BlackBerry Messenger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search "BBM" redirects here. For other uses, see BBM (disambiguation).
BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) Developer(s) Stable release Operating system Available in Type Website Research In Motion Limited 5.0.3.22 / May 2, 2011; 37 days ago [1] BlackBerry OS multilingual Instant Messaging Client Blackberry Messenger

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is a proprietary Instant Messenger application included on BlackBerry devices. It was developed by Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the BlackBerry device. Messages sent via Blackberry Messenger are sent over the BlackBerry PIN system; thus, communication is only possible between two BlackBerry devices. Exchanging messages is also possible via dedicated discussion or chat groups, which allow multiple BlackBerry devices to communicate in a single session. In addition to offering text-based instant messages, BlackBerry Messenger also allows users to send pictures, voicenotes (audio recordings), files, location on a map, and a wide selection of emoticons (also known as "smileys") over the Blackberry network. With the release of BlackBerry Messenger 5.0, BlackBerry allows users to use a QR Code barcode to add each other to their respective friends lists rather than using only numeric PIN identification or an email address associated with the user's BlackBerry.

[edit] Features

Send and receive messages with unlimited length. Choose a personal BBM display picture and status. Real-time confirmations when messages are delivered and read. Share photos, videos and more with multiple contacts at once. Add contacts by scanning barcodes or sharing PINs. Reveal the music thats playing on your smartphone.

Send music files to your friends

BlackBerry: Are you missing something without BBM?

By Ashwini Gangal, afaqs!, Mumbai, April 26, 2011 Section: News Category: Advertising

Share4

In its latest ad campaign, BlackBerry inspires the youth to join the BlackBerry community through its proprietary instant messenger, the BBM.

In the third ad campaign, titled 'Are you missing something?' for brand BlackBerry, Orchard Advertising now addresses the task of expanding the appeal of the brand beyond the business market. Clearly targetting the youth, the interrogative campaign title positions the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) as the preferred communication medium to stay connected with friends and questions the TG (target group) if they're missing out on something without the BBM.

The first commercial, released in February 2010, was the launch film of BlackBerry in India for RIM (Research In Motion). The second commercial, released in November 2010, went on to delve into the notion of young BlackBerry users and the world that they inhabit. Both ads carried the tagline, 'Do what you love, love what you do'. Besides direct advertisements, BlackBerry has been visible on the advertising circuit, courtesy network providers such as Vodafone and Airtel. While Vodafone rolled out its much-talked about 'We are the BlackBerry Boys' television commercial that underscored a shift in the brand's TG from corporate honchos to the lay youth, Airtel's ad highlighted the brand's BBM feature and the convenient conversations it enables amongst youngsters. Conceptualised by Orchard Advertising Mumbai, the current four-film campaign ('Four guys and a girl', 'Music Lovers', 'New Car' and 'Class Note') leverages the BBM application by showcasing four situations in which youngsters benefit from the features of this offering. Each ad showcases a different facet of the application, including status message updates, music sharing, instant delivery of messages and the option of scanning friends before adding them to one's messenger list. At the end of each film, the affordable price offering of the phone is highlighted through a super on the screen; this emphasises the fact that youngsters are the core TG of the communication. Creative credit for the campaign goes to Hemant Kumar Sivan, executive creative director, Orchard Advertising and Ajay Menon, creative director (the latter wrote the scripts and the lyrics). Rajiv Vishwanathan, vice-president on the account and Ameya Mohane, brand director are also part of the core team at the agency. The films have been created by the production house MAD Entertainment and directed by Francois Merlet. Sunil Manchanda is the producer, while Vicky Goswami is the music director.

