The traditional rules that apply to standard print-on-vinyl outdoor billboards don’t work so well with the world of high-contrast, light and angle sensitive LED signs. Meanwhile, as the number of available digital billboards increases, those responsible for developing the creative and the production art for these signs need some serious training to get with the digital program.

What Makes It Work

In the same way print design differs from design for online advertising, design for a digital canvas requires that you consider the technology and the environment surrounding the billboard.

The long-held rule for traditional outdoor— 7 seconds, 7 words— still should be a guiding philosophy when creating for digital outdoor. Moreover, unlike a printed billboard that doesn’t move unless you’re moving, the message changes every 6-10 seconds.

White backgrounds bad. Dark backgrounds good.

Avoid white backgrounds. For these new digital boards, even the best of them, it’s all about contrast. Not only does it take more electricity to power a light diode to glow white, using a lot of white reveals imperfections in your art and malfunctioning lights. A solid black background is a perfect color palette to make deeply saturated colors pop.

Darker backgrounds and saturated colors make your message pop.

Keep the artwork simple, but use the full power of color that is available with these signs.

Type Choices

The mark of an amateur is using too many typestyles or just picking bad type overall. There are some good free type fonts available on the Internet, but there are many more really bad ones.

The mark of an amateur is using too many typestyles.

Like their vinyl counterparts, digital billboards are seen from a distance and usually from a moving vehicle. The same consideration you would give traditional outdoor should be used to design art for digital. Keep it simple and readable.

Choose type fonts are are easy to read. The king of all legible fonts is the Helvetica family of faces. This classic European designed font has rules the design world for nearly 50 years. There is a reason it remains a top choice for professional designers.

Set your type in using upper and lowercase letters. All caps is difficult to read, especially at a distance.

Simple designs with readable type work best.

The Real Power of Digital Outdoor

Beyond the coolness factor and improving readability of jumbo LED signs, lies the most impressive feature of all: the ability to create entire campaigns in a single location.

Day-parting has always been an advantage of electronic media like radio and television. You can schedule specific kinds of messages in specific parts of the day. Hearing an ice cream commercial on radio at 6:30am won’t be as effective as a commercial that describes a hot, flavored, fresh-brewed cup of coffee.

You can place specific artwork to be visible at specific times or days.

Acree Creative partner, John Ryan, said the small retailer had big ideas for expanding its brand and reaching more consumers. “We first met with Green Market’s owner-operator, Dave Murray, to discuss how we could help him update his brand,” said Ryan. “After getting to know one another and seeing the full extent of our capabilities, Murray felt our involvement should be more more encompassing.”

The first project was to redesign the Green Market brand. Dan Acree, who art directed the assignment, wanted to maintain the store’s intimate relationship with its customers while modernizing the look and making the logo more a part of the retailer’s strategy. “Over the next year we will introduce the new Green Market brand using outdoor, transit and other venues where we can begin to link the new look with the positive feelings people already have about this retailer,” said Acree.

A comprehensive roll out of the brand will began in early 2012.  Green Market’s new logo will become more apparent in everything from mass media advertising to in-store displays and with the store’s online presence via a Acree Creative installed website.

Delivering the Message

To help define Green Market, Acree Creative positioned the local retailer alongside an international market leader — Whole Foods. An outdoor campaign reminds consumers that Green Market carries similar brands and items as Whole Foods, and that it is local and close by.

Since the campaign began the retailer has experienced significant sales increases.

Carson & Barnes Circus's newest edition, Obert, the Asian elephant (left) and Dan Acree at the signing ceremony in Hugo, Oklahoma.

As the season began in mid-March the weather dictated success or failure most of the time. But with the summer approaching fewer fields were muddy and audiences built. Just days into the 2012 tour each date and each show did better until finally, the Circus was running at full speed.

Acree Creative was hired by Carson & Barnes to execute a plan that would overhaul the Circus’s entire marketing and ticketing program. The agency’s team includes a media planner and buyer, publicity staff, promotion manager, creative services dept, and account management.

