I don’t know to be honest with you, I am not a social scientist, I do however, know that this ad, as can be seen on the side of a London Double Decker bus, is going to get a reaction. Which is exactly what the UK’s Outdoor Advertising Association is trying to get.
This ad is one of several involved as part of a national advertising campaign designed to show that Outdoor Advertising does work and can elicit a response. I think that this is a bold move by the aforementioned association, first of all, they are spending over a million Great British Pounds on this campaign, which may just generate bad feeling. Part of me thinks this is cool, but then I also think it is a bit sad that in order to prove something works, they have to resort to using this type of phrase. I would much prefer a creative ad, that is clever or unexpected rather than one that is merely controversial in order to provoke an angered response.
What do you think? Is this a good idea? A waste of money? Does outdoor advertising work?
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
ABOUT
This is a blog about Marketing, Media and all things strategical.
Yes it’s going to elicit a response. And a very negative one (and as a career mom there’s a part of me that’s ticked). It will prove their point, but lose them respect in the process.
Outdoor advertising still works – my daughter comments on billboards, truck wraps and signs all the time. They didn’t have to resort to this to prove it.
I still remember a campaign in Dallas in the mid-80’s where the company pasted amazing colorful art all over their unused billboards. Beautiful pictures of unusual things. Eggs over easy dripping onto a brilliant blue background. Twenty years later and I still remember the picture I saw when I was twelve. The only words – Ask Patrick and a phone number.
When the Dallas Morning News wrote up the story several weeks after they appeared, Patrick had take over 2500 phone calls about those billboards – and sold more than 80% of them.
It can be done with creativity and class. The UK’s Outdoor Advertising Association just proved they have neither.
That is exactly how I feel about this too. I can understand that they want to try and get some extra publicity, which are giving them. But I would have thought they could have been classy with it. In fact, I think that they have proved what is wrong with a lot of outdoor advertising, it is just crass. In my opinion, It isn’t the medium that’s the problem, it’s the message.
If it generates response, it worked. Albeit a negative image and a negative statement, perhaps maybe that was the objective of the campaign – to generate people’s true opinions on the subject matter.
Posing the question, “does outdoor advertising still work?” i think it depends on the context. Many advertisers are turning billboards into “text to win” campaigns, and can track direct response. Other outdoor campaigns, are purely for brand awareness, which is difficult to see return on, but can help boost brand credibility and affiliation in the future.
You asked great questions!