NYC is often called the world’s advertising capital and for good reason. One can find and experience some of the most iconic and impactful billboard advertisements. With every walk down the streets of Times Square or throughout Midtown’s busiest promenades, merchants can and do reach countless targeted practicing customers and prospective clients.
The Concept of Billboard Advertisements:
A billboard ad or advert is any large display meant for the attention of a person, whether they be a driver or a pedestrian, and is particularly meant for those in motion. New York City has, in terms of advertising and promotion, been a trail blazer in the field incorporating the digital and interactive formats, advertising for over five decades.
The most common forms of billboard advertising in New York City are:
Static Billboards: These are ‘traditional’ forms of advertising with a billboard and a poster.
Mobile Billboards: These are also traditional forms of advertising, but with a digital mobile billboard the advertisers can display ads in real time.
Interactive Billboards: This includes a variety of advertisements geared towards audience engagement through digitized posters, augmented reality, QR codes and other digital devices.
Wallscapes: Huge murals that cover building walls in heavily populated areas, designed to catch the attention of pedestrians.
What Makes NYC Billboards Special.
New York City is a unique market because of the foot traffic, crowd density, and the high activity level within the city. NYC billboards stand out because of their:
High Visibility: Times Square, Herald Square and other commercial hubs are major destinations for millions of visitors from all over the world.
Diverse Audience: With people from all ages, cultures, and economic backgrounds, NYC is a true melting pot, providing an unparalleled audience for advertisers.
Prime Placement: Billboards that line major highways, bridges, and streets is an advertisement that is sure to reach thousands of advertisers every day.
Integrated: NYC billboards are a part of a greater digital advertising ecosystem where social and mobile advertising is part of the multi channel strategy.
What Billboard Ads Achieve
Real advertising goals can be achieved with billboards, and people can see them from far away:
Brand Awareness: the size and placement of a billboard advertisement in an area that is highly frequented, is difficult to ignore.
Local Targeting: advertisers are able to target entire business districts, neighborhoods, or commuter routes with the placement of billboards.
Massive Visibility: NYC billboards have the potential to be seen by hundreds of thousands of people each day, creating a distinct advantage for urban advertising campaigns.
Imaginative Narratives: The enormous visual space available to advertisers enables them to tell big, bold, creative, and unforgettable advertising stories.
Digital Transformation in Billboard Advertising
Digital advertising changed the billboard advertising landscape in New York City. Instead of a static poster, digital billboards share a screen across multiple brands with varying ads. They can also alter the content based on the time of day, weather, or audience, creating a more targeted and flexible campaign.
For instance:
A coffee brand can run ads solely in the morning commuter rush.
A popular clothing store can promote seasonal sales during the busy shopping times.
An event promoter can flow messages real-time to set the tone leading up to a concert.
This flexibility in advertising makes digital billboard ads a popular option for advertisers.
Cost of Billboards New York City
Cost also depends on the specific billboard’s location, size, and format, as well as the length of time the ad will run.
Static Billboards: Rates generally start at $10,000 – $25,000 per month for major locations in Manhattan.
Digital Billboards: Price per location and screen size varies, and as for rotating digital screens, rates typically run between $15,000 – $50,000 a month.
Large hand-painted murals on buildings are also known as Wallscapes, interactive digital screens, or Programmatic Digital Billboards. Construction for high-visibility digital advertisements typically takes around 100,000 dollars, while building murals take dozens of months. Construction and completion also takes dozens of months.
Brand advertising digitally is also incredibly expensive. Automated programmatic advertising can also be purchased digitally from digital screens, and activation costs can vary greatly. These costs are greatly dependent on the estimated impression reach, intended targeting, and duration of the advertisement.
Advertising on a digital billboard in New York has plenty of Branding, Visibility, and Reach. These factors easily make the advertisement expense worth it. New York digital programmatic billboard advertising and print is some of the best advertising available worldwide, especially for smaller and growing global brands.
People tend to view and consider the following factors while selecting a billboard in New York.
Locating the billboard location is the most important factor. They should place their billboard where their greatest intended audience stops the longest. These high traffic locations are Times Square, Midtown, and some certain major commuter corridors.
Audience audience demographics and the advertising intended audience can be a huge determining factor. Being able to spot intended messaging helps to determine the design of the advertisement.
The length of the billboard also matters for audience attention retention. Attention is typically best for smaller advertisements while larger advertisements make a larger statement. Wallscapes designed for an entire building in length or height are typically the largest available as a format.
The campaign’s length in time and its duration is also important. Since brand recall lasts longer in campaigns with long duration, that is typically best.
A digitally and visually designed advertisement also performs the best in fast paced areas. These advertisements typically include bold visuals, minimal text, and eye catching graphics.
How to Get the Most ROI with NYC Billboard Advertisements
During your billboard campaign in NYC, you will want to do the following to get the most possible value:
1. Merge with Digital Advertising: Make use of social ads, emails, promo ads, and digital billboards outdoors to enhance the effectiveness of the campaign.
2. Assess Outcomes: Measure the effectiveness of the campaign by tracking QR codes, foot traffic, and website visits.
3. Adjust Creatively: Message and design variants should be tested in order to find the most appealing combination to your audience.
4. Think Tactically: Use the same message over various billboard formats to boost retention and visibility.
Conclusion
Advertising on billboards in NYC is a very effective way of reaching a billboard audience. There is great visibility and a diverse audience with the ability to create something grand. Advertising in the NYC subway and on billboards is one of the most effective out-of-home advertising methods with high levels of engagement and brand awareness.
Although advertising on billboards in NYC is very expensive, it is also a very effective way to reach millions of people in a short time and will greatly help brands to stand out.
