A Look at the Different Types of Billboards

You will see them in highly urbanised areas, either attached on buildings or mounted on large steel structures. They are particularly found in high-traffic places, catching the attention of pedestrians and drivers with their imposing sizes. In addition, they show large witty slogans complete with distinctive visuals. These all describe what billboards are.

If you like to put up one of these to advertise your business, you need to know its different types in order to make the most out of your investment and maximise returns.

Traditional

These are those common large displays that advertise products or services. Typically, they come in 14”x18” sizes, but some are smaller in other places. The display is usually printed on a flexible PVC vinyl or polyethylene plastic sheet that is stretched over the face of the advertising steel structure.

Mechanical

These are hoardings that use a technology called tri-action movement (also call tri-vision or multi-message), showing separate advertisements in rotation. They are made up of triangular prisms (trilons) that are arranged in series to enable presentation of three separate flat displays. These are typically printed on backlit vinyls to allow the adverts to be illuminated for night viewing.

Digital

These are displays that create digital images controlled and changed by a computer every few seconds, allowing static advertisements to rotate in succession.

An innovative and more interactive version of this billboard is seen in Coca-Cola's ad displayed at Picadilly Circus that responds with an animated wave when passers-by wave at it.

Mobile

As the name suggests, these hoardings can be transported to a lot of places via a van, truck, or any other automobile. The trend started in 1990s, following the introduction of large format printing that made it feasible to print graphics in one large banner. Subsequently, the banners were mounted on flat bed trucks that were solely dedicated for advertising and were driven or parked in high-traffic and high-visibility locations.

Billboards come in many forms, sizes, and styles, so choose the best medium that will help you achieve greater return on investment.