If you follow various blogs, podcasts or social media influencers, you may get the impression that the only form of advertising that works is online/mobile. We disagree with this. Offline advertising, especially large outdoor billboards and large roll-ups, are still effective.

1. They Are Strategically Placed

Companies that sell outdoor advertising scout for the best locations to offer their clients: on highways which connect the residential areas to the business heart of the city, near the malls, over busy roundabouts, and next to parks and other outdoor entertainment areas.

This means that people are served an ad, or discover a special offer from a business, at the precise time and place when they are on their way to do some shopping or have fun.

2. You Cannot Ignore Them

Do you remember the last time you were in the mall and saw a clever and creative roll-up ad? You had no idea about that business, but sheer curiosity after seeing the ad makes you enter the respective shop. Roll-up ads are still a huge playground for creativity. Sure, they cannot have video and sound, but with the use of original, unexpected shapes and colors, the creative copy can stand out and have an emotional impact similar (if not stronger) to a video ad on the social media.

3. It Is a Mixed Medium

Nowadays, a lot of roll-ups have a QR code printed on them. This QR code can be scanned with a smartphone and take people to a website, a landing page, a special promotion, or to any digital property you want.

In this way, you rein in the power of both online and offline advertising and you can attract people both into your brick-and-mortar location and to your website.

4. It Has the Power of Virality

Super creative, funny and clever billboards and roll-ups become celebrities of the online world. You must remember how many times the Wonderbra ads were photographed and shared on various websites and the social media. Given the ease with which people can snap a photo with their phone camera and share it on Facebook or Instagram, the virality character of outdoor advertising is still a force to be reckoned with.

5. It Is Still Very Effective

Looking into statistics, they show that 50% of mobile ad clicks are accidental (people leave them within the first 3 seconds) and the average smartphone user is exposed to 1,700 mobile ads per month. Wow, that is huge! What are the chances that a user picks one specific ad (and not click it by mistake)?

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There’s no denying the increase in mobile / online activity, but don’t under estimate roll-ups and billboards!