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![\"Spotify](\"https:\/\/www.bmediagroup.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Spotify-Billboard-Campaign.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBillboards are a popular advertising medium because they\u2019re a great way to get a simple message to a lot of people quickly and affordably. They can target people based on the location where they will be viewed, and they often have a captive audience who has no choice but to notice the sign.<\/p>\n
But, in the internet age, are they becoming less useful? Do we depend on electronic targeting and digital technology to get our point across?<\/p>\n
No, not with a little creativity. In fact, one recent campaign of Spotify funny ads is a perfect example of how outdoor advertising can be even more successful than something posted online.
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In November of 2016, the online music streaming service Spotify launched a global campaign of funny ads using billboards. Each sign contained messages that were localized for the markets where they appeared. The messages were crafted using Spotify data to find what people were listening to, and they often matched with specific and memorable events that occurred that year. Then they added in a strong mix of humor to make sure they were entertaining, and splashed them proudly on billboards.<\/p>\n
Some messages were specifically for the local audience, such as this one in the UK:<\/p>\n
“Dear 3,749 people who streamed \u201cIt’s The End Of The World As We Know It\u201d the day of the Brexit vote, Hang in there.”<\/em><\/p>\n Others showed where the data came from, but still could work anywhere in the world, like:<\/p>\n \u201cDear person in L.A. who listened to the \u201cForever Alone\u201d playlist for 4 hours on Valentine\u2019s Day, you ok?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n One thing you\u2019ll notice about these Spotify funny ads are that they don\u2019t say anything specific about what Spotify does. They all refer to people listening to songs, so they imply that the company has something to do with playing music, but it doesn\u2019t have any other information about why you would want to use the service. They assume that everyone who would use them to stream music already knows about their offering and how it works, or is smart enough to pop the name into a search engine.<\/p>\n This saves valuable real estate on the sign to show the new look of their brand, and it doesn\u2019t distract from the humor.<\/p>\n One of the biggest reasons that companies go with ads that deliver some sort of emotion is because they give personality to a brand. This works in the case of Spotify, because one of their main purposes is to offer entertainment. These signs weren\u2019t music to your ears, but they probably caused you to laugh a little bit. This adds to an overall image of a company that will make you happy, and you\u2019ll subconsciously remember that when choosing which website to get your music from.<\/p>\n Another brilliant aspect of this campaign was how it was relevant to the time. 2016 was a busy year in the world, and there were many celebrity deaths, unexpected political situations, multiple international crises, and a lot of other difficult or surprising events. Social media users had become used to blaming everything on 2016, and this campaign played right into that \u2013 in a non-depressing way. It even managed to take all that distress and turn it into something funny.<\/p>\n One of the common concerns about billboards is that they\u2019re not as likely to go viral as something that\u2019s easy to share online. This campaign helped prove that not only are billboards not outdated, but the number of digital cameras out there may make them more likely to go viral than an image saved on a website. A campaign has to be made correctly, but physical objects can be less likely to get lost in the noise.<\/p>\n Speaking of going viral, this Spotify funny ads campaign used another buzzword that\u2019s popular in the internet era: big data. Many companies are gathering and cataloging massive amounts of data from their customers, and most are still trying to figure out what to do with it. This information is a dream for marketers and advertisers (especially in the online space), but this is a creative use of it that many hadn\u2019t thought of. Big data in an ironic way really stood out.<\/p>\n This example with Spotify is just one of many recent campaigns where outdoor advertising was still going strong in the 21st<\/sup> century. It\u2019s often a good idea to balance it out with the other advertising media you use, but it can be a strong way to boost sales and build brands in many different industries.<\/p>\n Reach out to us if you have any ideas you\u2019d like to discuss seeing on a sign, and we\u2019ll be overjoyed if it\u2019s a funny campaign like this that will spread the laughs around!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Billboards are a popular advertising medium because they\u2019re a great way to get a simple message to a lot of people quickly and affordably. They can target people based on the location where they will be viewed, and they often have a captive audience who has no choice but to notice the sign. But, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billboards","category-blog","category-outdoor-media"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Spotify](\"https:\/\/www.bmediagroup.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Spotify-2018-Funny-Ads.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIndirect Brand Advertising<\/h2>\n
![\"Funny](\"https:\/\/www.bmediagroup.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Funny-Music-Ads-Spotify.jpg\")
<\/p>\nShowing Their Fun Side<\/h2>\n
![\"Funny](\"https:\/\/www.bmediagroup.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Spotify-Ad-1030x789.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRelevant to the Time<\/h2>\n
Billboards Going Viral<\/h2>\n
![\"Spotify](\"https:\/\/www.bmediagroup.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Pill-in-Ibiza-Spotify-1030x688.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBig Data in a New Way<\/h2>\n
![\"Brexit](\"https:\/\/www.bmediagroup.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Brexit-Spotify-1030x686.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGrab Attention with Your Billboards!<\/h2>\n