Today's post is a break from our normal subject matter here at the B4C, and is in response to a client who came into the station and wanted to know how and why we do what we do at the front of house (our reception) and how he could do the same at his business.
‘Tra-digital Marketing’ is 2017’s newest and hottest marketing buzzword. It refers to using traditional forms of media in clever (digital) ways to market to people.
How? By using digital billboards, an updated version of the old paper and paste billboards with moving graphics, photos and footage and squeezes as much out of the limited time it takes to walk or drive past a display..
For example, some (in a 1 minute spot observed in Perth over the weekend) had up to 6 messages in a high pedestrian traffic area… All with very different content, colours, movement, footage, and… even featured one form or another of interactivity!
But, before I hear you say anything negative about the high cost of digital outdoor 'tra-digital' marketing, let me say this: You to can do a limited cut down, and budget version of this, yourself!
The costs to produce your own in-house version of a digital billboard can start out low, with something as simple as a cheap LED TV screen (or a tablet) displaying graphics on a slideshow loop.
OR... You could spend some money and have someone produce one for you to include professional photos, and feature yourself, and members of your staff, video feeds from the workplace, or footage from a previous job (sped up to show the start to finished product), instructional videos and more. It could be a virtual, up-date-able feed of information, all branded with your company logo. How long it is would all depend on time, and how much you wanted to spend.
Want to see what I am talking about?
Visit our radio station in Mandurah and you will see that we use two large screens in our reception area to market both our AM and FM stations separately to visiting clients and listeners. Both play a loop of slideshows for shows, segments, on-air talent, advertising, marketing, competitions, prize cruisers, and more.
Each are created as a 20 to 40 second video files and played in a constant loop all day, there are around 20+ videos on each screen. We also have a very, very large screen at our local train station (approx. foot traffic is 35,000+ per weekday) which plays a variety of video files promoting both radio stations, plus they can also contain advertising that we have sold to our clients.
Here are some examples for you from simple slideshows through to more complex video edits - remember that none of these contain audio...
This video is about interesting listener statistics.
This one is promoting Rowies Drive Through on 1116 6MM.
A generic video of the logo for 97.3 Coast FM.
A hyper energetic version of the video for the 97.3 Coast Card.
And finally a video to promote the Tech Daily Segment with Andy Wells on 6MM.
These separate video files/slideshows could also be shared on our social media, or website, and you could do the same. If your product is clever enough, it could maybe even take off as a viral hit.
For the budget version of a digital billboard, you can do what I do and create basic videos with Photos we have taken in-house and with professional photographers. We then use the following software: Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Pro-Show Producer, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere. [Edit: the size of the pictures that I work from has been asked for. I create ALL my slideshow slides at 1920 x 1080 so they are uniform in size, then import them into the Pro-Show Producer, the other more complex animations are created in Adobe After Effects and Premiere.]
All videos are rendered out and made into the same video format and then placed on a USB thumb drive and plugged into a media player box, or into the TV directly.
We choose to promote ourselves this way, to people who might not be listening. And it works for us. These video files even spark conversations from listeners and clients alike.
Start yours and try to produce your own - if you have any questions remember you can ask me here via the blog and I will do my best to point you in the right direction.
Until next time, keep on selling.
This post was written for B4C by Earl Pilkington.
It should be noted that the outdoor advertising industry refers to its marketing methodology on a whole as ‘Out Of Home Marketing’, and covers everything from digital billboards to signs, seats, and interactive spaces used to try to gain viral exposure. The name ‘tra-digital’ in this article reflects the singular interactive/LED/digital billboard.
