How to Use Guerrilla Advertising Strategies to Boost Brand Recognition

Thursday, November 29th, 2007 / Category: Insurance Marketing Articles

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Companies have been using outdoor advertising mediums for decades – from billboards and large poster-like signs to grab the attention of walk-in and street traffic.

More recently, newer and more hideous “guerilla” advertising methods have been successfully used to increase brand awareness and generate more sales without costing the companies that run the ads their entire advertising budget. Outdoor advertising now includes public benches, public transport systems such as trains and buses and electronic signs instead of billboards. These new advertising mediums can be used by almost any kind of business because they’re highly affordable and effective.

The main power of outdoor advertisements lie in the fact that they’re involuntary to the viewer – meaning the potential customer can’t turn off or avoid the advertisement. This benefit can bring tremendous results to your marketing efforts, because your outdoor ads will hook the audience with surprise. Contrary to this, viewers of TV commercials expect to be marketed to when a commercial break starts, and readers of newspapers expect to see some print advertisements. Outdoor advertisements are the exception to this ‘rule’.

The potential exposure your advertisement can get doesn’t have a certain limit because it’ll be exposed to all kinds of commuters and drivers that travel around the area. The main disadvantage here lies in the fact that your viewers are moving, allowing your ad to have only 2-3 seconds to grab their attention. This will require you to create an ad that will be interesting and relevant enough to grab the interest of both driving and walking consumers.

The main purpose of an outdoor ad will be to increase brand awareness – viewers will have almost no time to write down a phone number they can call or a website address they can view later. However, they might remember the name of the product or service, and then search for it online using the major search engines to find your product/service.

Your ad will be highly ineffective if your consumers will feel no interest in both needing and wanting what you have to offer. You can avoid this problem by consulting with your ad agency to develop an ad that can easily grab the attention and interest of your moving-consumers that will help you maximize your return on investment from your outdoor ads. Professional ad agencies will help you develop killer outdoor ads- that usually have a strong, interesting headline and a few interesting lines of text to get your desired message into the viewer’s mind.

How Much Will an Outdoor Ad Cost?

Although the main benefit of using outdoor ads is the affordability, you’ll usually need to run your ads on a 3-month length basis. This is primarily due to the fact that it takes effort and good timing to replace outdoor ads. Therefore marketing experts don’t recommend using outdoor ads if you’re looking for a short-term advertising strategy.

By leveraging the exposure potential of outdoor ads and their affordability, your company will increase its brand awareness among viewers, and ultimately increase sales in the long-term.