Guide to Designing an Effective Airplane Banner
You have probably been to a sporting event or beach and seen a plane fly overhead pulling a banner. This is an aerial banner ad and is designed to convey the message randomly to thousands of people. Such banner ads are very popular and are used to remind people of established businesses, to tell of new stores or restaurants, to promote political candidates, even to convey proposals for marriage or birthday wishes.
Those effectively using airplane banners are not wasting their money. It has proven to be a relatively low cost high impact means of advertising. The message immediately grabs the attention of a large audience by its uniqueness and the drone of the plane, and is repeated many times as the plane flies over the crowd. It is a great way to get a message to a local audience.
Yes, the ad has a captured audience, no competition for the product, the sound factor of the plane overhead, and the repetition of multiple passes. All this is built into the service. Banner ads are, of course, brief. After all, the audience has just 17 seconds to read them. Yet some ads are more effective than others, and more persuasive in causing others to consider a certain product or service. What makes one banner ad better than another?
A good banner ad must have several factors. The brief message must reach the goal the advertiser has in mind. The message must be readable, it must be catchy, it must be attractive, and it must be easy to remember. Most banner ads are written in seven foot letters so readability is not a problem. The printers will have suggestions on making it attractive. Your job then is to plan a message that both conveys what you want, and is easy to remember.
Here is a poem that has helped many people plan: There are six honest serving men Who taught me all I knew. Their names are what and when and why And how and where and who. So first you should write down everything you feel is important enough to include in the ad. You must be concise. Notice that some of the six question words above will not need to be answered on the banner. For example, they don’t need to know how you operate. But the questions what, when, and where are needed to get people to visit you. Sometimes too much information is needed to include on a banner so the banner merely tells of a phone number or web address where more information is available.
Once you finish your list of must know information, then work on the wording until you are satisfied it is the best possible. Short messages are harder to write than long ones. It would be nice to tell the captivated audience all about yourself but the banner simply wouldn’t allow that, nor would the people remember it. Perhaps best would be to tell them just enough to get them interested in learning more.
When you are satisfied that all you want said is expressed in the fewest words, ask yourself, “Will this message flying by a crowd be remembered?” That is important because the people at the event won’t be taking notes about your product. They are there for other purposes. Test your idea on others to see what they think. A well worded slogan or ad is worth all the effort you put into creating it.
Once you have followed these steps, it is time to get in touch with an aerial advertising company and get it printed and into the air. It won’t take long before your well planned message will be read by thousands and the result in sales will soon follow.
Tags: aerial advertising, aerial banners, airplane advertising, airplane banners