Although Vodafone's ad for BlackBerry seems to have captured the shift in the brand's core TG (corporate professionals to youngsters), the agency claims that right from the beginning, it has made a concerted effort to change the image of a BlackBerry user from a "suit". Regarding the current campaign, Vishwanathan explains how the ads move from the functional into the emotional space. "We chose to move away from talking about the features and focussed more on the underlying emotions," he says. Lending a perspective into the creative aspect, Kumar shares, "Unlike other chat platforms, BBM is an intimate space with only close friends allowed into the haloed circle. That's how 'Are you missing something?' came alive." The media mix includes television, print, outdoor and digital activities. RIM India has also conducted activations, including interactions across popular hangouts such as malls, cafes and colleges across Indian cities. Merchandising is also a very big part of the campaign and the eight-city activation will be launched shortly. These on-ground activities are aimed at educating youngsters about the potential of the BBM and facilitating more 'brand conversions', drawing in those who're not already a part of the BlackBerry community. Is the campaign missing something?

Priti Nair, co-founder, Curry-Nation, says that the ads are "young" and "well-shot". "I just wish it would have been a little more 'mad', with a sharper personality, instead of 'correct'." Is the communication too skewed towards just one feature -- the BBM? "The BBM feature is unique to BlackBerry. It's the BBM feature that has made the BlackBerry magical for youngsters -- so it's the right feature to own and advertise. No one else has it," Nair asserts. She finds the music sweet and the situations depicted in the TVCs very cute. "The casting in particular is really nice," Nair appreciates, adding, "But, I just wish it had been slightly more on the fun side, perhaps with some more fun characters thrown in or some funny situations like the guy pretending he is driving the car in the 'Congrats' film." Brijesh Jacob, managing partner, White Canvas, feels that while the ads take BlackBerry forward purely from a brand perspective, in terms of profiling, the campaign fails to provide anything new. "The campaign doesn't tell me anything new about the BBM; Vodafone's 'BlackBerry Boys' ad already established the youth as the main users of the BlackBerry and the Airtel ad -- in which the boys in a hostel are shown communicating via the BBM after dark -- has already highlighted how the BBM enables convenient conversations," Jacob explains. Regarding the story lines in the films, he says that they're good as they're young and peppy. However, he is unimpressed by the execution. Though Jacob feels that there's nothing wrong in highlighting the brand's key differentiator, the BBM, the key, according to him, lies in strategy. "The trick now," Jacob suggests, "is to see for how long this can go on and to see how they take the concept of conversations forward with the BBM. More usage patterns could be given to consumers -- perhaps use of the application in a library setting." Amongst the four films, Jacob's favourite is the one titled 'Code'. However, he finds the 'Music Lover' film "tacky". "The film about the new car is very 'Vodafon-ish' as it reminds me of the ad in which everyone knows that a man has bought a diamond ring for someone," he says. Regarding the film about instant feedback, he opines that regular text messages and accompanying delivery reports serve the same purpose.

BlackBerry is a line of mobile e-mail and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM) since 1999.[2][3] BlackBerry phones function as a personal digital assistant and portable media player. They are primarily known for their ability to send and receive (push) Internet e-mail wherever mobile network service coverage is present, or through Wi-Fi connectivity. They support a large array of instant messaging features, including BlackBerry Messenger. BlackBerry commands a 14.8% share of worldwide smartphone sales, making it the fifth most popular device manufacturer after Nokia, Samsung, LG, and Apple.[4] The consumer BlackBerry Internet Service is available in 91 countries worldwide on over 500 mobile service operators using various mobile technologies.[5] Modern GSM-based BlackBerry handhelds incorporate an ARM 7, 9 or ARM 11 processor,[6] while older BlackBerry 950 and 957 handhelds used Mudit 80386 processors. The latest GSM BlackBerry models (9100, 9300 and 9700 series) have an Intel PXA930 624 MHz processor, 256 MB (or 4 GB in the Torch 9800) flash memory and 265 MB SDRAM.[7] CDMA BlackBerry smartphones are based on Qualcomm MSM6x00 chipsets which also include the ARM 9-based processor and GSM 900/1800 roaming (as the case with the 8830 and 9500) and include up to 256MB flash memory.[8][9] The CDMA Bold 9650 is the first to have 512MB flash memory for applications. All BlackBerrys after OS 5 support up to 32 GB microSD cards
Brand awareness

