Most Billboard designs are print ads that are supposed to be billboards. Using print design theory is absolutely the wrong approach for this particular media. Why? Because unlike print ads, billboards are not supposed to include all of the elements of a print ad: multi-word headline, a visual to go with the headline, a subhead, a phone number, a web address, a physical address, a logo, the name of the company and a theme line.
I've seen billboards with even more information like store hours, days open and more.
Picture this: Someone is driving 65 miles an hour, hopefully paying attention to the road, but probably thinking about something else or they’re talking on the phone or talking to someone else in the car – and how this person is also supposed to be looking at your billboard with 20 different words/images in one-half of a second. That is the time it takes to drive by your billboard.
Not going to happen.
Let me give you an example picked at random.
The company that produced this mess and posted 11 of these billboards around the state estimated that 518,000 people saw these billboards.
No…no they didn't.
518,000 people may have driven by these but they didn't see past the first few words “Nobody wants Poll…” No one saw the subhead, the second subhead with the URL or the two logos with the names of something in them. I can’t even tell what the logos are for and I’m sitting at my computer staring at it.
I’ll make this simple.
Here’s what you can have: Two or three simple words, a visual and a logo. That’s it. Can you create a good billboard with only these elements? Take a look at Target, Snickers and Abercrombie & Fitch.
2nd example of a bad billboard: myshoulderhurts.info
This billboard for myshoulderhurts.info (At least that’s what I and just about everybody who saw it thought it was for) is another “Rookie Mistake” billboard. Why? Because the actual name of the company that this is for is too small and when you go to myshoulderhurts.info there is no webpage.
Funny story: Using my simple rule, I worked on a billboard for Pepsi that people driving by were so interested in seeing - it became a topic on local radio and two people got into a wreck because they were staring at the billboard and then tried to sue Pepsi!