Creative Design for Impact: Crafting Visuals That Shine on Digital Billboards

Billboards may seem old-school, but billboard advertising is one of the most effective marketing options that exist. They create an opportunity to leave a lasting impression on potential customers. 

In addition to being attention-grabbing, billboards are also able to reach thousands of eyes each day when they’re located along busy roads and intersections. Drivers, bus riders, pedestrians, and cyclists alike all get exposed, and because of their size, billboards are hard to miss.

One of the keys to successful billboard advertising is creating effective designs. If the design isn’t appealing or the message isn’t clear and to the point, people are more likely to look away or forget what the message is all about.

Traditional or Digital?

Your first decision about billboard advertising might be whether to go with a traditional billboard or a digital one. Sustainability and cost are always key concerns, and those will factor into your choice as well.

Traditional billboards tend to be less expensive, but they come with some drawbacks. One of the biggest is staleness. Your ad or message will be on display for weeks or months at a time. Changing them isn’t something that’s quick and easy to do.

Digital billboards, while often more expensive to purchase, offer a number of distinct benefits. Consider the following:

• If you’re the owner, you’ll appreciate that they’re easy to maintain and highly durable.
• Owners also can rent the space out to multiple customers at a time, displaying changing messages and creating a fresh look.
• If you’re renting the space, you can select the time and frequency for maximum effectiveness. For example, if you’re advertising a breakfast special for a restaurant, you can run the ad during morning slots when people might immediately act on them.
• It’s also fast and easy to make edits and changes on digital billboards, allowing the ability to tailor messages for the moment.

If you’re considering purchasing a digital billboard either for your own business or to rent the space out to others, check out the innovative, energy-efficient LED digital billboards Formetco Digital offers!

The Formetco Creative Library

At Formetco Digital, we don’t just sell billboards; we also provide our customers with resources for their creative designs. While this article will get into ways to create effective billboard designs, we first want to mention our Creative Library available to our customers.

The Creative Library is 100% free to use, and instant downloads are available. You can choose between poster and bulletin sizes for the unique designs on hand, and we add new artwork every month. There are also designs for holidays throughout the year so that your messages can reflect the theme of the holiday or season.

These designs aren’t just for advertising products and services. You can also display community messages such as weather alerts, emergencies, breaking news, information about special events, and more.

Visit us to learn more about the Creative Library or download our free billboard design guide today!

Making Billboard Designs Work for You

Whether it’s on a traditional billboard or a digital one, most of the time, your design will only be visible for a brief period of time. Drivers will quickly pass by a traditional billboard, and on a digital billboard, a design is only on display for seconds or a couple of minutes before the next display takes its place.

So it’s important to make good use of that limited viewing time. The following are three important things to consider:

Make the most of contrast and typography.

The contrast in the colors for font, background, and images helps the design stand out. Also take into account the surroundings to make sure the design stands out from them as well. The more it blends in or fails to make a powerful visual impression, the less attention people will pay to it.

With typography and fonts, you want something that’s large enough to be read from a distance and also simple to read. If a font is too fancy or doesn’t stand out, that precious little time someone is viewing the design might be spent trying to decipher what it’s saying. Not effective at all!

Finally, in blending everything together, always aim to minimize or eliminate clutter. If there’s too much going on, it’s harder to get your message across, and there’s also the risk of the design being visually unappealing and making people look away.

Images should be high quality.

Whether it’s a print or digital billboard, you should always use high-resolution images only. Pixelation in images can not only determine whether the image is clear, but that your message is as well. Make sure you also take time to edit, crop, and color-correct images so that they will look good on the billboard.

Get the most out of your location.

You’ll want your design to be high up and away from anything that can distract from it. Take time to make sure the design looks sharp and appealing from different angles and from any distance. You don’t want it looking clear from far away but blurry up close, or vice versa.

Writing Good Text for Billboard Ads

So far, we’ve talked about the visual appearance of billboard designs, but now it’s time to talk about the written content of the ads. You’ll want to be mindful of all of the following:

• Make the tagline short and sweet. More than seven words is too much. The tagline needs to grab attention.
• It should appeal to all ages. There are some exceptions to this, of course, but in general, you want the language to be appropriate and friendly to anyone who can read it.
• Tell them what to do or where to go. A message isn’t effective if people don’t know what to do. Provide next steps, addresses, contact information, directions, or whatever else is necessary to help viewers act on your ad or message.
• Talk to the community. Include language that creates a sense of belonging and reinforces the local culture. For example: “Hey Atlanta…”

If you’re ready to take all this and apply it to your digital marketing, Formetco Digital is excited to work with you!