Even in an age dominated by digital screens, out-of-home advertising remains a formidable player in the local business advertising game for large and small businesses alike. From local billboards to street furniture to transit shelter advertising, you name it—out-of-home advertising forms can enhance any small business advertising strategy.
Out-of-home advertising is especially beneficial for small business owners looking to make a mark in a bustling city like Chicago, where outdoor ads are a constant in people’s everyday lives, whether they’re urban commuters hustling and bustling around the city’s unique neighborhoods or passengers at Union Station or O’Hare International Airport. One form of out-of-home advertising, street furniture, can even produce optimal results in the suburbs, too, because of its many benefits described below.
Street furniture has a variety of flexible formats
Out-of-home advertising is a practical, long-lasting technique in large and small business advertising, partly because of its flexibility. Just as brands can target a variety of specific geographic locations and specific demographics in those locations, they can use a variety of street furniture formats to do so for a variety of different reasons.
Through useful public amenities like transit shelter ads, street furniture reaches consumers and target audience members. If your advertising campaign calls for it, street furniture can also complement other out-of-home advertising formats like small business billboards and bus wraps. Using multiple formats of street furniture and implementing them in your advertising plan to augment other forms of out-of-home advertising can help you create an integrated, cohesive, and consistent out-of-home experience for your audience in the city and its outskirts.
A successful out-of-home advertising campaign is flexible and utilizes street furniture to boost visibility and impact at street level, strategically using the format most relevant to consumers and the location, which would be transit shelter advertising in the suburbs of Chicago.
This form of out-of-home advertising has a variety of uses
Decide the goal your Chicago local business aims to achieve when upping the ante on its marketing in the first place, and determine your street furniture’s purpose. You could implement street furniture in your small business advertising plan to attract
Greater brand awareness and greater reach
Increased attention to new product launches
Consumer and community participation in promotions
Out-of-home advertising attracts attention beyond screens
The physical presence of out-of-home advertising forms continues to provide a refreshing, appreciated break from the digital noise. Whether it’s a vibrant bus shelter ad or an eye-catching local billboard, the tangible nature of street furniture commands attention and reinforces brand visibility in the physical world.
As your brand visibility increases, you can also increase your brand’s consistency. Using creative and visually appealing designs and high message coherence that follows a theme in your out-of-home ads will boost your consumers’ recognition of and trust in your brand and its consistency. Given how much creativity and originality you can incorporate into out-of-home advertising, try using humor and emotional storytelling in a relevant way to capture your consumers and have them connect with your brand.
Boost awareness for your boutique or your bookstore through street furniture
If you run a local boutique in Andersonville, the “shop local capital of Chicago,” for instance, out-of-home advertising through street furniture would allow you to showcase your boutique’s latest fashion trends, upcoming sales, and exclusive offers to passersby. By enforcing this physical presence in your small business advertising efforts, you can create a cohesive brand experience that resonates with the local audience and stands out among other shops.
A quaint bookstore in the suburbs can leverage street furniture, too. As a business owner in the inviting, residential suburban neighborhood of Oak Forest faced with the task of attracting new customers in a digitally dominated era, you could strategically place eye-catching local billboards on transit shelter advertisements near schools, parks, and popular coffee shops to successfully increase foot traffic to your bookstore.
Enhance your bookstore’s connection with Oat Forest residents and draw them into your establishment by making it feel like a part of the neighborhood. To do this, consider using street furniture to send local messages about upcoming book signings, community reading events, and exclusive discounts for locals.
Lead consumers to your local fitness center
If you run a family-owned fitness studio in the suburbs of Bolingbrook aimed to stand out in a crowded market, out-of-home advertising will allow you to do so. Our neighborhood experts at View Chicago can help you leverage strategically placed street furniture near parks, jogging trails, and community centers.
Visually appealing street furniture that showcases your studio’s unique offerings, such as family fitness classes, personalized training sessions, and weekend wellness events, lets the local community embrace your studio as a fitness hub in tangible, personal ways, allowing you to gain a noticeable increase in new memberships.
Street furniture effectively engages the community by evoking its essence
Letting the local community embrace your small business in personal ways should be one of your primary goals in your local business advertising plan. You want to be strategic in the messages you send and the locations you send them in because you want your brand to resonate with the community it serves.
When you strategically place street furniture in suburban places, you’re reaching untapped locations outside the city that your competitors may not even be considering marketing to! Allow your brand to shine in suburban areas and connect with residents on a personal level, fostering a sense of community, connection, and loyalty that other Chicago small businesses aren’t offering them.
Say you’re the small business owner of a neighborhood hardware store in the suburbs of Chicago. By strategically placing street furniture near residential areas, you can remind residents of your presence, promote ongoing deals, and establish your store as the go-to option for residents’ hardware needs. This hyperlocal advertising approach ensures that the business reaches the right audience and stays top-of-mind within the community.
