Radio Billboards

Rock Bottom · Dec 28, 2011

I find the boards for 92 News confusing. "Interesting People Listen"..."Busy People Listen" Listen to what? That's how you launch a new station? It feels like someone was trying to be catchy-cool.

I would think you'd want to educate people there is a new "All News" radio station. How about "Traffic & Weather together every 10 minutes on the 9's" or "Wake up with Lana & JP on Houston's All News Radio Station"? Keep it simple. I'm busy, and I don't have time to guess at what you're trying to tell me (especially while driving Houston highways).

I also noticed that Sports Talk 790 has a billboard up promoting Matt & Adam, but there was no mention of Lance. Did they just put up an old board? If so, that's very weak. If not, what happened to Lance?

Mediafrog+ · Dec 28, 2011

Rock Bottom said:
I would think you'd want to educate people there is a new "All News" radio station. How about "Traffic & Weather together every 10 minutes on the 9's" or "Wake up with Lana & JP on Houston's All News Radio Station"? Keep it simple. I'm busy, and I don't have time to guess at what you're trying to tell me (especially while driving Houston highways).

I would think the "News92FM" logo pretty much says it all. And the two lines you suggested are too long for billboards. You need to be able to read it in about half a second. Lots of billboard designers make the mistake of being too complicated for a quick read.

I also noticed that Sports Talk 790 has a billboard up promoting Matt & Adam, but there was no mention of Lance. Did they just put up an old board? If so, that's very weak. If not, what happened to Lance?

Lance is still there, so must be an old billboard.

johndavis · Dec 28, 2011

Mediafrog+ said:
I would think the "News92FM" logo pretty much says it all.

The only problem I find with reading their billboards is the red in the 92 is too dark and it blends into the rest of the logo, so unless you're right on top of the board you can't make out the numbers in 92. At a quick glance all you get is "News FM." They either need to tweak the red a little bit or put a little bit of a white outline around the numbers so you can read it at 70 MPH.

sdh483 · Dec 28, 2011

Rock Bottom said:
I find the boards for 92 News confusing. "Interesting People Listen"..."Busy People Listen" Listen to what? That's how you launch a new station? It feels like someone was trying to be catchy-cool.

I would think you'd want to educate people there is a new "All News" radio station. How about "Traffic & Weather together every 10 minutes on the 9's" or "Wake up with Lana & JP on Houston's All News Radio Station"? Keep it simple. I'm busy, and I don't have time to guess at what you're trying to tell me (especially while driving Houston highways).

I also noticed that Sports Talk 790 has a billboard up promoting Matt & Adam, but there was no mention of Lance. Did they just put up an old board? If so, that's very weak. If not, what happened to Lance?

Another KTRH troll?

wildthangjim · Dec 29, 2011

as johndavis says, the "92FM" part of their billboard is almost impossible to read, especially while driving. They need to increase the contrast somehow.

radiobop · Dec 29, 2011

Boy do we have a critical bunch here...I was pretty impressed with the use of white space and the messaging in the boards. When I worked for Goodwin, Dannenbaum, Littmann & Wingfield in 1970, the takeaway was "no more than 12 words ever" on a billboard...and as the creator of an award-winning billboard for the no-longer extant Texas International Airlines with only two words on it ("Be pampered."), I appreciate the News 92 FM boards immensely...

HL
The University of Texas at Austin
BJ in Advertising with Honors, 1971

michaelshiloh · Dec 31, 2011

God listens.

willdav713 · Jan 1, 2012

One of the golden rules of Advertising: KEEP IT SIMPLE! MAKE IT EASY TO READ!

How about a billboard with a white background and Red Letters with large fonts: NEWS 92.1
Houston's News Station! or Where Houston gets it's News 92.1 FM.

adguy · Jan 7, 2012

radiobop said:
Boy do we have a critical bunch here...I was pretty impressed with the use of white space and the messaging in the boards. When I worked for Goodwin, Dannenbaum, Littmann & Wingfield in 1970, the takeaway was "no more than 12 words ever" on a billboard...and as the creator of an award-winning billboard for the no-longer extant Texas International Airlines with only two words on it ("Be pampered."), I appreciate the News 92 FM boards immensely...

My rule of thumb was always no more than 8 words. I had a client, emphasize HAD, that once put up a virtulal book report on a board strongly against my recommendation. Was a client I fired! He ended up getting sued by the media company for failure to pay. Needless to say, that campaigned drowned in the words on that board.

I do agree with the over-cleverness of the 92.9 board. Why couldn't they say something simple, like, "Full Time News is Back".

radiobop · Jan 8, 2012

Oh, and one more thing...I learned a long time ago to never criticize an advertising campaign or creative component without knowing the objectives of the campaign. Being critical without knowing all the facts and the purpose is no different than asking the public whether a defendant in a high profile court case is innocent or guilty. I recall the ad campaign 40+ years ago for Pearl Beer where they ran full-color newspaper ads showing the Pearl logo next to Bud's and Schlitz's (wow, another story) plus radio commercials with all 3 brands being opened with the same pop-a-top sound and people asked how could they do that and why? All Pearl wanted to do was raise the price of a six-pack by a nickel to match that of their "premium" competitors; they ran the campaign equating the quality of their brand with the competition, raised the price and no one noticed...their market share was unaffected and their objective was met though they did generate a lot of buzz as to why Pearl would run such a weird or dumb campaign comparing itself to its competitors...