I bumped into my nephew Jake this weekend at a local watering hole where he and his friends were enjoying a responsible number of craft beers and artisan cocktails. It was a trendy bar with a youngish crowd—there were whiskeys on the shelf older than most of the patrons—and at 57, I was officially The Oldest Thing In The Room. People noticed and acted accordingly, speaking up when they talked to me, enunciating each short, simple word they used, saying things like “special tools you can put on your portable phone” instead of apps and “photo album” instead of Instagram. I heard a few of them wagering on what old-timey thing I would say first, with the heavy betting split between “Back in my day” and “Hey, you kids, get off my lawn.”
Mostly, though, they did what I do when I encounter someone several stages above my age cohort. They pretended I wasn’t there. I focused on my drink, pondering my soon-to-be-arriving dotage, but when they started talking advertising, I cranked my hearing aid to 11 and listened in.
“Now that's
“I look at it every time!” said the chunky, crystal necklace.
“I saw that and went straight to their website!” said the Fitbit, holding up his phone.
“I called the same day for an appointment,” said the faux-fur vest and tan, suede wedges.
The advertisement my tech-savvy, highly educated and oh-so au courant drinking companions were referencing wasn’t the latest proximity driven pop-up or interest-based audio prompt. It was a billboard.
A big, non-interactive, been-around-since-before-cars billboard.
What it was for and how it looked isn’t as interesting as the fact that it was noticed at all.
Here’s my uninformed theory as to why.
We’ve all become so accustomed to a million distractions that our minds are now re-wired for distractions. None of us would text and drive, but weaving in and out of traffic at 68 miles-per-hour in a gas-filled, steel-and-glass deathtrap isn’t enough stimulation for The Modern Brain, so our senses are on the lookout for something——to fill that need. And that’s why billboards are perfect. Your eyes are darting around already, spotting potholes and speed traps—you can’t help but see billboards. And since you have to keep looking around every time you drive, you see the same billboard every time you go by. Your brain gets a distraction rush, a business gets noticed and an ad agency media buyer shows once again why she puts billboard in the media strategy mix.
Just because something’s a bit old and weathered, doesn’t mean he’s not effective.