Working with ticket agency Vendini, the Circus launched the 2012 season with state-of-the-art online sales, and all marketing has been focused on driving traffic to this new channel. There has already been astounding success with online sales in the first six weeks exceeding those of the entire 2011 season.

“The Circus is a 24/7 situation,” said managing partner Dan Acree, “there is little downtime and it takes our entire staff working as a highly-coordinated team to push the marketing plan forward.”

My partner, John Ryan and I decided early on that if we were hired a complete graphics makeover would be necessary. The Carson & Barnes brand had fallen into disrepair and over the past few years lost its style and class.

Initially I saw the project as something I can handle on my own. After all, I have designed hundreds of company logos, product brands, and displays. But it became evident that this was a project that demanded someone more skilled in illustration rather than just creating a design with existing type styles.

This is where lettering designer and illustrator Ken Barber came in. Barber works for the venerable House Industries, a type font house that is a favorite among graphic designers and folks in the advertising industry. Barber has created many of House’s most popular typefaces.

I asked Ken to tell me how he approached the project of creating a new brand for Carson & Barnes.

Inspiration

When Acree Creative invited me to help redesign the logo for Carson & Barnes Circus, I was happy to lend a hand. Big top ephemera has long enjoyed a splendid tradition of inventive lettering, and Carson & Barnes is no exception. Art director Dan Acree and I knew that the identity must embody the same distinctive qualities that continues to make the American institution of the traveling circus so unique.

Despite Carson & Barnes’ 76-year history, very little archival material was available to build on as a foundation for the new mark. Instead, I primarily culled reference from nineteenth century polychromatic wood type specimens, broadside publicity posters and sign painting work from the same era. However, it was the decorative excesses of rococo-style lettering long associated with big top signage and ornamentation that provided the principal inspiration.

The design process began with plenty of rough pencil sketches, exploring various typographic styles in numerous compositions. After determining the proper hierarchy and layout of the lettering, Dan and I honed in on two directions while critical input from the client helped us make the final decision. Working within a limited time frame, the artwork was quickly yet carefully vectorized before it was ultimately ready for the center ring.

I am privileged to have played a small role in the history of Carson & Barnes Circus. My hope is that the new logo honors the enduring legacy of the organization and faithfully serves it for another century.

Eise deBoer, president of Planet Green’s parent company said the company will import product and assemble the complete electric motorbike at a plant in North Texas. “We believe the electric scooter market is ready to grow significantly in the coming five years,” said deBoer.

Acree Creative partner, Dan Acree, said Planet Green Electric Scooter Co. is exactly the kind of client his firm likes to attract.

“Planet Green came to us at the earliest stages of their venture. We were able to help them name, brand, and create the entire marketing strategy from the beginning. It’s always a treat to work with a blank canvas,” said Acree.

This is the primary reason that I have begun partnering with a passion. It is no longer possible to keep your arms around all available resources—everything in house. Unless you are a major agency with lots of capital, you cannot stay up to date. Using third parties to handle technology or market segment assignments is critical.

The Difference for Retailers

When you finally realize that a brick and mortar storefront will no longer reach even a fraction of potential customers, you have to deal with getting up to speed with retailing on the Internet.

Advertising on the Internet yields a ROI (Return On Investment) that can be 50 times that of other forms of traditional advertising.

Many business owners and managers think all they need is to put up a website and wait for the orders. It is so very much more complex than you (or I ever) imagined. The amount of planning and implementation can be daunting.

As a marketer one of the most distressing things I see is a local retailer with a desirable (perhaps even unique) product mix that doesn’t know how to leverage their existing stock and offerings to the world at large.

Get Out of Your Own Backyard

Before you begin you must come to the realization that as a small business owner you cannot possibly handle the design, implementation, and maintenance of an online store. If you can assign a full-time, web-experienced person to the task, then you might have a chance. Hiring your nephew or a part-timer to do this project is a joke without a punchline.

