Its a Jungle Out There

I work near times square – 6th avenue and 43rd street. I’ve been in this space for two months. Yesterday I walked outside for a brief reprieve. I looked up and not more than a block away was a billboard, it was 100 feet tall if it was an inch and it was set up on the side of a building about a hundred feet. It took two months and over a hundred times standing in this same exact spot for me to notice this enormous billboard. I was astounded by the idea that this company is paying astronomical amounts of cash for this placement and it took me two months to even notice it. And as I’m writing I can’t even tell you what brand was being advertised.

So this got me thinking about the saturation in advertising. After walking through times square for these past two months there are only two billboard placements that I can recall. One is Target. Target because it wraps an entire building and doesn’t use it’s name, rather just it’s logo sporadically sprawled accross a scenic winter panorama. This kept me thinking, was this a target advertisement? This thinking is what made me remember it. The second is a Calvin Klien ad. I remember this for different reasons: first because it’s lower to the ground and second because it’s a picture of a really cute girl in her underwear. I’m not sure which was more important to my recollection (hmmm). In all seriousness I think placement along with content were equally important.

What’s my point. Well I think there’s a few. The first is that we live in an advertising jungle and we tend to block out a lot of advertisements we come accross. The best examples are times square billboards and taxi advertising. I can rarely recall the object of the advertising campaigns on these mediums. Why? Because I’ve learned to block them out.

So what’s the solution? Be unique. Use a unique medium. Out of the hundreds of immobile billboards I come accross everyday I can recall two. Out of all the taxi advertisements ive seen throughout the years, again only two stand out. Snickers whitty logo advertisement (snaxi – that still makes me laugh) and borat (ewww). Second if your medium is not going to be unique: sex sells, eye level works, bigger is better so long as your not 100ft in the air and logo advertising works if your campaign is witty enough and the goal of your campaign is brand recognition.

This brings me to billboard bicycles. First were unique. I’ve yet to see a billboard bicycle in the streets of NYC (although I’ve heard plenty of myths). Our uniqueness stems from our mobility, we can be where you want when you want us to be there. Second were big, the biggest in the bicycle advertising industry…and getting bigger. Third were eye level and can be anywhere you want us to be at anytime. We get your promotion right in your customers face. Fourth we can put a scantilly dressed woman or male on your logo and/or riding your bike. Fifth were cheap and produce the same amount if not more impressions than advertising that will cost you exponentially more. Finally were interactive. We can hand out pamphlets or simply talk with audiences about your product.

The conclusion: use billboard bicycles, use bicycle adverting, be happy, save money, gain impressions and customers, make more money, retire, move to a big house in florida.

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