Lamp Posts are painful!

As a marketer, one of the last tools I will ever consider utilizing are outdoor (Lamp Posts)!

for many reasons:

1- Its just good for one purpose, Brand Awareness, unless your objective is to remind or strengthen  your brand awareness, avoid this tool by all means.

2- Its dangerous, trying to catch drivers’ attention while they’re driving is a deadly objective! have some mercy!

3- Its unethical, what is the fault of someone who doesn’t want to be exposed to so many advertisement messages on their way to work during a normal day!

 

But what if I Had too!!

If you ever happen to be working with decision makers with low marketing IQ who has copy cat mentality, that will mean your life will be depending on this! Try your best to use this ineffective tool as efficiently as possible, here are few Tips:

1- Competing brands and products should never be placed in one row

2-Use “Not” more than one massage (slogan, name, action statement) in each post

3- Use cleaver colors, what’s with using black & purple combination in areas with no proper lightening!

4- Simple , Simpler, Simplest possible art work, don’t let the designer bring out all its creative poser in creating a confusing poster!

5- Be highly selective in choosing the locations, on traffic stops and in town locations, placing ads in the middle of no wear is equivalent to stealing companies money, don’t help your outdoor media provider to do that.

6- One or Two lampposts at each location (unless its on the traffic stops), is a joke, by the time people notice you first poster and last , then the next poster Ad, you will be forgotten!

7- Contact info, email, location map, website , social media channels and the list goes on! you must be insane! do you really think people will capture all this in split of seconds!

8- Try to consider light box lampposts, they are much better, especially when the governments lamps are off!

9- Ask your vendors not to leave outdated, worn-out lampposts hanging out there, its like an orphan craving for a sympathy!

10- Lampposts, billboards and megacoms all in same location, you must be so rich and don’t know what to do with your money, advice, try some CSR activities, it will add more value to your brand image than placing scattered adds everywhere possible!

11- One massage, one campaign at a time, remember the rule of Focus, focus on one objective at a time, (Oh you have a new product, Oh you want me to update my data with you, mmm what was that, did they announce their new event! what do they want from me !!!!) at least place different campaign posters in different locations.

12- If you have a strong simple message, try being creative in the shapes used, of course that will come with a cost!

In short, be selective, simple, creative and smart in using your marketing budget, seeing so much money wasted in useless tools is painful especially coming from major and strongest organizations marketing departments.