OUTDOOR ADVERTISING. Advertising is a wide term variously interpreted. Dictionary compilers have, as a class, stumbled hopelessly at it and few, if any, have explained its meaning in clear and comprehensive language.
For the purpose of this memorandum, advertising may be defined as the art of making known the existence or the merits of au article in such a way as to induce sales; or, alternatively, the art of publishing facts or opinions in so effective a manner that a specific object is attained.
Advertising takes different forms and has diverse natures. The leading forms of advertising are a) Newspaper and magazine advertisements ; (b) Advertisement by booklets and circulars to the public ; (c) Bill posting, electric signs, railway, tram, and omnibus, and sandwich board advertising ; and (d) Advertisement by show-cards and other materials in shops.
The nature of the advertising may vary in each class—for instance, an advertisement, whether in the press or on the hoardings, may be- (a) Educational or informative. It may persuade, argue, compare, lay stress upon the desirability of purchasing certain things at certain seasons, direct attention to improvements, new patents, reductions in cost, and so on, or may simply act as • (b) A reminder, a mere mention of the article, so as to accustom the reader to the name, and to make it so familiar to him that he will in due course be ready to specify it when requiring goods of its nature.
In all advertising campaigns it is of the greatest consequence to deter mine the immediate objects of work contemplated, and when that is clearly understood, it is a comparatively easy matter to apportion the allotment over the various classes of advertising enumerated above.
In this article particular attention is to be given to outdoor advertising (class (e) in above list), but the mere presentation of this subject must on no account be taken as suggesting a preference for outdoor advertising over press or other forms of publicity. Whether either or both should be resorted to in any circumstances is a matter for thoughtful consideration, and the advice of those professionally engaged in advertising should be sought before commitments in any direction are entered upon. •
Outdoor advertising, as stated above, is generally understood to comprise billposting, electric sign advertising, railway, tram, and omnibus advertising, and sandwich-board advertising.
The selection of these means of publicity is frequently governed by the duration of the proposed contracts. For short periods, billposting and sandwich-board men, and sometimes the sides of omnibuses, are alone avail able. The ordinary railway contracts are for a year, and hi many caes for five years. Electric signs are too costly for anything but permanent use, and plates outside and transparencies inside omnibuses and trains are generally only accepted or suitable for contracts of six months or longer.
In the choice of outdoor advertising ninny considerations therefore enter, and each form will be treated here on its merits rather than in comparison with possible alternatives.
first with billposting, a subject, of vast importance to advertisers is at once entered upon. Hoardings, or stations, as they are technically termed in the trade, are now a recognised feature of every town in the kingdom. The old practice of flv-pusting still obtaining on the Continent under the title of pose tlia,!, is, of posting on anybody's wall or hoarding with or without the owner's consent--has died out in this country, and an organised system of protected stations rented by billposting contractors has sprung up in its place. Every town has its billposter, the most successful, of course, controlling not only towns but large areas, and the practice is for these billposters to let to advertisers or their agents positions on these protected stations at a price which covers, not old) the rental, but the cost of posting up the advertisers' bills and renewing them when damaged by weather.