Measurement driven conceptualization

Brand awareness means the extent to which a brand associated with a particular product is documented by potential and existing customers either positively or negatively. Creation of brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising at the beginning of any product's life cycle in target markets. In fact, brand awareness has influence on buying behaviour of a buyer. All of these calculations are, at best, approximations. A more complete understanding of the brand can occur if multiple measures are used. A brand equity is the positive effect of the brand on the difference between the prices that the consumer accepts to pay when the brand known compared to the value of the benefit received. There are two schools of thought regarding the existence of negative brand equity. One perspective states brand equity cannot be negative, hypothesizing only positive brand equity is created by marketing activities such as advertising, PR, and promotion. A second perspective is that negative equity can exist, due to catastrophic events to the brand, such as a wide product recall or continued negative press attention (Blackwater or Halliburton, for example). Colloquially, the term "negative brand equity" may be used to describe a product or service where a brand has a negligible effect on a product level when compared to a no-name or private label product. The brand-related negative intangible assets are called brand liability, compared with brand equity [11].

Family branding vs. individual branding strategies The greater a company's brand equity, the greater the probability that the company will use a family branding strategy rather than an individual branding strategy. This is because family branding allows them to leverage the equity accumulated in the core brand. Aspects of brand equity includes: brand loyalty, awareness, association, and perception of quality. Brand awareness can be measured by showing a consumer the brand and asking whether or not they knew of it beforehand. However, in common market research practice a variety of recognition and recall measures of brand awareness are employed all of which test the brand name's association to a product category cue, this came about because most market research in the 20th Century was conducted by post or telephone, actually showing the brand to consumers usually required more expensive face-to-face interviews (until web-based interviews became possible). This has led many textbooks to conceptualise brand awareness simply as its measures, that is, knowledge that the brand is a member of a particular product category, e.g. soft-drinks. Examples of such measures include:

Brand recognition - Either the brand name or both the brand name and category name are presented to respondents. Brand recall - the product category name is given to respondents who are asked to recall as many brands as possible that are members of the category. Top of mind awareness - as above, but only the first brand recalled is recorded (also known as spontaneous brand recall).

[edit] Research on metrics

There has been discussion in industry and practice about the meaning and value of various brand awareness metrics. Recently, an empirical study appeared to put this debate to rest by suggesting that all awareness metrics were systematically related, simply reflecting their difficulty, in the same way that certain questions are more difficult in academic exams [1]. Brand recall Brand Recall is the extent to which a brand name is recalled as a member of a brand, product or service class, as distinct from brand recognition. Common market research usage is that pure brand recall requires "unaided recall". For example a respondent may be asked to recall the names of any cars he may know, or any whisky brands he may know. Some researchers divide recall into both "unaided" and "aided" recall. "Aided recall" measures the extent to which a brand name is remembered when the actual brand name is prompted. An example of such a question is "Do you know of the "Honda" brand?" In terms of brand exposure, companies want to look for high levels of unaided recall in relation to their competitors. The first recalled brand name (often called "top of mind") has a distinct competitive advantage in brand space, as it has the first chance of evaluation for purchase.

Brand Recognition Brand Recognition is the extent to which a brand is recognized for stated brand attributes, parts, offerings, or communications. In some cases brand recognition is defined as aided recall - and as a subset of brand recall. In this case, brand recognition is the extent to which a brand name is recognized when prompted with the actual name. A broader view of brand recognition is the extent to which a brand is recognized within a product class for certain attributes. Logo and tagline testing can be seen as a form of brand recognition testing. For example, if a product name can be associated with a certain tagline, logo or attribute (safety and Volvo; "Just do it" - Nike) a certain level of brand recognition is present.

[edit] Stability of responses

While brand awareness scores tend to be quite stable at aggregate (level) level, individual consumers show considerable propensity to change their responses to recall based brand awareness measures. For top of mind recall measures, consumers give the same answer in two interviews typically only 50% the time [2]. Similar low levels of consistency in response have been recorded for other cues to elicit brand name responses [3]

Outdoor advertising is the oldest form of advertising. The outdoor media includes outdoor advertising in several forms- such as posters, billboards, hoardings, unipoles, translights etc. These can be referred to as the traditional media options. Where as, the world of outdoor advertising comprises of much more. There are non-standardized signs such as roadside signs, highway advertising and innovative mediums like transit advertising, mall advertising etc. that all come under outdoors' domain. Hence, evolving a more encompassing form of advertising called Out-of-Home advertising (OOH). What is OOH?