It’s easy to search the web looking for “shopping carts,” “retailing websites,” “e-commerce software,” etc. but I can assure you that it will be only a few minutes into the project that you come to the conclusion this stuff is way over your head. That’s why I use out experts to contribute to any project. It’s ultimately the most efficient route to getting what you want.

Take the time to contact a handful or vendors and ask them for a proposal on getting your retail website up and running. Otherwise you are wasting valuable time, energy, and money.

When a good friend tells you about a new restaurant, there’s a good chance that you will take that recommendation and try it. Referrals from “trusted others” can be a powerful force.

Your Referral Network

In your own business, your most satisfied, enthusiastic clients are your biggest fans, and each of them is also a trusted other for an untapped network of potential clients who are just waiting to hear about you from their friends. This one-to-one and one-to-many network is the foundation of social networking, now brought into the new age with the use of the Internet and email.

To effectively use this network you need to understand what makes it tick.

Why People Refer

What is really behind a referral? The person recommending you won’t profit financially from sending you a customer. They refer to you because they want to help their friends. Understanding that motivation and understanding how it can be influenced by your marketing is critical.

Think about how you can help your customer base do a better job of referring. Keep them aware of your products and services by letting them in on what’s new. That those updates targeted, or you risk being ignored. People only read what brings them value. And while it’s easy to click “send all” on an email campaign, it’s dangerous. Keep sending emails about your email salon to guys and you’ll wind up in junk mail. Target every message. Because every message counts.

A big name Internet company recently did a survey or well over a thousand consumers who regularly use the Internet. They learned that the vast majority of the sample group wanted the same things from a company’s website. Asked to rank by priority the most important elements of a website, here’s how they responded.

Top 4 Reasons a Website is Visited

1. Easy to navigate
2. Information kept current and updated
3. New product information
4. Location and contact information

Top 4 Reasons a Visitor Leaves a Website

1. Takes too long to load
2. Can’t find the information wanted
3. Music is irritating
4. Too much stuff on the page, confusing

Content is King. Long Live the King.

We go to a website primarily for information. Not to be entertained. Give some thought to content. It has been said that on the Internet “Content is king.”

Use a navigation (menus, links) scheme that makes it easy to find basic information, then allow the visitor or go deeper. Prioritizing information is important.

Banners & Links

Banners and clickable buttons and words allow a website visitor to go deeper for additional information. Always add the words “Click Here” to every graphic that has an embedded link. Animated banners and ads experience an average 15% (up to a 40%) increase in clicks.

Content Management Systems (Do It Yourself)

Just a couple of years ago, a website that would allow the owner (not a web developer) to access their website and make changes, was a big deal and it was expensive. Today, not so.

The latest website development platforms have a built in system that will allow anyone with the right user name and password to enter the “back end” of the website and add, delete, or change text and pictures.

Still, this is not for the faint or heart as it is easy to overwrite or delete something. But with just a little training, anyone comfortable with using Microsoft Word, or Microsoft Excel can easily master how to add news, or events, or sale items to the company website. A lot of this flexibility depends on how the website developer builds the site. Be sure to ask about the ability to make simple changes when you get a quote for a website project.

Paladin's simple, but effective business card.

The first business card I remember seeing was the one used by television gun-for-hire, Paladin, in Have Gun, Will Travel (1957-1963) starring Richard Boone on CBS-TV. At age 10, Santa (via Western Auto’s toy section in Okmulgee, Oklahoma) brought me an official Have Gun, Will Travel play set complete with six-shooter, black holster, and a set of 10 business cards: Have Gun, Will Travel. Wire Paladin. San Francisco with the distinctive knight’s head chess piece.

More Choices, Lower Prices

A business card can be anything from simply a way to convey contact information, to a piece of art that reflects the personality of your business. The revolution in digital color printing has dramatically increased the choices in business card design, and drastically lowered the cost, making a business card a powerful and effective way to advertise.

Die-cut shaped cards, full-color photographs, even over-sized cards (the standard is 3.5 wide x 2-inches tall) provide the opportunity to make a statement and say alot about the image and quality of your products and services.

Your Mug on a Card

A business card that won't be overlooked.

