It’s dark outdoors

It’s been a long dark winter in the South West and it doesn’t look like the sun will shine anytime soon. I’m not talking about the weather, I’m talking about our local shire’s attitude to Out of Home advertising.

As any marketer will tell you, a strong mix of various medias is always the most effective measure to get large scale exposure across your target audience. Often we are not in the luxurious position to use a mix but when we are it’s always disappointing that ‘Out of Home’ is so limited in the regional areas of Western Australia.

I probably need to clarify what I mean by ‘Out of Home’. Out of Home is made up of several outlets.

Some of the most common are:

• Billboards
• Taxis
• Bus Backs
• Bus Stops

Some of the most recent additions to Out of Home have been:

• Mobile Advertising Vehicles ranging from mopeds to smart cars to trayback mini trucks
• Digital Screen Advertising as seen in various shopping centres and some visitor centres

If you ever wondered if any of these were effective mediums, you’d only have to take a drive down the Bussell Highway and see our own billboard! We jumped on the opportunity when it was offered to us. We offered it to a range of clients at the time and unfortunately none were in a position to include it in their budget. It was an opportunity too good to miss!

Out of Home is not a cheap option for advertising a specific product but it is an amazing branding tool and used effectively with a wholistic approach to your campaign can add massive value to your television , press advertising or direct mail . It can be used as ‘loss of memory insurance’ as we like to call it.

A small spotlight on Out of Home in the South West will hopefully one day turn in a bright summer’s day…we can only hope!