On your daily commute, you see different outdoor advertisements and may start to wonder who designs these billboards? The face behind a billboard is usually a creative designer with a background in graphic design. These designers have a lot riding on them to create a captivating and profitable billboard design.  Now, what does the design process look like? When tasked with creating a billboard, a designer has limitless possibilities! This may seem daunting, but designers have some key steps to make an eye-catching billboard. Using the basic guideline below, anyone can design the perfect billboard advertisement!

Find the Target Audience

When thinking of the concept for a billboard, a designer needs to understand the target audience. The key to an effective marketing campaign is attracting the attention of the consumer you want. The designer can then narrow down some ideas that will appeal to your desired audience. Every billboard is seen by many people, but you want to captivate and stick with your target audience.

Focus on the Main Objective

What does the company want to be conveyed to their audience? What is the goal of the billboard? These are the questions the designer is focused on as they begin to create the billboard. A billboard needs to be simple, yet effective. People only have a few seconds to comprehend the message. The designer needs to create an image focused on a clear objective.

Concept Choice

Once the designer understands the target audience and the main objective for the billboard, it is time for them to get creative and decide on the concept for the advertisement. They will decide on the message, an idea of the image, and a call to action. After this step, the designer has a rough idea of what the final billboard will look like.

This article was originally published on BillboardsIn.com. You can continue reading the full article here.

It’s finally time for the spookiest holiday, Halloween! Use this season to get creative and dress your billboards up. To get in the Halloween spirit, take a look at our top 5 spookiest billboards!

I mean is this the sickest billboard or what ?! Or am I just sick (in the head) #HALLOWEEN #MichaelisBack #inmycloset #help #butimgonnagoseeit pic.twitter.com/ehn5vNxeqp

— Brooke Hutton ⭐️ (@brookehutton) September 27, 2018

The billboard for the new Halloween movie is simple, yet very effective.  With just the title of the movie, the theater date and a single image of Michael Myers, the advertisement is eye-catching and creates excitement for the movie. Michael Myers is iconic and the Halloween franchise is a classic and the billboard reflects this. This billboard creates buzz for the movie as well as the Halloween season.

Halloween is a great time for creative outdoor advertising. I really want a @fanta now. #iHeartBillboards #billboards #halloween pic.twitter.com/N3ZLutHlg9

— Kelly Pruitt (@KellyPruitt1) September 29, 2016

Fanta takes their Halloween advertising to a new level. They update their cans, packaging, and slogan. The billboards follow suit with a new spooky look. Fanta uses their signature orange accompanied with black for a classic Halloween color scheme.

This article was originally published by BillboardsIn. You can continue reading the rest of the countdown here.

You can now easily submit high-quality images from your proposals and help refresh your image gallery in the DOmedia marketplace. Watch the video or follow the steps below to learn how!

To start, fill out the proposal grid in DOmedia as usual. Next, click Save for Later. Then, click Update Images.

Next, you will see a new pop-up showing every row in the proposal with any images in the gallery already associated with each unit.

If there are multiple images, you can pick your favorite image. You can click Upload to upload a new one.  You no longer need an inventory number for an image to show on your proposal; they’ll be right there when you upload it. Click Set as Main Image on Inventory box to replace the main image. Your old image will still be there, but now it’s in the second slot.

Once everything is good, scroll down and click Update Images. When you see the green success message, you can close the pop-up box.

You can now click Update Images to see which images are now associated with each inventory in this proposal. Click Show Missing to see which units are still missing images. Click Save and Submit or proceed to the 3rd step of the RFP process.

DOmedia, the host to the largest database of OOH vendors in the US, is constantly encountering innovative vendors. In our Vendor Spotlight series, we attempt to highlight these companies and explain to you how they are pushing the industry forward. Today we’re focusing on Chive Media Group. Chive Media Group is famous for its flagship brand theCHIVE (edgy humor loved by a legion of male fans); e-commerce website TheChivery (one of the first content-driven commerce websites), and now, CHIVE TV, a content-first streaming app created as an alternative to sports or news on mute. 

