Billboard design: what should a banner look like that will attract attention?

Much of business now lives in the digital world. This fact is difficult to deny. Significant financial resources and fresh ideas are directed to the Internet space to promote products on the global network. 

However, it is also not right to relegate traditional sites to the background. Such promotion channels include outdoor advertising. Street banners, billboards, are still a working tool and can be effective. In the right location, the advertisement will be seen by thousands of passers-by and travelers. The probability of finding new clients is not bad, although it is difficult to estimate statistically. 

But in addition to a good location, efficiency is affected by banner design. Wherever the billboard is located, what we see on the banner attracts attention, evokes the necessary emotions and encourages us to seek a service. To ensure that your billboard is noticed, people want to learn more about the company and choose your product, we want to give some recommendations for developing a billboard design.

Half the space is free

Yes, it is better to free about 50% of the space on the banner from the information load, occupying this space with a background in corporate colors or minimalistic elements without detail. 

The size of outdoor advertising banners is large: billboards - 3x6 meters, city format - 1x2 meters. Someone might think that in such an area you can fit as much information as you want, and it will look orderly and easy. But that's not true. Due to the nature of placement and communication with the audience, size does not matter here. People look at the billboard from a distance, in motion. Therefore, the same rules apply as for Internet banner layouts: get rid of unnecessary noise, build a composition, and attract attention to accentuated elements. And the size of the elements is scaled in accordance with the dimensions of the banner.

One attractive offer

Continuing with the fillability of large formats. People mostly drive past the banners. Therefore, we have only 1-3 seconds to capture a person’s attention and also tell about the company. The impressive size of the billboard does not make it possible to place a complete list of goods or services. In order for the audience to remember your banner, and, accordingly, the company itself, you need to show it and hook it with just one, the most attractive offer. The rest of the benefits and advantages can be communicated through other channels or even at a personal meeting to which the client will come after seeing the banner. 

Capacious phrases without complex metaphors

Again. In just a couple of seconds, a person needs to find out about the offer, remember the company, and consider the corporate identity. Using the text, he will receive basic information, so the phrases should be succinct and at the same time as informative and understandable as possible: “3-room apartment / from $30,000 / only in the Novy residential complex.”

And if, for the sake of creativity, the text or images of the banner imply some kind of association, analogy, metaphor, then you need to be one hundred percent sure of their clarity. They should be read by everyone equally correctly, as you intended, without ambiguity. Otherwise, a false perception will be created, people will not understand what they were trying to convey to them, or they will understand it the wrong way.

No mistakes in words

You missed a letter, wrote the wrong one, did something obvious against the spelling rules - and the project failed. You can assume a thousandth part of the fact that it is precisely because of a typo that they will remember you and then contact you. But this is hard to believe. But it’s a fact that a small blot, inattention and carelessness can ruin a very cool banner. Therefore, layouts need to be checked several times before printing. If your eyes get tired during the development process and concentration is lost, it is better to put it aside and check it a little later. But be sure to check.  

Are contacts not so important?

First of all, the attention of the person looking at the banner will be aimed at understanding what kind of company it is, what it offers, and what it looks like. And only if a person is satisfied with everything, he will try to fix contacts. And all this in 3 seconds. 

The question is debatable: should I leave contacts on the banner and what is the best way to do this? On the one hand, many people will not have time to write them down and will not be able to remember them. And you have to count on the fact that they will remember the offer, the company, and when searching, they will somehow remember the design. But on the other hand, advertising cannot do without contacts; it’s as if you can’t contact us. Plus, they may not drive past the banners quickly, but rather not rush through. Pedestrians can easily record the necessary data.

Therefore, of course, we leave contacts. But this must be done as conveniently as possible for clients, taking into account the transience of communication. It is better to indicate one current phone number that clients can definitely call. And it’s great if it’s a very easy number to remember. We also indicate the office address or website in a smaller font somewhere in the corner, but we don’t particularly expect that this data is counted from the banner.

Convenient for the target audience

We are finishing up little by little, and the last two recommendations in this article rather summarize everything mentioned and sum it up. The fact is that when developing a banner, it is important to understand why and for whom it is. This is not just a layout for the identity carriers, it is a promotion tool, it is aimed at the target audience. Therefore, it should be attractive specifically for future clients. The banner design is created so that the audience quickly, easily, and without interference reads the main information. Before creating a layout, you should look not from the position of how to fit more information on one banner, but from the client’s position: which banner will not dazzle the eyes, will attract attention and allow you to quickly learn about the offer.

Corporate identity visible

It’s good when the entire banner design is built within the framework of the brand’s corporate identity. Or, if not according to all the canons, then at least there are the main distinctive features: colors, logo, corporate character. Then the banner will advertise not only a specific product of your company, but the brand as a whole. And people who see the billboard may not remember the specific meaning of the offer and will not write down the phone number, but somewhere on a subconscious level they will remember the features of the corporate identity and style and that a beautifully designed offer gave them pleasant emotions. This will already help you find a company in other ways.

Among the abundance of advertising banners of different formats, creating something that stands out is not easy, but it is possible. It is important to follow the basic design criteria for managing attention and the recommendations from the list above. And it’s best to take on development in collaboration with professional designers. Of course, we recommend the Veonix graphic design studio. Great experience, attentive and responsible approach. Let's create a banner turnkey: we will think through ideas, create concepts, develop design and text, and help with printing. You can fill out the brief on the main page.