You can harness the power of tailored messages through hyperlocal advertising
In the era of personalized marketing, hyperlocal advertising keeps emerging as a robust tool for small businesses to deliver the right message to their audience at the right time and right place. Implementing street furniture and transit shelter advertising into your local business advertising strategy allows you to catch the eyes of stay-at-home parents, older adults, and retirees enjoying the residential spaces, community centers, parks, shops, and eateries. It allows you to capture the attention of even the busiest suburban commuters rushing to and from public transportation and making their way into the city.
Street furniture provides a canvas for tailoring messages that resonate specifically with the local audience. This level of customization allows your Chicago small business to address the unique needs, preferences, and cultural nuances of the suburban neighborhoods you serve.
For instance, if you run a family-owned pizzeria in a Chicago suburb, you could use hyperlocal advertising to not only promote your delicious pizza but also spread the word about your involvement in local events and community initiatives that would be close enough for members of your target audience to attend. You could even showcase customer testimonials from the neighborhood. This personalized approach creates a genuine connection with the community, allowing you to set your business apart from larger, less-personal competitors.
The range of reach for street furniture makes every impression count
Imagine a small coffee shop in the suburbs of Chicago wanting to increase foot traffic. Placing transit shelter advertising near local offices, community centers, and parks allows the business to target commuters, residents, and those looking for a leisurely break. This strategic placement ensures that every impression counts, increasing the likelihood of converting views into customers.
That’s what we specialize in at View Chicago. Our experts help Chicago local businesses place ads in locations that maximize visibility. With traditional local billboards, we help you strategically position them near highways, high-traffic areas, and neighborhood hubbubs relevant to your target audience.
The street furniture you implement in your local business advertising plan will have placements that are just as strategic as billboards. Plus, this format can help you reach consumers in the outskirts of the city precisely where they live, work, and commute at eye level.
Street furniture can maximize the presence of your Chicago small business
Street furniture is a form of out-of-home advertising that has maximum
Appeal to pedestrians and motorists alike. Depending on the suburb and market in which you advertise your local business, your street furniture may more heavily target pedestrians than motorists and vice versa. High-traffic transit shelter advertising at the corners of suburban shopping centers can target suburban residents walking from shop to shop. In contrast, consider a transit shelter ad for McDonald’s outside the Stephens Convention Center and the entrance to the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont. This out-of-home ad would be perfect for targeting motorists on their way to a convention and hungry business travelers on their lunch break.
Amounts of touchpoints. When you utilize street furniture in your small business advertising plan, you’re giving people multiple places to encounter your out-of-home ads several times a day throughout their routine, maximizing the likelihood of message recall.
Dwell times. Transit shelter ads placed in pedestrian areas more commonly have longer dwell times, allowing you to have lengthier or even more complex copy for your ad because consumers would have more time to engage with your creative.
You can use street furniture to increase impact without breaking the bank
Small business owners typically have to create and follow tight budgets, so cost-effective out-of-home advertising solutions are necessary for their operations and crucial for their success.
How much does out-of-home advertising cost for media like street furniture and billboards? Billboard costs and that of other outdoor ads can depend on several factors, such as:
The location of the local billboard
How densely populated and how busy the location is
The income and buying power of your target audience
The number of ad spots
The length of your advertising campaign
How soon you intend to start - are you looking for a rush job or do you want to wait to begin a seasonal campaign at a particular time of year?
Out-of-home advertising is flexible and can be personalized to your advertising goals and objectives, so these contributing factors cause billboard costs to vary. Street furniture, such as transit shelter advertising, offers an affordable alternative to billboards and other forms of out-of-home advertising because they’re used outside city limits.
These ads give you leverage to reach traveling suburban resident populations in a cost-effective way that differs from out-of-home ads you’d place in the city. Clients can make the most of the eye-level visibility of our standard 4-foot by 6-foot bus stop ads, allowing Chicagoans to see them up close, across intersections, traveling by foot, and in their vehicles at stoplights and stop signs.
Strengthen your advertising plan and own the suburbs with strategic street furniture
The combination of the versatility, tangible nature, targeted reach, strategic locations, hyperlocal advertising power, and affordability of street furniture makes this form of out-of-home advertising an invaluable asset for Chicago small businesses looking to capture and improve a lasting impact in their communities.
As you navigate the marketing avenues for your local business in Chicago, consider the unique advantages that street furniture advertising can bring. By embracing this approach, you maximize your visibility and foster a genuine connection with the community, positioning your business for sustained growth in the vibrant tapestry of Chicago’s suburban neighborhoods.
Our out-of-home advertising experts at View Chicago can help you find street furniture placements across Chicago and its suburbs that will make your message resonate with your target audience. We’ll craft a hyperlocal advertising plan tailored to the brand reputation you want for your local Chicago business, relatable and targeted in ways your target audience can engage with and be motivated to take action.
Reach out to us to get started with developing an out-of-home advertising campaign that utilizes street furniture according to your advertising goals and objectives, location, target audience, marketing timeline, and financial needs. We’ll provide a custom quote with exact numbers based on your campaign objectives.