Imagine…Better Marketing Made Easy.

This is the latest in a series from Signs By Tomorrow designed to help you be more effective marketing your business. Today we take a closer look at how you can use outdoor events to solicit more business and build your brand.

Outdoor Promotions: A Breath of Fresh Air

From festivals to parks, on land or on the sea, it’s the perfect time of year to add the great outdoors into your marketing mix.

What’s So Great About the Outdoors?

• Directly interact with prospects and customers in a more fun, less formal environment.
• Build your brand by aligning it with a perceived lifestyle.
• Reach a large volume of people concentrated in a relatively small area for maximum return on investment.
• Target specific audiences by geography, demographics or hobbies/interests.

Tips for Designing Exterior Signage

While outdoor events offer unique opportunities, designing exterior graphics can present unique challenges. The following tips can help ensure a successful outcome:

• Size your graphics appropriately for the viewing distance. Visit our Signs 101 Page for a viewing distance chart.
• Develop and position your graphic for maximum exposure. A double-sided sign placed at the corner of a busy intersection will deliver better results than a single-sided sign visible only to traffic heading in one direction.
• Consider local weather conditions and the length of time the graphic will be outdoors. For instance, mesh can be a great option for extended outdoor use as it allows heavy wind to blow through instead of against the sign.
• Take all necessary safety precautions such as adding structural support if your graphic goes above a road or walkway.
• Take advantage of the opportunity to reinforce branding on every sign, down to the smallest no smoking or parking sign.
• Look for ease of set-up and breakdown if your graphics will be reused from year to year or as part of a traveling event.

Bringing the Outdoors In…to Your Marketing Mix

• Clearwater Jazz Holiday. Held each fall at the beautiful Coachman Park, this free four-day music festival has featured big name acts such as Kenny G, Tony Bennett and Natalie Cole. Kathy Thornton, co-owner of Signs By Tomorrow in Clearwater, FL, has been attending the jazz festival since it started, and since 2004 her center has been the official sign company of the event. Each year Kathy and her team produce dozens of signs and graphics, including A-frames stationed throughout the park, table skirts and 11’ x 20’ banners on either side of the main stage with cost-saving interchangeable panels that allow sponsors to be swapped out from year to year. In addition to branded graphics promoting the festival, vendors and artists, Signs By Tomorrow also produces wayfinding signs for the event.
• Nothing says outdoor fun like Disneyland, and the Signs By Tomorrow Center in Irvine, CA recently had the opportunity to produce graphics that appeared at the California park. Working with the company that manufactured Cars-themed vehicles for display as well as for use in Disney parades, Center owner Arzu Simsek and her team produced six full-size wraps and an additional number of partial stickers using artwork from the popular Cars movies and shipped them to Disney parks in Japan, Paris and Orlando as well as California.
• In its inaugural effort in 2008 and again last year, Rose Mednick and the staff at the Tacoma, WA Signs By Tomorrow had the opportunity to provide support for Tacoma Tall Ships that draws vendors, cruisers and visitors from all over. Event planners and vendors contracted with Signs By Tomorrow Tacoma to provide more than $100,000 worth of graphics for last year’s event alone, including directional signage indicating parking and bus stops, branded banners for the festival and vendors, banners draped around scaffolding, and even magnetic signs for the buses used to shuttle visitors.
   

This spring, set your sights on the great outdoors and don’t forget Signs By Tomorrow of Newport News makes a perfect tour guide into the world of outdoor graphics. Call 757-873-5777 or click here for your free quote today!