The Secrets of Winning Outdoor Billboard Artwork
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By Frank Rolfe
Great outdoor billboard artwork is a combination of simple concepts steeped in decades of research. As long as you follow these basic, time-proven steps, you will always deliver your client an outdoor billboard that is attractive and effective. And if you fail to utilize this outdoor billboard advertising information, your client’s billboard may be illegible and ineffective.
Keep It Simple
You should not put more than a few words on a billboard. Why? Two reasons. First, you can’t grasp more than a few words while reading and driving at 55 mph. Secondly, the size of the words is very important – you want to keep the main copy at approximately 36” character height – so the fewer the words, the larger the type and the better the visibility. To make this happen, you have to distill the advertiser’s message down to its simplest form. This is one of your key goals in creating great artwork – what is the key message and how can you express it in the fewest possible words?
Legible Typestyles
There are a lot of typestyles out there – and most of them should never be used on a billboard. The typestyles you use must be easy to read. Those include simple styles such as times roman and universe. Always use styles that have very bold, thick strokes – they are easier to read at far distances. Most of the highly stylized typestyles that are popular in print advertising are completely inappropriate in billboards, although many graphic designers refuse to acknowledge this. If the viewer can’t read your copy, what it the point of the billboard?
High Contrast
The Outdoor Advertising Association of America in 1928, published their findings of exhaustive research into what color combinations are the most legible on a billboard. The best colors, in order of success, more maximum contrast are
- Black on yellow
- Black on white
- Yellow on black
- White on black
- Blue on white
- White on blue
- White on green
- Green on white
- Red on white
10. White on red
When the words and background on a billboard have little contrast, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to read the message. And it you cannot read the message, the ad is a total waste.
Graphic Must Convey
If you are going to put a picture in the ad, make sure that it compliments and helps tell the story. For example, a restaurant might want to show a plate of appetizing food as the graphic. The graphic should help sell the product or service, and make the ad memorable enough that you can remember the name of the company.
Test and Re-test
Once you have a design that meets these criteria, you have to test it on some sample consumers to see if it works. These may be, in the simplest form, some of your co-workers. Tape the finished artwork to a distant wall, and then have the guinea pig walk toward the wall and tell you when they can see it clearly and what it means (try as best as you can to replicate the distance and size that the billboard will be seen). Be sure to use color artwork, so you don’t cheat with the simple, high-contrast black and white version. A winning piece of art will have good visibility at a distance so far that most of the copy is illegible – yet just the headline grabs the viewer’s attention and makes them want to read the balance of the ad.
Conclusion
There is no magic to producing great billboard ad copy. In fact, when you get away from the simple, time-proven roots of great copy is when you fail in your mission. You may be tempted to stray from these logical benchmarks to create “breakthrough” advertising – but instead all you will create is an embarrassment. Due to the difficulty in reading an ad at 55 mph from 1,000’, a lot of the creative things that work in print ads just don’t apply here.
So if you want to be known for having happy customers with ads that really sell, you need to stick to the points outlined above.
About Frank Rolfe
Frank Rolfe became the one of the largest private billboard operators in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He eventually sold his billboard empire to a public company 14 years later. Rolfe is sharing his expertise to anyone interested in getting involved with outdoor billboards. He is the author of the book, “Big Bucks from Big Signs”, which teaches you the secrets of outdoor billboard advertising and how to build a successful billboard business.
How to Make a $100,000 per Year with Outdoor Billboards
Home > Outdoor Billboard Articles > Outdoor Billboards
By Frank Rolfe
With unemployment at its highest level in decades, many people are worried about their jobs and are tired of living from paycheck to paycheck or with the uncertainty of being handed the pink slip with little or no warning. But how can an individual replace their earnings of $40,000 to $100,000 per year? One option may be to consider outdoor billboards.
What is the billboard business?
A billboard owner effectively rents land, builds a billboard structure, and then rents the advertising space. The difference between the advertising revenue and the costs of operation, which are essentially the rent for the land and the cost to install and light the ad, represent the profit. The industry is very old and, in the U.S., has been in continual operation since the 1850s.
Who else is doing it?
The billboard business is very lucrative. There are many individuals in the U.S. that own billboards, ranging from one unit to thousands of units. Ted Turner built his empire from a beginning stake in a billboard company in Atlanta. John Kluge is another billionaire billboard veteran, and there are several others in the Forbes 400.
How does it work?
The billboard industry is effectively regulated by the government, which designates where billboards can be built along the nation’s highways. City streets fall under a different set of local ordinances. Once you have learned the rules, your job is to find legal locations for billboards to be built. The other part of your job is to negotiate an acceptable ground lease with the landowner on these legal locations. Then you determine the size and height to build the sign and, after construction, you rent the advertising space on the sign – normally on a one year lease. Alternatively, you can flip the ground lease by selling the rights to a large billboard company without even building the sign.
So how can you make $100,000 a year doing that?
The billboard business has several niches. One of the best right now is to focus on wooden signs in emerging markets. These structures cost about $6,000 to build, but generate around $3,000+ per year in net income. To make $100,000 per year, you’d need to build 30 of these in your spare time. There are individuals who have amassed a hundred or more of these type of billboards in their spare time. All it takes is the effort to learn how to do it and then to find the sites.
Of course, you control how much effort you put in. If you are not trying to replace your day job income, you could build just a few to pay for your kid’s college or leave them a nice legacy.
How fast can I start doing this?
As fast as you can learn how to do it. Step one is to learn the ordinances in your state. You may also have to get a state license – which is not as hard as it sounds. Normally there is no test or school required, just the payment of a small fee.
Conclusion
If you want to replace an income of up to $100,000, or just build a profitable hobby business, learn how to rent a billboard. It’s been a winner for thousands of Americans for over a century.
About Frank Rolfe
Frank Rolfe became the one of the largest private billboard operators in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He eventually sold his billboard empire to a public company 14 years later. Rolfe is sharing his expertise to anyone interested in getting involved with outdoor billboards. He is the author of the book, “Big Bucks from Big Signs”, which contains everything you need to know in order to get started.
