Billboards Versus Radio and Television Advertising

Advertising is unique to your brand. For some companies, they may have the marketing budget to support broad campaigns through every outlet. For most companies though, particularly the many local and regional businesses we work with, it is a careful balance to find the right place for your advertising dollars. You want to minimize wasted money while maximizing efficiency. As you can see by the graph, billboards are significantly cheaper than television and traditional media advertising. Although there are many different forms of advertising, out of home advertising – billboards – remain one of the tried and true methods of grabbing customers attention and reaching a targeted geographic audience.

As media becomes more and more fragmented, billboards are even more important. The market of radio listeners and television watchers has splintered. Radio listeners has split between traditional stations, satellite radio, and using MP3 and Bluetooth to play audio in vehicles. With the plethora of different options to listen and watch content, audience share has fractured. The same problem occurs with television (not to mention the number of streaming services that have taken viewers from television). Network television may reach a large amount of viewers, but it is extremely expensive to advertise, there is an rising number of people using DVRs to skip commercials, and many television shows reach an older and lower income audience. Cable television may reach different audiences than broadcast networks, but these audiences are typically smaller and there are many more channels to advertise on. As we’ve discussed in the past, billboards have a distinct advantage over radio and television. It’s impossible to change the channel or station on a billboard. If you’re driving past or in the vicinity, it’s very hard to ignore the impact of a billboard. In fact, there’s some interesting statistics on that…

When compared to traditional print media, television, and radio, billboards cost far less and deliver higher retention rates. According to a study by the Outdoor Media Centre, 74% of those surveyed remembered a billboard advertisement, compared to 58% for online, 52% for newspapers, 46% for magazines, 37% for radio, 26% for cinema, and 16% for mobile. The same study went on to find that two thirds of people have searched the web for a product/service and one third have purchased as a direct result of OOH advertising.  That’s pretty exciting news!

If you have a radio or television advertising for your business, OOH advertising can add depth and reach to your campaign. Billboards are the extremely cost-effective for advertising.  They provide a striking visual component that is missing from radio, and add a localized element to cable advertising. If you’re ready to make your advertising dollars work harder for you, contact Veale Outdoor Advertising regarding traditional and digital billboards that capture attention, stick in consumers’ minds, and translate to sales.