Posters, unlike TV commercials, do not have to compete with the audience's short attention span. It does not largely rely upon the chances that the viewer wouldn't change the channel when the commercial is on. Magazines too have to have a good motivation –a good reason for people to open them and chance upon their advertisement.



In outdoor advertising, that choice does not exist. You should have seen the advertisement even before you decide not to see it. You don't have to convince people to pass this way to notice the ad, but it relies upon people naturally passing that direction in the course of the day. The high-traffic of people and the strategic location of posters greatly increase its chance of being read. This means visibility wise they already have a large prospective audience.

Strategies for Effective Posters

But as some people mistakenly do, visibility does not necessarily equate to advertising success. The goal of advertising is to sell. This means that more than being visible, these advertisement should hold the prospects' attention long enough to make their sales pitch. If not, for the main point to be sent across.

There are different variables affecting the attention span or viewers or audiences. This includes competition, pace of traffic, design, size and the like. But for now, let's discuss just how important location is in maximizing the effectiveness of your posters.

Let's start with the don'ts:

• If you are a small or medium scale business and you intend to go head to head with the advertising campaigns of large companies, do not place ads in areas already filled with posters.

• Other people will want to plaster their poster all over the place and chances are yours will be covered up in a heartbeat. This means you would have wasted money on a poster that had little mileage.

• In addition to the first, forget placing your poster in walls or poles peppered with posters the same size as yours. The goal is to stand out. If you want to compete with these, then double the size of your poster and make it in contrast with the rest.

• If you were to choose between an area with high pedestrian traffic, and a slow spaced area, choose the latter. In a high traffic area, there maybe more people, but since they are in a hurry to scuttle along, your poster has little chance of holding their attention. Whereas in a slow-paced area, people might just be taking leisurely walks, or better, out to kill time.

• Go to places where you think your target market will go. If you want to advertise vitamins, place your posters in hospital waiting rooms or in gyms. If you want to advertise to college students, place your posters in the university notice boards.

• Place them where people need to “kill time.” There's a higher chance your poster will be noticed when people have nothing better to do than to look around. Place them in bus stops, train stations, waiting rooms, hallways of offices, etc.

• Do check the local laws on where putting up posters are prohibited. Different states have different policy and some may be more lenient than the others. If placed illegally your posters might just be torn off and you'd have wasted money, or worse, you might even be fined.

Poster printing is a cost-effective way to advertise. Optimize use of your posters and great higher rewards at a minimum cost.