Who can use OOH? 20 Reasons why you should go OOH How can OOH help you? When can you use OOH? Outdoor media selection Outdoor v/s other media

What is OOH? Out-of-home advertising (also referred to as OOH) is essentially all type of advertising that tries to reach the consumer while he is "outside of the home". Be it while traveling in the metro to reach office or while taking a coffee break. OOH is ubiquitous; on or in bus, taxi, railway station, airport, mall, retail store, road, club and scores of other touch points. OOH is everywhere where you are. It is the medium that reaches active consumers where they are most available to take notice i.e. out of their homes.

Who can use OOH?

The avenues for out-of-home are growing and so are the audiences registering the mediums. That's exactly why all types and sizes of businesses can use out-of-home advertising to gain exposure, generate sales and raise their profiles in the marketplace. Different people can use different kinds of outdoor media according to their product or service. Beverage companies normally use sports events like cricket or football; hotels and eating joints generally use nearby billboards to promote themselves, a bus shelter may promote a mobile service provider and kiosks may endorse a latest movie.

20 Reasons why you should go OOH It is believed that a human being spends a third of his life outdoors. There are more people "out and about" than ever before, more cars per household, longer distances traveled and longer times outside. More red lights, more traffic jams and thus more idle time to look around at billboards. 20 reasons why you should go OOH are as follows:

1. Lowest cost per thousand: The lowest cost-per-thousand of any media, Outdoor Advertising is unsurpassed in its ability to supply long-lasting impressions, coverage, reach and frequency. Outdoor Advertising communicates ideas at the lowest possible prices. 2. Total reach: Outdoor Advertising provides broad coverage and outstanding reach. It is the most visible media exposed to everyone who goes outside of the home to work, study, shop or play. 3. Consistent brand reinforcement: The continuous presence of Outdoor Advertising produces frequency levels unmatched by any other medium. Outdoor advertising is the only type of media that has constant exposure. It can' t be thrown away or turned off. No other type of advertising allows your message to be displayed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 4. Wide target potential: Not only can you reach mass audiences with Outdoor Advertising, but it also allows for targeting specific communities, ethnic groups, ages, income levels, etc. 5. Sustained awareness: Outdoor generates repeated exposure, delivering your message over and over again. 6. Flexibility: Outdoor Advertising can be situated in locations reaching everyone coming into or leaving your specific market area. You can pinpoint your prime target areas exactly! 7. Impact: Outdoor is BIG,BOLD & COLORFUL always on and always visible! 8. Size:Outdoor is the only medium to support big and bold creatives, be it as big as 40'x40' or even bigger! Your imagination is the only limit. 9. Immediate and continuous response: Try and tie your message to a toll free cellular number for more information on the ad displayed; you' ll know what we mean. 1 Innovative medium: Things are happening up there: moving parts, eye0. catching devices, video projection, light emitting devices etc to make sure your message doesn' t go unnoticed. 1 Adaptability: The explosion of out of home media in the last 10 years 1. has facilitated a customized solution to any advertiser need: size-wise or location-wise. 1 Speed: New technologies have enabled faster production processes and 2. quicker posting schedules. 1 Brevity: Outdoor advertising is effective for communicating short 3. messages and simple concepts. 1 Strategic placement: Billboards can be placed at high-traffic areas or

4. other strategic locations, while transit signs can be affixed to the backs and sides of buses, in bus stops, and in railway stations. 1 Directional: Billboards can be used as directionals, pointing out the 5. locations of your business. 1 Constant reminder: Outdoor Advertising provides a constant reminder, 6. keeping your name, service or product fresh in your target consumer's mind hence influencing your consumers when they are on their way to make a purchase. 1 Increased OTS: With substantially more working parents, longer 7. commutes and more miles being driven by a record amount of vehicles, the audience for outdoor is growing at an extremely rapid pace. 1 Overcomes fragmentation: The competing media has become more 8. and more fragmented by the addition of thousands of satellite and cable TV channels, Internet sites, magazines and newspaper publications, leaving outdoor as the one medium that can't be missed or diluted. 1 Specified target reach: Outdoor advertising allows you to target or 9. pinpoint specific target areas where you would want to promote to promote your products or services. 2 Bridge the gap: Outdoor bridges the gap between the message being 0. heard in the home and the actual point of purchase.

