EXPERT COLUMN
Thomas Barcza and Scott Ambrose CONTRIBUTORS
What Is It with Airline Billboards ?
A lot of buzz is surrounding British Airlines ’ new marketing campaign , which features several billboards that appear to have the wrong poster size for the framing . This was no accident .
THE CORE IDEA OF THE CAMPAIGN is to capture the wanderlust of travel , not by looking out of a plane window but by looking in on those within it . These large , but minimalist advertisements are supposed to bolster the premium brand positioning of British Airways , which has lost some of its shine .
Looking at this phenomenon more broadly , you may have noticed that , despite the digital world in which we now live , plenty of old-school billboards and other outdoor promotions still dot the landscape — especially in America . In and around cities , highways , and airports , the large rectangular signs persist . Many other traditional forms of advertising have been stagnant or in decline for decades now ; so , what gives ?
Household brands that once bombarded our eyes with magazine and newspaper advertisements and TV commercials and our ears with radio announcements have now diverted both our ears and eyeballs to the small screen . Given the trail of breadcrumbs we leave behind in cyberspace , marketers have given in to the allure of the less expensive digital advertising , which is seemingly more targeted to our individual wants than ever before . It is not uncommon , for instance , for travelers making their torturous way through a large airport to receive media content promoting the virtues of a much smaller one that just so happens to be closer to where they live .
Data from the 28th edition of the CMO Survey indicate a double-digit growth in annual digital marketing budgets between 2014 and 2022 . In this dynamically digital world , one cannot help but wonder how these big static rectangles can still be a thing . In fact , traditional forms of outdoor promotion , including billboards , are not only surviving but thriving . So , let ’ s take a closer look at this phenomenon from a marketer ’ s perspective .
DEFINING THE ‘ SIGN ’ AND SIGN OF THE TIMES
Billboards are part of a wider field known as Outdoor / Out-of-Home ( OOH ) marketing . This simply refers to any advertisement found outside of the home , including billboards , street furniture , or any place-based , transit , and retail signage positioned for people to see when they are on their way to work , running errands , or just going about their daily lives . Other forms of advertising , both traditional and digital ( TV / radio , social media , the ads that play before YouTube videos ) can target people inside their residences , possibly eliciting feelings of intrusiveness .
16 AIRWAYS MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2024 www . airwaysmag . com