If you are a business in the Chicagoland area, building a brand is important. You also happen to be in one of the largest media markets in the country. So that seems easy enough, right?
Well, not really. Just because you’re in a large media market, doesn’t mean your billboard is automatically successful. It’s going to take a good strategy to get there.
Chicago billboards need to stand out in a way where someone will notice it quickly and remember it. This guide will show you how to get it done. It’s always a good idea to make sure your business has a campaign that is memorable and successful.
With that said, let’s dive into the following steps you’ll want to take in building a brand.
The colors that match your branding
One of the vital options that you’ll want to consider is the color. Every brand has colors that are tied to their company. For example, T-Mobile has the pink and purple colors.
So it may make sense to create billboards using these colors. Keep in mind that the colors should be contrasting. This will make it cleaner and a lot easier to read.
For example, it won’t be wise to include yellow text in a white background. That would be hard to read. So make sure the colors stand out including the one you choose for your text.
Location, location, location
The Chicagoland area is a vast metropolitan area. Your business may be in DuPage County out in the suburbs. Or you may be in the heart of Chicago.
If anything, the location will be something you’ll want to consider. A high traffic area may be ideal since there will be a lot of people passing through. The problem is, the space will either be limited and it can cost you quite a lot of money.
With that said, it’s important to consider an area that gets good traffic, but close to your business. So your building may be just a mile down the road off of I-90. Or it could be not far from another major highway that takes you into the suburbs.
Either way, location is important. It may be cheaper in high traffic areas of the suburbs as opposed to Chicago proper.
Let your personality show
Every brand has a personality of its own. The real question is: what’s yours like? If you are targeting younger people, is it cool and trendy?
The personality may be enough to attract the kind of target audience your brand wants. With that said, let your billboards match that with the right images and words. It would make a ton of sense to match the personality of your target audience so it disqualifies those that may not fit it.
Following a design pattern
What would be the standard design procedure for your billboards? Are they minimalist? Are they loud (but not too loud)?
Every brand may follow a certain design pattern that will fit their brand. If you have one billboard that is minimalist but gets to the point, the rest of them might be the same. You don’t want the billboard designs to be different so it confuses people.
Consistency matters when it comes to the brand. That’s rule number one when it comes to creating billboards that are done by a business that wants to compete with other businesses for their patronage.
If you’re fancy, don’t use ‘fancy’
What we mean by this is using fancy fonts. Those will be hard to read. So you want to choose a serif font that will be easy to read from 1000 feet.
The good news is, some serif fonts will look fancy and elegant enough. A lot better than the cursive looking fonts you’ll see by fancy brand names. You can make it luxurious but legible at the same time.
The design itself doesn’t have to be fancy and over the top. Drivers don’t need to be distracted when they need to keep their eyes on the road. Make it short, memorable, and to the point.
Fancy may be flashy and that’s the last thing you’ll ever want to do.
Final Thoughts
Chicago is the third largest city in the world. And it’s a great place to build your brand. You can take advantage of a media market that covers for many miles.
However, your billboard will need to stand out. The right message in front of the right people is key. Otherwise, it may fail and you’ll have to go back to the drawing board.
If you are a business owner in the Chicago area, you may be one billboard campaign away from strengthening your brand. Have the right strategy in place and you’ll be able to get more customers your way.