How can OOH help you? 1. Build a brand: You can launch, re-launch or build a brand by increasing the brand awareness using outdoor. 2. Make an impact: You can create a lasting impact by using the media creatively. You can use a spectrum of colors, fonts and styles to make your outdoor ad eye-catching and appealing. 3. Reach large audiences at low cost: Using outdoor, you can reach large yet specific audiences at a lower cost as compared to the other mediums. 4. Segment market to target unique customers: You can segment the market and advertise according to your area's specific requirements. For example, to reach the residents of South Extension colony, you can do community branding in that particular colony. 5. Compliment other media: You can use it in combination with the other media to increase the impact of your campaign. It can serve as a reminder to reinforce the brand image for sustained brand awareness.

When can you use OOH? As shown below, you can use outdoor across the Communication / Conversion process.

Your marketing objective would dictate what outdoor media format you should use and in what quantity. Example, for a product/brand launch, you should use high impact-large format outdoor. Where as, if your objective is maintenance and reminder, you should go in for smaller format but higher frequency.

Outdoor media selection The outdoor media format should be chosen according to the population density of target audience. In principle, fewer, higher-impact sites can easily reach a densely populated area, whereas a greater number of smaller formats are required in scattered areas. Furthermore, the reach of the target audience is also a major factor you should consider before determining the type of format to be used. Large format easily reaches mass audiences whereas ambient media can be used to reach scattered niche audiences effectively, as illustrated below.

Outdoor v/s other media

1. More demographic reach compared to other media: Outdoor can reach the

2.

explicit targets. It is more specific than other media options and can target demographics - age, income, SEC and even interests. OOH is incessantly present unlike other media: Other Medias being TV, radio, print and internet face a serious hindrance of advertising avoidance. The greater programming / reading / listening / surfing choice has increased the probability of avoidance. Unlike this, outdoor is very difficult to consciously avoid. The target audience does not have to subscribe to the medium in order to be reached by it. Its just there, present 24 x7!
Outdoor can be used to create a "media-multiplier" effect: The physical, visual nature of an outdoor holding enables permanent visual presence between bursts of other media. This makes Outdoor an ideal medium to use in conjunction with other media for maximum effect. Outdoor provides extremely high frequency, as well as permanent, high-impact presence: Outdoor can offer brands a public face and enable them to become part of the consumers daily life

3.

4.

Ever wondered why you attracted to an ad? Why only one out of those ten ads make your head turn? How you unconsciously select what to read and what to ignore? It is undoubtedly the creative aspect of the ad, the layout, the colour, the font which determines the look and feel of the ad. It has been proven many times over that, creativity is one of the most important factors in the effectiveness of any campaign. Arguably, a creative can make or break your campaign. This is true particularly for outdoor ads as the viewing time and exposure is most restricted in this medium of advertising. The outdoor viewing audience is mostly mobile. People are generally traveling in vehicles or walking by while they perform the activities of daily life. Constant movement limits the potential viewing time of an outdoor message to only a few seconds. Hence, outdoor designs require a disciplined and brief creative to attain retention. Along with this, high frequency and repeated exposures will ensure that a message is absorbed and retained over time. Keeping the following factors in mind while designing your creative for an outdoor can give some impressive results

Visibility Message Location Audience Basic Fundamentals

Designing a creative for an outdoor is like dictating a story through effective visuals. The expression of an idea can surprise viewers with words or excite them with pictures. Through the use of humor or drama, outdoor designs can influence consumer decisions. However, it is a challenging task to communicate the idea with minimum words and maximum clarity. Let us study a successful creative to understand it better.

