The Captive Audience: Myth or Reality?

Paul Flanigan shared some interesting thoughts this week, over on his excellent "Experiate" blog. Paul makes the bold assessment that "There is no such thing as a captive audience." As I read that sentence, my mind immediately shifted into gear, sifting through dozens of media examples that prove his theory wrong. After all, I've written posts about the power of billboards to do exactly that.

But the more I read, the more I agreed with Paul's statement.

"Under no circumstances are viewers forced to watch the screen. The industry has come to understand that viewer engagement is the objective in compelling messaging," The difference being that viewer engagement is based on choice, not "captivity". He goes on to say, "It is extremely important to build a strategy that serves the ultimate purpose of your digital signage: to engage your viewer."

Paul is right. We can't force people to pay attention to advertisements. And even if we could, I'm not sure that we would. After all, true brand loyalty can only exist if the consumer has the option to choose what they consume. We have to make them want to look . Viewer engagement can be achieved three ways: entertainment, relevance and usefulness.

• Most ads attempt to engage viewers by being entertaining. Just watch the commercials during the Super Bowl.
  
• Relevance is more about where, when and to whom the advertisement is delivered. A billboard in an upscale neighborhood that advertises an upcoming event at a local opera house does not have to be funny to capture the attention of it's target audience. It is simply relevant to the consumer who will see it.
  
• Useful ads dedicate a portion of the ad space to providing topical information. "Your daily traffic report, brought to you by State Farm...." "You have 10 days until April 15th; Do your taxes at H & R Block...." And of course, money saving coupons.

These are all things that should be considered when designing ads for any medium. Our digital billboards have the ability to stand out by offering each of these features in exciting new ways. Dynamic content, new daily copy or countdowns (like the one pictured above that is currently running on the digital billboards in Tampa) are all ways that a standard billboard can be transformed into a highly engaging, effective ad.

An Education in Digital

In November, I was invited to speak at Seminole Vocational Education Center by commercial arts director Chris Juul. Throughout the semester, his students work on creating a marketing campaign to promote SVEC, including a digital billboard which we offered to display on one of our signs for a few weeks in December. Chris brought myself and our Senior Graphic Designer Richard Homer to speak to the students about what works and what doesn't when it comes to outdoor advertising.

I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to share my experience with the class, and was intrigued by their level of exposure to and interest in digital outdoor advertising. When I asked the class to raise their hands if they had ever noticed a digital billboard, nearly everyone's hand shot up. It was eye-opening to see such a response. A year ago, only about 20% of the room would have responded in the affirmative to the same inquiry. It made me sad in a way, knowing that my presentations will no longer be an introduction to a whole new advertising era, now that the majority of people are familiar with digital outdoor. On the other hand, during that day at SVEC, I got to spark the imagination of the classroom on how to use the power of this new medium.

The design that was chosen was created by third-level designer Chandler Burke (pictured), who used the tagline "Build Your Future" to drive traffic to the school's website. Thank you to Chris and his class for being such a welcoming and engaging audience. I look forward to coming back to share again next year.

You can read MSN's article on SVEC's billboard project here.