Many businesses use tactics to make the cost seem like less than it is. For example, flying in a private jet from Los Angeles to Las Vegas only costs $10 per minute (instead of $1,800). And your cell phone only costs $3 per day (instead of $1,000 per year). But in the billboard business, sometimes it’s all about making things sound bigger than they actually are – and sometimes not. Here’s a list of times in which you want to make things sound big and others when you shoot for small.
The viewing audience
Let’ assume that a billboard is on a highway with a traffic count of 30,000 cars per day. You can make that sound more impressive by saying 900,000 cars per month or – assuming an average of two people per car looking out the window – 1.8 million views per month. It’s all the same math, it just sounds way bigger when you put it that way.
The size of the sign
Now let’s assume that the sign face is 14’ high and 48’ wide. Instead, maybe you go with the height of the sign itself and say “this giant 50’ tall salesman reaches over 1.8 million viewers per month”. Now you’re really starting to get the advertiser’s attention.
The profit potential
If the proposed advertiser is a Holiday Inn with rates of $100 per night, you could say that “this giant 50’ tall salesman reaches over 1.8 million viewers per month, and if it can bring in just one new customer per day, will increase your revenue by $3,000 per month”. Getting the idea?
The cost of the sign
Now we’re going to back off and make things sound smaller. Let’s start with the price. If the sign costs $1,000 per month, then let’s change that to $33 per day – that sounds way better. So we’d say “this giant 50’ tall salesman reaches over 1.8 million viewers per month, and if it can bring in just one new customer per day, will increase your revenue by $3,000 per month – all at a cost of only $33 per day”.
The cost of printing the vinyl
Many billboards today have the advertiser paying for production of the advertisement. Let’s assume that costs $1,000 on a 12-month lease. Instead of saying that use the daily cost, which is only around $3. So now your pitch is “this giant 50’ tall salesman reaches over 1.8 million viewers per month, and if it can bring in just one new customer per day, will increase your revenue by $3,000 per month – all at a cost of only $33 per day plus a $3 per day production cost”.
Conclusion
You think the Holiday Inn will be interested in that sales pitch? That’s the power of making things sound large and small. It’s a trick that’s been around since they painted the first billboards on the side of barns. Give it a try.