The above creative successfully imparts the brand message to the audience using the elements of creative guidelines to the fullest. The copy, colours, fonts and all other elements of this creative enhance the effectiveness of the ad in imparting the message successfully in the shortest possible time.

Let us examine the above mentioned essential elements individually to learn more on how to use them.

1. Visibility: Does the message create maximum visibility? Use colours and pictures to contrast with the sky and other surroundings. Is the ad readable from various distances, angles, lighting and weather conditions? Do not put words or sentences stacked on top of each other. This reduces the ability to understand and view the message. Visibility covers the following aspects:

A. Typography B. Copy C. Design D. Colours E. Imagery

A.

Typography Font size Line thickness Legibility of typefaces

Font size: A board is always viewed from a distance. Therefore it should be clearly visible, that is, the font size should be large enough so that it can be read from 100 ft or more. It should be legible and capitals should be used for displaying headings. All text should be at least 1 foot tall to be legible. Remember, that's only to be legible! Effective type size, especially for a headline, is 3 to 4 feet tall. The minimum type height on a normal 20 feet X 10 feet hoarding should be upwards 30 inches. Better creative typically has sturdy letters with even spacing. The text should not crowd the letters leading to confusion.

The font height for all the text is 20", 12", 4" respectively for each image.

Line thickness: When viewing from 600 feet, thin lines would hardly be visible, they
completely disappear. Unlike print which has the white space rule, the viewing size is too small in outdoor. It is like viewing 1 X 3 newspaper ad with a lot of white space. Therefore to make the text effective, the line should be thick enough to get noticed and be clear as remember at long

distance, very heavy letters become blobs, and very thin letters become invisible.

Large and legible type:

Fonts for outdoor designs should be large enough to be visible from variable distances. Ornate script faces reduces clarity of text. Adequate spacing between letters, words and lines will enhance visibility. The relative size of letter characters is also an important consideration.

Line Thickness

Script

Text Case

Kerning

Script: Use straight line fonts. Ornate script faces and extensive contrast between thick and thin reduce legibility. Text case: Upper and lower case letters when combined are easy to read than all upper
case letters.

Kerning: Sufficient kerning between letters assures the legibility test from far distances.
Tight kerning reduces legibility causing adjacent letters to attach together visually. While looking at a billboard from a distant place the letters on the board appear to be attached to each other. Without proper kerning "clear morn". could be interpreted as "dear mom".

Stacking: A single horizontal line of text allows rapid assimilation of a message without
interruption. Multiple text lines increase the time needed to discern a message.

Leading: If more than one text line is necessary, use adequate leading between lines. When
a line of text rides on the line below the interplay of descenders and ascenders it will make a message difficult to read.

B. Copy

Short copy: The text should not have more than 10 words in total and the headline should have
maximum 5 words. More the number of words, the less would be an individuals ability to read them in few seconds.

Short words: Instead of using an entire sentence, one single word can be used to describe the

ad. The words should be short for faster comprehension.

C. Design

Spacing considerations: Experience and research says that for a text to be legible, the
width of a letters vertical strokes should be about one fifth of its height. Horizontal strokes can however be thinner.

Tactical design: Outdoor advertising reaches people whenever and wherever they travel
outside of their homes. Over time, tactical design can consistently reinforce a message with crisp immediacy.

D. Colours

Contrasting colours: The human eye processes the wavelength variations of different
colours in different ways, and this can result in optical distortion that can make some colour combinations hard to read. This is best illustrated by the colour wheel below:-

The best colour combinations are dark with light and light with dark. Black contrasts best with light colours like light pink, light blue, white etc. White contrasts best with dark colours like black. Alternating colours, such as blue and yellow, produce best combinations since they exhibit good contrast. colours with similar contrasts like blue and green make poor combinations.

As a result, different combinations of font, colour and background vary in terms of how easy they are to read. The background colours should contrast with the surroundings i.e. sky, buildings, backdrop of board. In tests, the following combinations all performed differently. Number one performed best, number 16 worst:-

High contrast means better visibility. Dare to be bold! Being subtle at 600 feet doesn't work.

