5 Ways To Promote Your Next Gig Through Outdoor Advertising

With the saturation of online ads, outdoor marketing seems like an outdated, archaic, and uncool strategy to promote your gig.  But that’s not true at all. Outdoor marketing is tried and tested. Your city probably has dozens of billboards dotted along major roads. They are still used by even the famous brands.

Still, out-of-home placements (such as street posters, venue banners, highway billboards) help numerous performers and music festivals promote their tours and new releases. It is a visual rhythm that can run as loud as any digital campaign and will compete favorably when it drops with a local program or location.

High visibility and reach are the main causes of their prevalence. When they are located in busy places, they are inevitable and can attract thousands of people per day. This is contrary to the case of online advertising, which may be blocked or left unattended.

In this respect, what follows are 5 outdoor advertising tactics you can rely on next time around. 

1. Flags

Feather flags are an economic outdoor advertising technique. They’re typically tall and narrow with a curved shape that makes them look like a feather. The frame is only on one side, leaving the other edge free to flutter in the wind. This graceful movement attracts attention. 

They’re also versatile, given that you can place them in various locations, from busy city streets to a hushed town in the suburbs. The flag can also be in your preferred shape, from rectangular to teardrop, or whatever custom shape you desire. 

Moreover, you can plant them just for the period needed, perhaps the weeks leading up to your live music gig, and then remove them for storage for use at a later date. Or when the weather turns harsh, you can temporarily remove them and reinstall them when normalcy returns. 

2. Wallscape Advertising

Blank walls are a perfect space for advertisement. This could be on a high-rise building, a ground-level structure, or a perimeter wall. They allow you to get creative with your marketing as you can put whatever type or size of ad you want, be it a street poster, vinyl sticker, wall wrap, mural, or even direct painting. Make sure these are professionally done by experts for maximum impact.

Popular locations for effective wallscape advertisements include downtown districts, freeways, major intersections, public transit hubs, university campuses, tourist landmarks, sports arenas, and entertainment districts. The common thing about these locations is high traffic. 

Wall advertisements are hard to overlook. Pedestrians, public transit commuters, drivers, and passengers alike can’t help but read the content. They’re usually placed on walls that are visible from a distance, making them hard to miss. Those that take up the entire building wall are particularly impactful. 

3. Transit Advertising

This strategy focuses on placing advertisements on transit channels like buses, trains, taxis, or subway stations. These areas are usually crowded, and you can easily find every type of customer here. It’s especially useful for local businesses as you can easily target your local audience going about their daily business. 

Transit ads can take two main forms: indoor or outdoor. For indoor transit, you might place ads inside buses or trains—on seat backs, near luggage racks, or across interior panels. Electronic message boards at the front of the cabin also offer prime visibility. These placements are especially valuable for promoting all sorts of events including upcoming concerts, album drops, or music festivals, ensuring your message travels directly to daily commuters who may be your next audience.

Outdoor transit ads are placed on the exterior of transportation tools, usually in the form of posters or electronic boards, as seen on the top of taxis. These are viewed by commuters entering and leaving these means of transport, as well as pedestrians who come into viewing distance of these vehicles. 

Outdoor transit ads also include those placed on transportation terminals. They can be displayed on the floor, as island showcases, or via electronic billboards. 

4. Street Furniture Advertising

The street furniture strategy is a true testament to how outdoor advertising can seamlessly integrate with the environment. If done well, such out-of-home media can significantly attract onlookers’ attention in less forceful ways.

It’s popular mainly because it uses a medium that’s very important in city life. Street furniture ads add to the vibrance of the city, encouraging passersby to glance at the ads long enough to get the marketing message. 

Other street furniture where you can position your ads will be trash cans, bike shares, kiosks, transit stations, newsstands, benches, and bus shelters. Regardless of the pieces of furniture you choose, the most important thing is to be as creative as possible so that your advert appears to be non-invasive, however interesting. 

5. Interactive Outdoor Advertising

Technology has transformed outdoor advertising in interesting ways. The brands have the opportunity to communicate with the target group. To illustrate, digital billboards with motion sensors or facial recognition can display a personalized message, depending on the person who sees the billboard at that particular time. 

Another common interaction strategy is using QR codes, NFC tags, or augmented reality to enable viewers to interact with the content with their smartphones. There is also the possibility of touch screens or a gamified experience to engage the viewers to play, vote, or in any other interactive way.

Interaction with outdoor ads captures attention and boosts engagement and conversions. 

Turn Streets into Stages

One of the sure-fire methods of filling a venue for you have upcoming gig is by advertising using outdoor methods. Even if it be billboards or other high-visibility media such as street furniture in the form of bus stops and benches, and many more, it is possible to convey your message. 

It’s an opportunity for musicians to exercise their imagination through crafting video visuals, in case it’s flashy artwork, QR codes leading to a new single, or bold imagery that grabs attention. The goal is simple: stop passersby in their tracks and turn casual observers into ticket holders.