Repeat after me: Bus stop ads aren’t for the passengers
I always find it faintly depressing when I see examples of poor use of outdoor as an advertising medium.
Particularly bus stop posters where you suspect that there’s a complete misunderstanding at both creative and media planning level about who actually looks at the posters.
So let’s explain it one more time: most of the audience for bus stop posters are not on the bus, and they’re not waiting for the bus. If they were, they’d be incredibly expensive to reach. Most of them are in cars.
If you really want to reach bus passengers, then advertise on buses. Otherwise, write the ads for the audience you’re actually reaching.
How hard can that be?
Here’s a classic misunderstanding of the medium brought to us by Hahn Super Dry and Saatchi & Saatchi.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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I do somewhat agree.. however they can talk to the passenger.. what Fx me off is when I see a QR code slapped at the bottom of a poster.
You wonder why take-up of your mobile campaign isn’t good when you expect your customers get on your knees to scan it – they need slapping with the dr. mumbo kipper.
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Hmm.
Maybe this ad is targeted towards people driving by?
They drive by, see 3 young men sitting down, a few old ladies standing, see this ad and smirk and think ‘yeah, they should offer their seat up. I sure would. Coz Im mutha flippin’ Premium.’
I think it’s a nice use of the medium that takes people sitting into account as part of the ad targeted to those driving by.
XD
(no, I don’t work at Saatchi & Saatchi)
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Ha, sure you don’t, Mr Truth!…
I agree that many outdoor ads don’t seem to get that the majority of the audience has mere seconds to absorb the message, let alone respond there and then to it. Billboards with tiny complicated headlines and minimal branding seem useless to me as do the QR codes most of the time.
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I saw this ad from my seat on the bus, out the window.
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While I agree in part, I can’t help but think i’ve got the general gist of the campaign by just driving / walking past.
What i can’t help but find difficult to appreciate is the locations i’ve seen this creative displayed on the panel located on the opposite side to the bus seating area…
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I agree re the small text size etc, but Bus Stop ads are read by vehicle drivers who are crawling along in slow traffic or in a queue of traffic stopped at the traffic lights (in background of photo).
(Still doesn’t make me want to catch a bus in Sydney.)
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The Truth – no, too implausible for the ad to have been conceived of that way. Most of the time there is no one sitting at bus shelters anyway.
The problem with bus shelter ads are that they’re always too damn small to read. Even the images are sometimes too complex for people whooshing past in their cars to take in. Half the time I have no idea what the brand or product are.
A lesson for evaluating bus shelter ads:
1. Flash the ad in front of you for 2 seconds at a distance of 20 metres
2. Did you seriously take in the message in that time?
3. If not, go back to the KISS principle
Bus shelters are basically the same concept as large billboard, just shrunk down a bit.
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Emma – who ‘whooshes by’ in Sydney traffic?
I was there for two days last week and there wasn’t much ‘whooshing’ happening in any of the traffic that ensnared me for hours.
And it’s not just one glimpse of one Bus Stop billboard; it’s repeated viewings at numerous locations day after day.
But hey, I’m with Ogden Nash (or was it e.e.cummings?):
I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree
in fact, unless the billboards fall,
I’ll never see a tree at all
Happily, I live in Bathurst – plenty of trees, few billboards, and the traffic ‘whooshes’.
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I both drive and catch the bus. Call me strange, but I have NEVER read a bus ad while driving, but read plenty while on/waiting for a bus.
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Truth,
Look at the size of the seat, and then the size of the shelter. If there were 3 men sitting and old ladies milling around, you wouldn’t see the poster as it would be blocked by 3 nasty young men, and possibly some of the grannies. Lucky not many people catch the bus as the panels would always be blocked.
Fact: 87% of all urban km’s travelled in Australia are in a car, (Ausroads).
Fact: 2% are on a bus.
This creative is rediculous, no thought of the environment. 90% of people driving past would not even see the bottle, let alone read the text – FAIL
What a shame that a medium so perfect for the product is ruined by creative geniuses…
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I agree with Emma. About everything!
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I’m actually a planner, and I should know better, but I walked by this ad on a bus shelter yesterday and thought… “Hey, what a clever little tactical execution” although now I read the rational arguments above, I see that that that thinking is flawed. I doubt the rest of Australia has read that thinking above, or realize that bus shelter audiences are mainly transient. I reckon they think, it’s pretty clever.
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Two massive problems.
Most of us drivers are not going slow enough to see the ad at the bus shelter. Most of us find it hard to capture anything but a logo at 60kmh.
