I'm pleased to announce that yesterday afternoon Church Requel signed an advertising agreement with Lamar to show ten billboards throughout Richland County beginning October 12th. My compliments to Lamar Account Executive Joshua Palm, who was most helpful to me through the decision-making process. (And I must quickly add my thanks to the many others who provided advice from other media sources. We are most blessed to have high-caliber salespeople within the advertising business in Richland County!)
Why billboards? My #1 objective was simply to get the news out that Church Requel is now meeting publicly. I wanted people to know about us and, if they want more information, to know the web address where they can find out everything they want to know. Placing 10 billboards in strategic locations around Richland County will get that word out. Now we have to wait and see if the good folks of Richland County respond.
I have learned so much about billboard advertising these past two weeks. And while I'll admit to still being a neophyte, here are some of the things I have learned.
- The message matters. "Life Change Happens Here" is designed to get people to look at the billboard. If we don't get them to glance our way, the rest of the info won't matter.
- Selecting billboard locations is not easy. Long-time billboard advertisers have many of the best locations already locked up. And we are entering political season, so there will be many other new advertisers as well.
- Billboard companies pick a location for their signs that are usually ideal for one direction. They then add a second board and then two more on the back. The other three are usually not as ideal as the first.
- Plan on doing some driving around. Of the original 10 boards suggested, we took three. I asked, and Josh provided, all the other boards that were available during our launch time frame. I drove to each location and selected the other seven from this list. I really appreciated the picture and maps provided by Lamar, but nothing is better than driving by.
- Size of billboard should match the road and location. Our billboards are 10' 6" by 22' 9", which is ideal for roads around town (assuming they are relatively close and are not blocked by other things in front of them.) But this is not a good size usually for highways, where the billboard has to be off the road a ways. Lamar and others make larger boards for a larger price. For our budget and objective, the standard "retro" size seemed best to me.
