Body shops are always looking for a better and affordable way to keep their name in front of their customers.
Since purchasing collision repair is rarely an impulsive decision, shops should focus more on branding and less on conventional forms of advertising. Indoor advertising is widely recognized as an extremely targeted medium. It reaches a captive audience while people engage in social settings at high traffic locations, such as restaurants, bathrooms, night clubs, sports bars, arenas and other venues. Indoor advertising reaches consumers from an uncluttered eye-level vantage point, making it literally unavoidable.
Traditional forms of advertising, such as television commercials, magazine ads, and Internet pop ups have become less effective for smaller, local businesses. With so much advertising jammed into our brains every waking minute, more and more consumers have chosen to mute, click away, fast-forward, or completely opt out. For example, DVR systems make it easy for people to avoid TV commercials, and many do. I have quite a few friends who will wait 10 minutes after their favorite show starts so that they can watch it uninterrupted and commercial-free.
By utilizing new advances and implementation of digital technology, indoor advertising continues to engage its audience. The stats support its effectiveness: 84 percent recalled seeing specific advertisements in the restrooms and movie theaters and 92 percent were able to name specific advertisers without prompting.
Chuck Jessen, the owner of PreFab Ads in San Francisco, CA produces award-winning TV commercials for body shops all over the country. Although he has carefully been watching the evolution of indoor advertising, he still believes that old school TV broadcast is king.
"When it comes down to advertising, it's all about aggregation--how many people you can reach with the media you're using," Jessen said. "With TV, we know that we reach a large number of consumers with each 30-second commercial. But, with indoor advertising, the numbers are tough to accurately gauge, so smaller companies might be less attracted to it."
Now that indoor advertising is in public bathrooms, movie theaters, airports, sports stadiums and other places where people regularly visit and interact, what does the future of indoor advertising hold? "There is probably no limit, so will we likely be seeing more indoor advertising--anywhere and everywhere? I would say yes, definitely. Indoor advertising reminds me of the movie Blade Runner, where ads were displayed on the sides of buildings and literally in the air."
Jeff Siegel is a 40-year-old veteran of the Silicon Valley advertising game and is known as one of the original Mad Men-types. As a former radio rep who worked for more than a dozen stations during his illustrious career, Siegel has seen the rapid evolution of indoor advertising firsthand.
"As a broadcast veteran, I still believe in the power of radio and TV," Siegel said. "But, the vibe out there about indoor advertising is very positive. I tell my people that if you use some movie screen advertising, and possibly some mall kiosk advertising in conjunction with a broadcast schedule, the odds for a good response is high. I never want anyone to ever put all of their eggs in one basket and that's why all of my clients do a mix of different things."
How is advertising for body shops different than conventional retail advertising?
"Body shops cannot do sales or promotions, so in the end their ads have to focus on branding and name recognition," Seigel explained. "A body shop's image should be based on things like transparency and accountability, just like with a bank, a hospital or an insurance company."
The statistics about indoor advertising are compelling and that's why more and more businesses are jumping into the fray. First, it's in your face, because indoor ads are normally strategically placed where they're virtually impossible to ignore. Even then, you only have roughly 1-4 full minutes of your prospective customer's attention while they're physically idle, yet mentally engaged without interruptions or distractions. So, your message has to be short, direct and engaging while entertaining people as well.
In addition, indoor advertising is well-known for getting the viewer's undivided attention for an extended period of time. Since people are seeing your message in a location where they aren't typically bombarded by advertising, indoor advertising statistics show that consumers will remember yours longer. It also offers a wider range of targeting opportunities, based on specific demographics such as gender, income, lifestyle and age. As a result, you can spend less of your advertising dollar and still reach a much higher percentage of your desired target market.
So, when you're looking at different forms of marketing, why not choose indoor?
Ed Attanasio