And secondly if you are in that maddening rush hour traffic crawling along outside of the free bus lane, can you actually read the creative?
Sorry Mate there is no creative execution that I am going to stop my car to go back and read anyway. So if you aren’t targeting the bus passengers then you are dead in the water. Name one piece of creative that has beaten those parameters and reached the humble car driver and I might change my mind.
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Best outdoor ads are the ones for bands posted on electricity poles. They highlight the name of the band, location, date and time…all on an A3 piece of paper
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I agree with Lee
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Here’s the thing:
The MOVE system measures ‘Likelihood To See’ rather than ‘Opportunity To See’, which is what all other media is measured on. Therefore planners can understand exactly how many people have been ‘Likely’ to see a specific campaign.
It’s not like press etc where for example if you pick up the magazine you’re assumed to have seen every page. MOVE will register that a bus shelter is smaller and therefore less likely to be seen and adjust the R & F based on this, (it will even adjust R & F based on side of the road). This means Out of Home R & F is now far closer to reality than for any other medium.
This means that if the campaign doesn’t work, but MOVE is showing a satisfactory LTS – we can now pinpoint the failure on the creative – not the medium.
(no i don’t work for JC Decaux).
PS: Average speed of cars in Sydney is anywhere btwn 30 – 38kms per hour depending on what road and what part of town you live. Source: SMH Sydney’s morning traffic getting worse
Posted Tue Dec 9, 2008
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The thing that makes me sad and I don’t like being sadL, is that this execution is one of the better creative offerings to go to market.
With the exception of a few who get it right e.g. Apple and Fairfax, the outdoor industry is riddled with advertisers deploying press ad’s in the misguided hope that they will pass as effective outdoor creative.
To maximise the value and generate greater campaign results creative agencies and clients should see the ad in situ before signing off and implementing. Only then is it possible to see if the creative offering can deliver the required consumer outtake.
More often than not creative is signed off in PDF format via computer screen with no regard for media property or environment….enough said.
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Classic and oft-seen f*ck up – hmmm…that print ad would make a great Adshel. Just because it’s the same shape as a FPC doesn’t make it great bus shelter creative – no wonder I see so many of them smashed.
The best outdoor for me is one that contains:
No. More. Than. Five. Words.
(full-stops optional)
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Love your work Shane and WTF.
Nov / Dec’s creative for UV Triplegard on Billboards, Buses, Retail and Mobile Billboards – Ward 6 really thought about the environment and tailored creative to it. Sales went up as a result of good placement and good creative, it’s not hard!!!
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I totally agree with zeff
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Outdoor Guy me thinks you may be a little biased. But let’s go with your rationale anyway. 35km an hour is 583 metres a minute or 10 metres a second. Let’s presume that you are travelling that speed because you have a Morris Minor or like driving slowly. Let’s also presume that you can look sideways at the bus stop coming towards you at 10 metres a second and have been eating lots of carrots.
Now if you have really good eyesight you should be able to read a bus poster headline from 30 metres away. I’ve done a few voiceovers in my time and 3 seconds doesn’t give you many words my friend.
So make your creative execution so interesting that I will look away from the road for 3 seconds. Entertaining enough to get past the good looking sort waiting for the bus, my radio and the fifty distractions in 30 metres of city streetscape. And yes you have got me.. Otherwise I might just spend my advertising buck where I do have the punters attention.
By the way how the hell do you measure likelihood??
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I tend to notice bus stop advertising the most when I’m walking past it, followed closely by when I’m waiting at them (I tend to be looking out for the bus instead). In slightly the same vein as the three motorcycles driving around the city with the same ad, I’ve found the series of ads (one after the over in spots where there are multiple bus stops) to be quite memorable.
Most of the writing is too small to see from your car going past or you go past too fast.
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http://moveoutdoor.com.au/
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Everyone reads these at bus stops – apart from housekeeping the mobile and avoiding drifting cigarette smoke what else is there to do? Can’t they make the ad backgrounds transparent though? I’ve nearly missed my bus several times as you can’t see through the damn things.
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I disagree with Alison M. About everything!
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outdoor advertising needs to adopt the less is more approach. Less words, bigger client logo. If the average person can’t recall the ad, or strain to read the copy then go back to the drawing board.
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Like Posted Comments… Less is more…
Bus Stop ads the same.
So Sell me; you got fifteen words. Go for it.
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I agree with paul
I think Alison M is mad as she likes to hide behind bus shelters or is tring to develop X-Ray vision….
