How startups can make use of digital billboards on a budget

Traditional media channels for the startup world. Is that even a thing?

Wait, are you suggesting that startups should be using traditional media channels instead of digital?

Yes… and no.

How so?

First thing’s first – we’re not saying you should forego digital channels and performance marketing by switching to outdoor media. What we’re saying is that you should be upping the metrics of your performance campaigns by using outdoor advertising.

But how can you do that with a startup budget? Isn’t it expensive to buy outdoor media?

It used to be, but all of that changed when we upped the outdoor digital advertising game with our Blindspot tool. With its help, you are basically bypassing the two biggest problems with buying digital outdoor media:

#1. “Buying-in-bulk”, which isn’t startup budget-friendly – with Blindspot you can buy hourly time-slots and distribute your content when & how you want;

#2. Agency fees – instead of having the agency do the media buying for you and bill you some heavy fees, you can do it yourself with the help of our super user-friendly dashboard.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s take a look under the water and see what’s beneath the surface.


Optimize & increase

Boy… You sure sound very positive about it.

We are, and it’s not because of some motivational quotes that we read on Facebook.

When we talk about optimization, we’re saying that you can easily optimize your outdoor campaigns with the help of our tool by using a few, simple tricks.

#1. You can test with different screens – say you’re doing a campaign in L.A. – you can test how different screens across downtown perform with the same content.

#2. You can test at different hours – there’s obviously a “sweet-spot” when you would want your messages to reach out to your ideal audience – you can test out different hour-slots and see what works best for your campaign.

This way, you’re testing out and optimizing your budget spending to deliver the best ROI based on screen positions, time-slots and the kind of content that you put out.

If you’re thinking what kind of money you are expected to pay by using digital billboards on an hourly basis… Well, let’s just say it can be a shocker – a good kind of shocker. Take this billboard N.Y., for example – it’s hourly price stands at a cooling $230 per hour.

That all sounds great but what did you mean by “increasing”?

Oh… We’re talking about increasing the performance of your digital performance campaigns.

Oook… How is that supposed to work?

Well, it’s like we said in the very beginning. The role of digital outdoor campaigns is not to replace or stand as separate channels from your performance campaigns but to act as “power-pill” for them.

Let’s assume you’re a B2B startup that wants to get the attention of some decision makers at a big corporation. You set up your usual geo-targeted performance campaign, targeting the HQ building, and that’s all good. This time however, you’re going to add some digital billboard magic into the mix.

Say you have a few billboards around the HQ. Synchronously with your performance campaign, you buy several hourly slots in the evening and afternoon, as people are going in and out of office. You cleverly distribute contextual content on the outdoor screens, raise awareness and wait for your performance campaigns to deliver the exploration trigger – easy-peasy!

Fair enough… But what about the actual results?

Let’s say we’re good on our promises. We’ve had clients that have seen a 2x increase in click-through-rate and conversion rates on their performance campaigns when they ran synchronous outdoor ads in that area with Blindspot’s tool.


We’ve made it happen for us

Still looking for that concrete case-study that will give you undeniable proof that this can actually be a game changer for startup marketing?

Well, look no further ladies & gents. ‘Cause we’ve done it for ourselves with, WAIT FOR IIT… Just $25/hour!

You might have heard of Pewdiepie. If not, he’s just the biggest youtuber out there, with a channel of over 100 million subscribers.

Come oon, seriously? How do you get the attention of someone like that?

There’s a simple answer for that, startupper friends – DIGITAL BILLBOARDS!

#1 We bought a digital billboard in downtown L.A. to wish him Happy Birthday (and also to his dogs). We filmed it and distributed it on his reddit channel. Aand, guess what? It went viral like a wildfire! And the best thing about it? His youtube reaction was PRICELESS.

#2. Heck, why not! If we bought the first billboard, why not buy a second one? We just pursued the initial thread and took the joke a little bit further. A 2nd reddit viral-spree and another priceless youtube reaction.

#3. Youuu guessed it! A third billboard! This time in NY, to showcase KSI and Pewds’ amazing art. We achieved yet another reddit viralization, unfortunately we missed the youtube reaction this time around.

All of the above was achieved with just $25/hour invested in micro-buying ad space with Blindspot on those billboards. How is that for ROI effectiveness?

And what did we get from that?

#1. A heck-load of exposure on social media.
#2. Raising organic awareness on digital billboards in a geographical point of interest.

#3. Bringing in some nice digital billboard ambassadors into the fold.

Pretty cool for just 25 bucks/hour, right?


In the end

Since you’ve made here, we’re pretty sure you have a clear picture that you can use traditional media channels on a budget. It all boils down to drafting a good strategy and remembering to use digital billboards to complement your performance campaigns, not as separate mediums.

Also remember to always put out contextual content on your OOH ads. It’s the key to getting actual ROI on your investment and making sure that your performance campaigns get their boost.