Colour frequency and vibration: Like sound waves, light rays have varying wave
lengths or frequencies. Some pigments absorb light while others reflect it. Reflected frequencies are perceived as colour. Complementary colours, such as red and green, are not legible together because they have similar values that cause the wave lengths to vibrate. Any combination of similar colour value (even without vibration), will produce low visibility. Yellow and black are dissimilar in both hue and value providing the strongest contrast for out-of-home design. White complements colours with light values.

E. Imagery
As the creative output for outdoor is advancing, the advertisers are increasingly using complex imagery in their outdoor ads. However, the requirements for effective outdoor advertising have remained the same. The imagery must be bold, clear and easy to understand. An image can speak a thousand words. Therefore it's selection should be according to the requirement of the ad.

Strong image against simple backgrounds create high-impact visuals. In the above illustration, the image on the left is a good example. The image should not get mixed with the background, it should appear separately on the background as in case of the image on the right.

2. Message: What is the best way to convey the message/idea? A. Less is more B. Simplify everything C. Product identification D. Viewing time

A. Less is More: Lets examine this statement further with the following example..

Shorter the message higher the awareness.

Medium awareness.

Low awareness.

B. Simplify everything: The outdoor ad should focus on just one idea or message.
Multiplicity of messages or idea leads to clutter and the viewer is unable to read and understand the ad in the few seconds, he has.

C. Product identification:

Make sure you can identify the advertisers name in an instant. The brand name should not get mixed with the text.

D. Viewing time:

It is very important to consider the viewing time while designing the outdoor ad. In locations where the speed of travel is slower, the viewing time is more, hence there is more opportunity to read and see. An outdoor ad located at a curve or a diversion on highways or at blind turns would be ideal because of the slow traffic. However the speed of traffic is necessarily high on highways, say about 55mph. Therefore, an ad cluttered with too much information will be ineffective. The viewer will not get this information gradually over time. Instead the ad might be ignored as it would be too difficult to read and retain. An ideal billboard would be one which is simple but effective and in which the maximum number of words are 7. If you can read the entire message in 10 seconds, then your outdoor is effective else you must redesign it to make it more striking.

3. Location: How important is the location of the media for the creative? Outdoor advertising should convey the right message, to the right audience, at the right time, in the right place. Before deciding the location of the outdoor, it should be studied. The type of customers who pass from that particular route should be considered. Often, finding the relevant and hidden relationships between the message and the environment makes the advertising smart. Usually the outdoor panels have a landscape format but some displays are portrait. The physical orientation of an outdoor unit will significantly affect the placement of design elements such as product identity and the headline. Orientation will also affect the overall balance of a design. It is important to remember that geography, demography and the orientation of a display are all necessary considerations when designing for the outdoor medium.

4. Audience: Should my creative vary with the target audience? The above elements vary with the variation in the target. Product demonstration is particularly important to rural consumers whereas higher SEC, urban consumers want innovation and creativity (particularly relevant to younger audiences). Educated urban people would get attracted to ads that have certain level of creativity and the old ideas and styles would be useless for them. Therefore the creative should be designed keeping in mind the people towards whom it is targeted.

5. Basic Fundamentals:

1) Product Identification: 2) Short Copy:

Make sure the advertisers name/product is prominent.

10 Words total, 5 in the headline is the standard guideline. Shorter words = faster comprehension. Make text large and bold, text will be viewed from distances of

3) Short Words:

4) Large And Legible Text:

400-800 feet.

5) Increase Line Thickness:

begin to optically vanish.

Increase line and stroke thicknesses, at 600+ feet thin lines

6) Make Small Objects Large:

than large object reduced.

Think Large. Small objects enlarged are more effective

7) Bold Colors:

Be bold! Being subtle at 600+ is being invisible. Better contrast = better visibility. Focus on a single idea or message. Less is More in Outdoor.

8) Highcontrast:

9) Simplify Everything:

10) Pre-Test Your Creative:

Print and view your creative from 15 feet for no longer than 5 seconds. This will provided a rough simulation of viewing from the road while driving past the billboard. Is every thing legible, can you read the entire message in the 5 seconds? If you cant neither can the audience or