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I am biased, but i can assure you its not toward bus shelters, it’s toward OOH as a whole. Agree that you have 3 seconds for bus shelters and anything else viewed from a car. Driving past a small metrolite sized panel will not be effective unless the creative is right.
OOH is best viewed when you walk past it. Walking past that same sized panel in a retail environment, airport or in the CBD will be far more effective.
FYI – LTS is based on size of panel, eccentricity to the road, (is the sign perpendicular or parallel), distance of viewing, and position (what side of the road is it on).
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Thanks Outdoor Guy. But the author is prescribing creative useage aimed at those driving past adshel sites etc. The creative that I see is so convoluted that the Homer Simpson grab where he stops on his way to work to read the new months change out ads would need to come to fruition before they would gain any cut through.
As for likelihood to see I’m skeptical that anything but a very small percentage of the general public actually see and are affected by the outdoor furniture they go past. Would be very interested to know what percentage of passers by are claimed as likely to see’s!
I’m just as skeptical of radio diaries, readership figures and even 24/7 people meter panel numbers. Don’t even start me on the 83 million active browsers and convuluted measurement of online.
In the end we need a currency but not sure we can so evangelical about the efficacy of current measurement metrics.
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The biggest challenge that outdoor currently faces isn’t the size, location or quality of any of the panels, but the quality of creative that is put on them.
Cut in half the amount of information in most executions, and cut it in half again, and we will be approaching something that has the most effect.
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I also agree with Emma
I think maybe the comments section needs a recommend or like feature. Then I wouldn’t have to post this comment.
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Bruce – I am from Melbourne there is plenty of whooshing here as well as in Bathurst! Do agree with you about the repeated viewings having an effect at multiple locations, however I have been frustrated with seeing the same ad over and over and never being able to pick up the product or brand.
Mark – I can recall many bus shelter ads, mostly for easily recognisable brands with a simple and distinctive looking product. Tiffany ads that year after year pop up on bus shelters around Christmas immediately jumps to mind, as well as some perfume ads.
Definitely a case by case issue.
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The best advice is design for the worst case scenario – ie people in cars travelling at speed.
This is because the majority of people are in their cars and not catching public transport and more cars are travelling past your sign outside of peak hour not in peak.
Short copy and large branding allows the message to be distilled in under 3 seconds enabling more people to see your brand more often. Including those over in lane 3 furthest from the sign.
And it works even better when you’re everywhere on lots of different OOH formats not just on an expensive footpath in the CBD.
Small products should be supersized to fill the space and large objects like cars should never be minimised as they’ll just end up looking like toys.
Busy scenes with lots going on trying to tell a story also never work. Vibrating colours, CAPITAL letters, faint, fine or unusual text are also a big NO.
Optimal viewing distance of an outdoor static sign is calculated by multiplying the width by 20 metres. Another thing to note is the viewers (both pedestrian and motorist) natural eyelevel is on the top half of the bus shelter panel.
The Super Dry product shot can’t be deciphered even at 5 metres and is most definitely a FAIL
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Those bus shelters showing a big ass Big Mac work. Even if I catch a glimpse it’s enough to make me want one and take a detour into a Macca’s drive thru . Why not I’m already in my car…?
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Outdoor Avenger, BINGO BANGO! Now get around to all the creative agencies and give them what for. AND to the end clients. Clearly they aren’t understanding what’s needed from a lot of the arse gravy seen around on outdoor these days. Or should I say, amended magazine ads slapped up because it’s already the oh so handy portrait format!
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Not a bus stop ad but it appears a billboard had an incredible effect on this guy:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/.....5853693950
Best defence in a DUI case I have ever heard.
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I saw that advert the other day and though that ‘Hahn’ was some sort of ticket for the elderly… The picture of beer I thought was just the norm (Aussies love their beer…)
I am learning.
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Emma & WTF – I love you. From our office here in Pyrmont, we have a big front window onto the pavement. Approximately 30m is an Adshel. And most of the time we cant read a bloody thing on the posters. It’s dreadful. And we’re SITTING here (hard at work of course and most definitely not dithering around on the interweb).
Thankfully this week we have Berocca. 6 word headline and a bloody great big packshot. There’s some tiddly writing at the bottom (bad client, bad) and the headline is light orange on white (bad art director, bad) but otherwise a generally good example.
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Seriously, everyone knows bus stop (and Public telephone) ads are for Pedestrians. F__k knows they piss us off as much as tourists taking photos of the bloody QVB at peak hours by hampering us as we strive to get the next bus/cityfail train before the blasted thing goes without us.
So we can’t help but noticing the b______s
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