 The increasing prestige of Street Furniture Advertising
Added: 12/20/2005 |
|
The outdoor market is changing daily. New technologies and opportunities are giving the advertiser more options than before, but one area of importance that is often overlooked by advertisers longing for new ways to express their message to the public is the area of street furniture advertising. Being a very attractive way to for cities to provide a service to its residents at no cost to the city or their taxpayers, this segment of the outdoor advertising industry is considered a real win.
Outdoor advertising, the business of planting posters on everything from billboards to bus stops and public toilets, might seem like the most local of marketing media. But like so much else these days, it is going global, and what is really turning outdoor advertising into an international business is the increasing wanderlust of consumers. In a more mobile society, even if most of the billboards or posters don't move, their audiences do, and that means marketers can reach ever more of them with this kind of advertising.
Traditionally, outdoor advertisements have been posted for a one or two month time-frame with some ads being left up even after the promotion or after the advertising blitz has ended. However, one area of importance that is often overlooked by advertisers longing for new methods of bringing their messages to the public in a timely fashion, with the ability to change the signs regularly, is the area of street furniture. Street furniture advertising has been defined as a segment of the sign industry that includes the creating, manufacturing, installation, and selling or a combination of all of these for advertising space.
These spaces can be found on displays positioned at close proximity to pedestrians and shoppers for eye-level viewing, or at curbside to influence vehicular traffic. This can include bus shelters, bus benches, newsstands and news racks, kiosks, public telephones, post boxes or mail boxes, street lamps or traffic lights, shopping mall displays, in-store displays, and convenience store displays with new variations constantly being created.
Shelter advertising, those little kiosks you see along city roadways, is a form of street furniture advertising that can be used as a point-of-purchase medium. Locations are ideal, adjacent to supermarkets, convenience stores, liquor stores, restaurants, travel agencies, dealer locations, shopping malls, plazas and many other retail outlets. Your customer's ad will typically be located where business is taking place. Shelter advertising provides the perfect venue to pitch to the corporation with multiple products and to all manner of retailers. Bus shelters, mall posters, airport kiosks, and now, even billboards can be fitted with enabling devices to allow changes in messages to attract customers to all of your client's products. The newest features allow changes to take place automatically and are time-activated, thus eliminating manual change-outs. Breaking into the shelter advertising segment of the industry can be a challenge, but it is well worth the effort for those business professionals who are looking to diversify the products and services of their companies.
A bench is essentially a chair made for more than one person, usually found in the central part of any settlement (such as plazas and parks). They are often provided by the local councils or contributors to serve as a place to rest and admire the view. Armrests in between are sometimes provided to prevent people lying down and/or to prevent people from sitting too close to someone who likes to keep some distance.
Post boxes or mail boxes, are found throughout the world, and range from the round pillar style found in Japan and the U.K. (the two feature a difference in that the Japanese version has a round lid while the U.K. version is flat) to the well-known rectangular blue boxes of the United States.
Streetlamps are designed to illuminate the surrounding area at night, serving not only as a deterrent to criminals but more importantly to allow people to see where they're going. The colour of streetlamps' bulbs differ, but generally are white or yellow. Traffic lights (or traffic signals) usually include three colours: green to represent "go", amber to inform drivers that the colour will alternate shortly and red to tell drivers to stop. They are generally mounted on poles or hang from wires.
Street-side pylons have an important function within the street furniture advertising industry, as these outdoor signs establish the main visible roadside presence of a business. In their best light, these pylons are used by all manner of roadside businesses including shopping malls, fine dining restaurants, gas stations, auto malls, motels and fast food restaurants all that deploy these signs to inspire passing vehicles to stop and shop at this "spot".
Street furniture itself has become a part of many nations' identities as dialects and national events, so much that one can usually recognise the location by their design; famous examples of this include red telephone boxes of Britain, residential post boxes of the United States and the streetlamps and metro entrances of Paris.
The future being wide open for the street furniture advertising segment of the industry, there will always exist opportunities to provide new upcoming designs in creating high quality street furniture. Ne2 technologies, including building and vehicle wraps, LED messages and many more, are ggiving the advertisers more options than before. Advetisers' business money wil go to the designer that can improve and create. Thus, staying abreast of new methods of design and being willing to diversify will put the wise sign professional ahead of the crowd
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet.
Post your comment now!
Return to top of the page
