Over the past few days I’ve seen several ads worth talking about, some were good and some were bad. I mentioned the new Burger King ad yesterday, and today I’d like to talk about a billboard for a community bank in my hometown of Greensboro, NC.
I was headed home from the movies Friday night and noticed a billboard with a big fish on it. It also had a bit of text, but as I drove by at 35 mph I couldn’t for the life of me determine who the board was for or what the message was.
I’m an avid road cyclist and as I was riding my bike home on Sunday I passed this same billboard, this time going around 20 mph. As I approached the board I still wasn’t 100% sure what the bank was trying to get across so I stopped to take a closer look.
The board basically had one extremely large fish on it with some text that said, “You at our bank.” There was also a very small fish in the lower left corner with the text that said, “You at your bank.” Ok, now I get it. They are trying to point out that folks that use “big banks” are a small fish in a large pond. The board is a hot mess and does a terrible job at getting the message across. I truly wish I had a photo for you to see.
I can’t stress enough the importance of simplicity when it comes to billboards. Simple graphics, if any at all, and short copy works best. If you create a board with multiple graphical elements that move the reader’s eye around and then throw in text in a couple different places, you are setting yourself up for failure.
For this particular example, the company could have nixed the huge graphical element (probably costly since it extended passed the boards edges) and simply used their logo and some text. Apple always does a great job keeping things simple.
Disclaimer: I work for a credit union, but in no way does that alter my judgment on this topic.
