Advertisement is a very central function in business. An organization will always need to advertisement in order to woo the consumers to buy whatever products or services the advertising organization is offering. It is always intended to promote a sale of a product, service, idea, and occasion etc to the general public and especially to the target market segment. Every time the organization runs an advertisement, it should be able to measure the impact of that advertisement in terms of sales.
Advertisements have been known to increase sales considerably.Based on this premise, an organization should therefore invest considerably in advertisement of their goods or services even when the sales are at an all times high (Cook, 2001). The benefits of advertisement take preference over the cost. Nowadays the cost of advertisement has skyrocketed considerably due to increased popularity. The cost depends on the advertising agency doing the advertisement on behalf or the organization and the medium e. g.
television, newspaper, radio, cinema, internet or even billboards.The function of this paper is to highlight the medium of advertisement which has not been receiving considerable attention, reasons why that medium has not been receiving the attention and suggested advertisement opportunities offered by the medium that has been ignored. The medium that shall be dealt with is the billboards. A billboard is a large structure which is used for outdoor advertisement. It comes from the term billing board and it is usually found along very busy roads thus providing advertisements to the pedestrians and motorists alike.
The billboards are very specific in terms of positioning and visibility. They are always placed in positions you can rarely miss to notice them and they are easily visible not forgetting the witty slogans employed thereon (Know-It-Alls Staff, 2008). The billboard as a medium of advertisement has its own advantages and disadvantages. Billboards are perfectly good when you intend to create general awareness of a product or service. They are also good in reaching a large number of audiences.However they have a number of limitations.
They are limited in terms of the number of such outdoor advertisement you can buy at any one time the duration and the impression it is likely to create on those who see them. It is also limited to a specific target group of those who are able to see it. The effectiveness of billboards is measured by calling for an action from those who see it. For example “Call 050 888 888 today and ask for Jack” is an action than can be called for from the viewers of the billboard.The number of people who will call will reflect the effectiveness in reaching a large number of people. Billboards have not been receiving enough attention due to a number of reasons.
First, the television commercial is generally perceived as the most effective media that reaches a large mass especially when aired during popular programes such soap operas, or movies or even news bulletins. Because of this popularity, organizations have simply shifted their interest entirely to TV commercials therefore ignoring the billboard option.This popularity is seen from the prices for TV commercials. For example, to get a 30 second airtime during a prime television event such as the super Bowl Soccer that occurs annually, you need about $2. 7 million. This is the rate used as at 2007.
The rates may have increased since then. Secondly, the tedious nature of activities associated with billboard advertisement scare organizations. The time taken between intentions of advertisement to posting of advertisement may be relatively longer as compared to if the advert was to be run on television or radio.The regulations on billboards are far much gagging than those surrounding the TV and radio advertising. In the US for example, billboards started facing restrictions as early as 1960 when there were attempts to ban billboards in the open countryside.
These restrictions and tight regulations have continued with cities such as Sao Paulo slapping an outright ban while London encouraging legislation against some specific displays deemed unlawful such advertisements of alcoholic drinks and tobacco which may negatively influence the youth.Because of these tight regulations, organizations always shy away from billboards since they need not find themselves at the wrong side of the law, a situation which may injure their corporate image. Another reason cited for banning or tight regulation of billboards is the fact that they pose as distractions to motorists and thus causing road clashes (Richard, 1992). Finally, the amount of information that can be passed to the billboard reader about a commodity or service is limited.This is because the prints are large hence fewer prints are accommodated.
The fact that the billboards are often read while passing at high speeds calls for limited words. Often, the advertisers need to give detailed information about their services or commodities and this rules out the utility of the billboards. However, as times change and technology improves, advertisers are slowly coming back to embrace billboard advertisement because of a number of reasons.First, billboard advertising is relatively cheap as compared to popular TV advertisement. The cost of billboard ranges between $700 and $2,500 a month.
This means that one can run 100 billboards at $250,000 a month thus this can reach out a larger market at a cheaper cost as compared to TV advertisement (Know-It-Alls Staff, 2008). Secondly, the present revolution on integrated marketing strategy calls for a balance among broadcasting, print media and bill boarding as a way of attraction and retention of a wide and diverse market.Finally, billboards are read by motorists. People who own vehicles are financially capable and thus targeting this group will bear on a financially capable customer base. To reach this highly affluent and mobile group, billboards offer the best option (Wright, 2001).
In conclusion, billboards can offer an able and effective channel for outdoor advertisement because of their ability to attract attention and making the motorist think about what he read long after speeding by the billboard.To increase the popularity of billboards, clear, brief, witty and catchy large print on a conspicuously colored board need to be embraced. Strategic placement of billboards is also a factor because success of an advertisement channel is determined by the number of people it is able to reach at any one time. Finally, the integration of computer technology into bill boarding can work miracles.
This will don away with the tedious nature of bill boarding and thus make it even popular because people tend to be more receptive to technology more than anything else.
