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Despite the eternally connected era we live in, outdoor advertising remains a powerful way to capture attention, build brand awareness, and drive action. But let’s be real – it takes more than just slapping a logo on a billboard. There’s an art to making outdoor messaging that gets noticed and delivers results. Here are seven guiding principles to keep in mind when developing a campaign for print or digital outdoor advertising.

1. Keep It Short

Outdoor advertising is consumed in seconds—not minutes. The golden rule is seven words of copy or less. If your audience has to think too hard or squint to understand the message, you’ve lost them.

• Use short, punchy headlines that convey one single concept or message.
• Avoid clutter—ditch unnecessary graphics and excessive text.
• Prioritize branding over lengthy details.

2. Contrast Is King

A billboard must grab attention instantly, even in less-than-perfect viewing conditions. The right color contrast ensures your ad is visible at all hours, as well as from a distance.

• Use high-contrast colors. Think black/yellow, red/white, blue/orange; high-contrast colors help boost readability.
• Avoid reverse type. White text on a dark background can be harder to read, and it also tends to blur in daylight.
• Avoid trendy color palettes. Earthy tones and cool neutrals are popular color trends right now, but these hues can make it hard for your message to standout from its environmental surroundings.

3. Font Size Matters

Your billboard design might look awesome on the art director’s layout page, but if it’s illegible from a moving vehicle, you’ve failed.

• Consider using bold, sans-serif fonts for maximum legibility.
• Use a minimum of 24-inch letter height for highway billboards.
• Avoid thin, condensed, or script fonts, which tend to disappear at a distance.

4. Size Your Logo Appropriately

Your brand should be the centerpiece of the advertisement, but it shouldn’t be the only thing people see. It needs to be big, but not billboard hogging.

• Place your logo in a natural focal point (not too far left or right).
• Ensure brand colors complement the ad, not overpower it.
• Keep it large enough to recognize, but small enough to leave room for your message.

5. Integrate Digital and Social

Unless you’re promoting a truck stop that encourages a driver to take the next exit, outdoor advertising doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The best, most productive outdoor ads reinforce broader campaigns.

• Use memorable URLs to drive engagement online.
• Maintain consistent branding and messaging across all your advertising channels.
• Pair billboards with geo-targeted mobile ads for added reinforcement.

6. Location, Location, Location

Where you place an outdoor ad is just as important as what’s on it.

• Consider traffic flow. And remember that high-speed highways and congested roads need simpler messaging.
• Avoid locations that already have too much visual clutter; you want your billboard to standout.
• Customize your ads based on local context; this makes it feel more relevant to that audience.

7. Call-to-Action? Keep It Brief

While you can’t provide a lot of detailed information on a billboard ad — you can offer simple action cues:

• “Visit MyBusiness.Com” beats “For More Information, Please Visit Our Online Portal: MyBusiness.Com.”
• Phone numbers? Only if they’re easy to remember at-a-glance. Consider purchasing a vanity phone number that relates to your business, such as: (555) NEW ROOF.
• If you do add a specific call to action message, make sure it’s brief enough and big enough to be read instantly.

How We Can Help

Take a drive anywhere and you’ll quickly see that outdoor advertising is far from dead; we’re still a highly mobile society, with the average American spending just over an hour a day driving a car. And when used as part of unified campaign, some argue that the digital age has made outdoor advertising an even more viable marketing tool.

Just remember the best outdoor campaigns are a combination of simplicity, contrast, strategic placement, and smart integration with other media. When done right, a billboard isn’t just a sign—it’s a brand statement.

Looking for an outdoor campaign that delivers? Give us a call at Leverage3. We’ll help you create a roadworthy campaign that’s bold, clear, and strategic; one that will deliver the kind of measurable and productive impact your business is looking for.