Outdoor Advertising - How to get it right!

For many businesses, outdoor advertising provides an excellent opportunity to showcase their brand, deliver a message and capture the attention of a mass audience with ease. There are several ways that outdoor advertising can be approached.

Maybe you’re an advertiser looking for some eye-catching signage?

OR maybe you’re a business looking for an outdoor sign to promote a product or event?

Whilst we live in an age saturated by digital and online forms of advertising, the power of outdoor signage and branding should NOT be underestimated for its efficiency, reach and impact.

One of the best solutions for outdoor advertising is VINYL BANNERS.

Why is that? You might ask.

Vinyl Banners have several appealing qualities. They are durable, affordable, easy to carry, easy to install and easy to re-locate should you wish to change locations indoors or outdoors. Tick, tick, tick – am I right?!

Unlike its digital counterpart, there are no daily, weekly or monthly costs involved in getting your advertisement, brand or message out there. Each online campaign with social media can have significant daily costs associated and if you do not pay more than $10 or $15 per day, you may not get any traffic or worth while views. At the end of the day, if you stop paying to be seen, you will not be seen. However, with a Vinyl Banner, once you have paid for it, it is paid for and continues to work for you!

Vinyl Banners are perfect for a range of industries including, retail, sport, education, real estate, hospitality and events. For anyone looking for an affordable, quality and durable advertising solution with plenty of street level exposure, vinyl banners are the answer!

So, what exactly are Vinyl Banners?

Essentially, Vinyl Banners are a flexible, affordable and effective billboard.

Vinyl Banners are made from a fine thread polyester scrim, laminated with a UV stabilised PVC (polyvinyl chloride) which plasticises the banners in order to provide additional strength and durability. Vinyl Banners can be printed on a small or large scale, depending on your requirements. Modern printing technologies allow the banners to be printed on rolls as wide as 5,000mm and as long as 100 metres, providing plenty of flexibility to cater for your size requirements. Having an extensive range of finishing options, we are able to weld multiple banners together to create larger banners. This enables us to create building wraps where the wraps can be as large as 50m in height to 50m in width. Size is not an issue!

Just HOW durable are they?

Vinyl banners can withstand harsh weather conditions; however, they aren’t considered a long-term marketing solution. They certainly have the potential to last for a while, but Vinyl Banners are more of a short-term outdoor or indoor signage option, perfect for promotions and events.

Durability can be increased by carefully selecting the type of vinyl banner. Increasing the weight of the vinyl fabric (gsm) can provide you with a stronger, sturdier and more durable banner. In high wind locations, adding wind holes to your vinyl banner, can prove to be a worthwhile investment.

A distinct benefit of the vinyl banners is their incredible affordability, meaning they can be easily replaced. To maximise their longevity, you can ensure that the banners are brought inside when not in use, rolled tightly with the artwork facing inwards and kept clean by wiping them over with a soft cloth.

If you think Vinyl Banners sounds like the right option for you. Here are a number of steps to consider:

1. Getting the design right!

Using banners for advertising is all well and good, but it is also essential to consider what goes on them and how you present your message or brand. Vinyl banners are used with the intention of capturing people’s attention, creating brand recognition or recall and delivering a message. Achieving these goals, largely comes down to the design.

• A poor design can send a negative message.

• An illegible design can hinder the message from being received.

• But, an outstanding design can evoke a positive reaction from your audience!

When developing the design for your vinyl banner you must consider the bold vibrancy of colours – you want to STAND OUT!

When making colour choices, it is also important to ensure that you use contrasting colours to provide optimal legibility, whilst still maintaining an appealing aesthetic. It is important to consider the location that the vinyl banner will be used, in order to select colour, saturation and hue appropriate for the lighting in the area. Brighter and more vibrant colours will remain legible in shadier areas.

All text should be a suitable size and in sensible fonts that allow them to be read easily from a distance. You want viewers to easily comprehend your message.

An important part of the design process is also understanding how to apply your design correctly to a template, allowing room for bleed and safe zones. Templates are extremely useful for printers as they allow them to print your design accurately and neatly.

2. Selecting the right media and finishing style

This part of the process all comes down to WHERE you want your vinyl banner to go. If you know the location in which your banner will appear and you know HOW you want to attach it, making a decision about media and finishing styles is straightforward.

The beauty of Vinyl banners is that there are several options for your finished product. Some of these options include:

• You may select a heavier weight fabric (higher gsm) for increased wear and tear

• For INCREASED brand visibility, you can have your vinyl banner printed double sided, provided you have a suitable location.

• If durability is your concern, we have an answer for you! By adding reinforcing to the finishing style of your vinyl banner, you are able to increase the durability. Reinforcing, involves creating a dual layer banner which increases the strength.

• For an aesthetically pleasing and stylish finish stitched edge finish is an appealing way to go!

• A popular finishing style is the addition of steel eyelets, which allows you to secure your banner in its location, by tying it down with rope or cable ties. When electing to go with steel eyelets, welded edges on your vinyl banner is a sensible option for increasing durability and strength for the eyelet’s. The eyelets are usually positioned no more than 500mm apart to ensure that when your banner is hung, there is no unnecessary slack.

• Velcro or elastic straps are other options that provides flexibility and ease when tying your vinyl banner to structures.

• Additionally, welded rope is a finishing style option that can be useful for installation. By attaching the welded ropes to the banner, it allows you to secure the banner with ease.

• If you are looking for extra support on the edges of your banner, support tape is an excellent option. This secures and strengthens the edges of your banner further, increasing durability and longevity.

• Alternatively, truck webbing is an option that can provide further strength to the edges of your banner.

• If one banner isn’t enough, you can double the advertising by snap or zipper locking banners together. This finishing style that is added to your vinyl banner allows you to connect banners together.

• If you are looking to secure the vinyl banner to a wall or hard surface and want high durability a sail track and kedar finishing style is a suitable option. This finishing touch tensions the vinyl banner, holding everything securely in place. You might have seen these on walls in cities or town to advertise businesses.

• If you have intentions of inserting a rod into the banner to secure or hang the vinyl banner, it is possible to have pockets added to accommodate this.

3. Installation

And of course, once you have designed and selected the Vinyl banner that is perfect for your outdoor advertising needs, it is important to understand the correct installation process.

The benefit of the Vinyl banner is that it is easy to carry and install, hence the installation process is relatively simple.

When displaying your banners and signs in an outdoor setting, elements such as wind and rain need to be taken into consideration. When installing it is ideal to ensure that the top of the banner is tight and secure. However, when securing the bottom of the banner it is recommended that you allow some slack to let the wind pass easily without damaging the banner.

Vinyl Banners really are an easy, versatile and affordable asset to have handy in your advertising tools!