For decades, real estate agents have been using their photographs on their business cards. Seeing who you may be doing business with is a great way to make the first impression. In our celebrity culture, photos can be a boost to built-in credibility when you’re looking sharp and professional.

Texoma Realtor® Lezlie Rube has for the past ten years positioned herself in advertising as an expert on listing and selling property around Lake Texoma. Five years ago, a magazine article was written about her, titled “The Queen of Lake Texoma Real Estate.” The savvy salesperson capitalized on the moniker and had a custom caricature drawn to use in her advertising. She has passed out more than 10,000 custom business cards since the cartoon was created. Her card rarely gets tossed aside, and she reinforces her positioning as a go-getter agent that delivers for both buyers and sellers.

Beyond the Ordinary

By investing a couple of hours of a graphic designer’s time, you could come up with an out-of-the-ordinary design, shape, style, or format that would make your own company’s business cards a super selling tool.

In most cases a design will cost you $250-350, and a thousand full-color cards would run as low as $75. The prices on specialty cards (shapes, larger sizes) will cost you a little more, but surprisingly less than you might imagine.

Up Your Distribution

Finally, when you have a spectacular business card that gets attention make sure you get as many out as possible.

When you consider that a box of 500 cards costs as little as $50, getting cards for employees like delivery drivers, counter people, office manager, even assistants—puts your company advertising in many unexpected places. Employees are proud to distribute their business card at church, social gatherings, and to friends and relatives. Every card out there is a selling tool for you.

The Truth About Response Rates

I would love to be the guy who can tell you what kind of response to expect from a mailing. But the truth is simply that it depends on so many variables that it’s impossible to know. Clearly the key to success is based on four factors:

1. A well-targeted list of prospects
2. A product/offer that appeals to those folks
3. An incentive and call-to-action
4. A way to respond/accept the offer

Targeting Prospects

If you are opening a hobby store for model train enthusiasts it’s relatively easy to identify prospects.

You use the Internet to search for model train clubs, ask around at other hobby/toy/specialty store, check with the Chamber of Commerce. That would probably yield some leads. Then, consider checking into renting a mailing list.

Names for Rent

Two of the most active mailing list companies are InfoUSA and Melisssa Data. I have used both. Look, just realize that neither of these resources will give you a 100% accurate list. But it’s a place to start and the cost is relatively low. Plus, you can do free searches for nothing more than giving them your email address. That’s a fair deal.

Both sites are packed with information. I prefer Melissa Data for ease of use, but you may disagree. Play with both and poke around. Each offers a starting point and walks you through the process.

You’ll be asked to make selections like, what geographical area you want to search. I always use zip codes. You could search by county, city, etc. But zip codes are the smallest breakdown factor for amateurs. The Big Boys use carrier routes and block groups, often cross-indexed with some serious demographics and psychographics. But for us local folks it’s enough to work with zip codes.

Don’t Be Dupped

Duplicate names and addresses are a waste of money and are irritating to the both consumers and businesses. It’s not possible to eliminate every duplicate (or “dup”), but you can clean your list.

Most mailers provide a de-duping service in addition to the address standardization and NCOA (National Change of Address) software. These services are required to be considered for postage discounts with”bulk” mail. A few years ago the Postal Service got rid of the term “bulk mail” in favor of Standard mail. To qualify for discounts you have to meet several requirement including minimum quantities mailed.

Read more about mailing discounts for direct mail at the U.S. Postal Service website.

Making It Even Easier

Once you know who you want to reach, you might consider giving the project to a professional mailer. Here in Texoma Sylvia Garcia-Luymes at Postmasterz is the direct mail guru. Our agency has used her many times and she is efficient, and affordable. She has many local business lists, or you can provide your own.

You can email Sylvia: computype@earthlink.net

IN SUMMARY

• Know who you want to reach. Be as specific as possible.
• Search for lists that target that audience.
• Craft the mailer keeping the text targeted and strong
• Include an offer that requires attention
• Make it easy to respond to your offer
• Consider using a mailer to handle the project