CHIVE TV started with a question: What do people watch in the 1,000,000+ bars & restaurants when sports aren’t on? They knew they could improve the experience for bar & restaurant patrons by providing engaging content that can supplement the hours before, during and after the big game.

They developed an over-the-top (OTT) streaming channel, CHIVE TV, which streams family-friendly, viral video content in bars, restaurants and other retail establishments across the U.S. CHIVE TV gets people’s eyeballs out of their phones and engaging with fun and energetic content. CHIVE TV elevates the experience in venues and attracts viewers to the screen, priming the audience for ads.

CHIVE TV runs a five-hour loop of continuously updated viral content, with an ad break every 7.5 minutes. Advertisers can run their own :15/:30 second ad, or their in-house team can create something custom for a brand, such as trivia or listicle videos. CHIVE TV can geo-target ads nationally, regionally, and even down to a specific venue, making sure advertisers are hitting the exact audience they want.

With time spent out-of-home up 50% over the last two decades, CHIVE TV was a shift to move to where the people are. Outdoor advertising, especially in environments such as bars and restaurants, offers an incredible opportunity for counter-programming around sports. For example, during the NFL season, you can run counter-programming via CHIVE TV and own bars and restaurants on Sundays.

When asked what makes the company unique, Co-Founder John Resig says:

“Since starting theCHIVE, our mission has always been to entertain fun-loving people and keep things positive—no snark, no politics. CHIVE TV does just that, providing fun and entertaining content to the masses to make everyone just 10% happier.”

If you want to learn more check out Chive Media Group’s vendor page here.

Want to be featured on our blog? Fill out our short vendor questionnaire here.

Driverless cars are coming. The question is no longer if, but when. Whether the first breakthrough model comes from Google or Tesla or Ford, they’re well on their way. Once this happens, what impact will it have on the out-of-home industry? Here are three ways that driverless cars will change OOH.

BILLBOARD RESTRICTIONS LIFTED

Most municipalities currently have restrictions on OOH for fear of distracted driving. Outdoor ads can only be so bright. They can only be so large. They can only move so much. These restrictions exist because of legitimate safety concerns. While they may keep people safe now, they’ll have no place in the future where cars drive themselves.

This means OOH will be bigger and brighter than ever. Designs will be allowed to incorporate full motion and movement. We’ll likely get those giant holograms we’ve seen in the movies for years. Instead of being limited so they don’t attract all of our attention, they’ll now be trying their best to dazzle us.

IN-CAR VISUAL DISPLAYS

Autonomous cars will ease restrictions on ads outside of cars, and the same can be said for ads inside cars. All newer cars have a dash screen and in-car ads on these screens already exist. Again, the opportunity here is currently downplayed because of safety concerns.

Once those are gone, we can expect full digital commercials and games to be displayed on our dash screens. In fact, expect each seat in the car to have its own dedicated screen. Each passenger in the car will be delivered personalized and interactive ads, perhaps even interfacing with their mobile devices.

IN-CAR AUDIO

There are some passengers who would just as well take a nap or read a book once they don’t have to pay attention to the road. Outdoor advertisements and screens can’t impact people who aren’t looking at billboards and screens, right? How do we reach these people?

Thanks to location data, audio is already used to supplement OOH in certain markets. Self-driving cars allow this to be taken to the next level. Imagine your favorite supermarket jingle starting to play inside your car as you near the billboard a mile before its parking lot. You look up and an outdoor ad reminds you to pick up eggs and chocolate chips on the way home. A pop-up box on the dash screen asks you if you want to make a stop.

There is no question self-driving cars will allow for more dazzling outdoor ads, more engaging in-car displays, and more relevant in-car audio. The truly exciting thing is how future technology and location data will allow all three to work together to create more personalized and attention-grabbing OOH advertisements. Driverless cars will undoubtedly help usher in a new era of OOH.