Have You Noticed The Indoor Billboard?

Have you noticed the indoor billboard? Of course you have. In what appears to be an attempt to wallpaper the American consumer’s public space with advertising, the concept of the indoor billboard is taking off. Sure, indoor advertising campaigns are nothing new. Movie theatre posters, signs inside plazas, placards within public transportation vehicles, even that television nattering away inside your local bookstore are all pieces of indoor advertising campaigns. The concept of indoor billboard, however, is relatively recent and is catching on like wildfire.

With advertising so ubiquitous (as detailed above, though these are but tiny slices in the massive mass-market advertising pie), billboard advertising is an attempt to cut through the noise and splash of the advertising world. Indoor billboard advertising is cheap, easy and involves the exploitation of a captive audience’s otherwise “wasted” time.

Take, for example, that visit to the restroom. Just you guys need listen here, as an indoor billboard rarely finds itself posted on the inside of a bathroom stall door. You’re standing at the urinal, doing the famous zombie-stare-straight-ahead-no-deviation thing. After all, what can you say to the guy next to you? “Hey, come here often? Great urinal cakes, eh? Never seen an orange one before.” Of course not. You stand and stand while Mr. Johnson takes care of business.

Now those clever boys in advertising agencies pushing indoor billboard marketing have found a way to use that idle micturation time to sell, sell, sell! Simply place a small billboard-shaped frame at eye level above the urinal. Staring straight ahead causes the consumer to inspect every detail of the campaign placed before them. This is just one example, naturally, but it strikes right at the heart of the concept.

The indoor billboard is touted as cheap, easy and effective. One indoor billboard advertising agency claims a return of one thousand viewers for less than three dollars. It’s easy – in smaller cities, the indoor billboard is often created collectively with several small businesses which wouldn’t ordinarily receive this sort of audience attain thousands of potential clients. And effective? You bet. It has been said that, while more typical print advertising receives an average perusal of three seconds, the indoor billboard is considered for up to three minutes at a time.

Though typically merely support for existing advertising campaigns, indoor billboard advertising now carries a cachet all its own. The Indoor Billboard Advertising Association was founded in 1998 to assist in the promotion of this subgenre and, for the first time ever, the indoor billboard was used in a nationwide political campaign. Did anyone else see the smiling face of would-be American president John Kerry before the 2004 election? Now there’s a sight for sore eyes in the bathroom. One wonders what presumptive Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton will attempt in this field. Will the indoor billboard race, too, be split on gender lines? Stay tuned and keep watching those tiled walls.

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