ads at other times of the year in large part due to the nostalgia and sentimentality we attach to the season.
This isn’t to say you need to replicate a polar bear moment. But as Andy said, the beauty of out-of-home is “You can do big things on a smaller budget and can achieve success in your own way.”
Because of how digital is structured, you share space on digital billboards in your chosen location and don’t have to pay for all the time your ad isn’t being shown. (Plus, you don’t have to pay for a more expensive print design that takes longer to make and install.)
When it comes to what you show, going digital gives you an opportunity this season to really strike an emotional chord with your billboard design that’ll make your brand even more memorable.
To help, Blip has a Santa’s workshop full of design templates that are ready and waiting for you to take, modify, and publish.
Upload your logo, adjust for your brand themes, grab a festive message, and pick a template you think resonates the best.
Then, adapt the template, choose your sizes, and upload it to your campaign. It really is that simple – and when it comes to the holidays, isn’t simple better?
(If you want something really simple, you can even use our billboard design service that gives you a billboard design for less than $100 in 5-7 days. Neat.)
As Andy and Chris explained, advertising with digital billboards for this holiday season can amplify your message and encourage customers to choose you for the gifts they give this year.
If you want to check out the recap, you can find it here. And if you need more info about Blip’s subscription plans, you can find one that works best for you here.
Get those billboards up and running, and remember: there’s no place like home Blip for the holidays.
