Thursday, May 8, 2008

How Does Aerial Advertising Compare to Traditional Forms?

The importance of advertising is plainly understood by most businesses. A significant part of their budget is devoted to it. If finances are tight, many try to build business through word-of-mouth from satisfied customers but that can take a while.

Alternative advertising methods include high cost radio or television ads, that might be targeted at a local community. However, too often people channel surf during the commercials and never even hear what is offered. Printed matter can be effective to reach a community but what percent ends up as wrapping for fish? Internet advertising is growing but may reach for a local business a much larger market than is useful.

One innovative idea which has soared in popularity in high density population areas is aerial advertising. Here's how it works. A firm is hired to make a large banner displaying a product or service message. They then fly over the area where many people are congregating, pulling the banner behind the plane. This works best when the sky is open, as at a beach, sporting event, concert, or parade. People look up at this distraction, read the ad and remember the product or service. Sound expensive? Actually aerial advertising is more cost effective than one might think.

For much less cost than other traditional advertising methods, aerial advertisers claim that their method reaches more people in a more effective way. Here's an example: One beach in Miami was advertised to and then, 30 minutes later, 2000 people were surveyed. The survey showed that 88% knew the ad had flown by, 79% recalled what the subject, and 67% could recall at least half of the exact message. Anyone would be hard pressed to say that printed ads, radio or TV could match that effectiveness at just five dollars per thousand people targeted. Those spending significant amounts of their budget on traditional advertising would do well to consider that they can reach as many people with less than half that budget using aerial advertising.

The noise of the plane overhead attracts the attention of the crowd and they look up. There, behind the plane, is a banner flapping in the wind and displaying a large, readable message, product, logo, or website. This naturally raises their curiosity and they want to know what it's all about. As the banner passes overhead, they are able to read it several times. Just the uniqueness of the delivery causes many to remember the product because it stands out from everything else that is fighting for their attention.

Concerns of air pollution caused by the plane can be put aside as this is much less than the amount of waste produced by discarded print advertisements reaching the same number of people. Comparatively, aerial advertising is much less invasive.

Interested in using the most cost effective and memorable means of mass advertising to promote your business? Consider the huge advantages of putting aerial advertising to work for you - especially with the rising problems of traffic gridlock on US roads which provide even more opportunities than ever to get your message in front of a captivated audience.

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