Here we go with a few tips that might be useful for you (or your designer) when creating the next Advertising to be broadcasted on your LEDwall. If you want to get the most out of your LEDwall (and your Customers) in terms of recognition from the audience, this article will tell which are the worst mistake people make when creating a new ad. If you don't have a LEDwall yet, but you are thinking about getting one to start your advertising business, I'm sure you will find the next few posts very interesting as well. So lets start.
First of all, the ad duration: some people make the huge mistake of creating 30/40 seconds ads. 30 seconds? Are you crazy people? Your audience is not sitting on a sofa waiting for the next TV show! They are most probably driving-by at 30/40 km per hour and hopefully they are more focused on the street rather than your screen.
Still they should be able to see the entire Ads, from start to end while passing by. So what's the point of creating a wonderful Ad, if they can not read the advertiser's phone number and address at the end because the ad is too long?! From my experience an Ad should be maximum 10 seconds in length (rarely 15).
Longer ads are pointless because either your target sees the beginning but not the end, or vice-versa. In both cases, 1. you didn't get the message across, 2. the audience did not find an interesting message on your LEDwall, therefore will have no interest in doing it again in the future and 3. your Customer didn't get much in return for his investment, which should be your very first concern if you want him to come and buy your services again in the future.
Of course there are exceptions to the "10 seconds" general rule, say for LEDwalls installed in pedestrian areas, where people have more time to watch the LEDwall. But as I said, those are exceptions. They are rare. And anyways 30 seconds is still too much, even in these cases.
If you read my past articles, you know why text and numbers appear blurry on a LEDwall with virtual pixel. You can not solve that, but at least try not to make it worse! The first rule of formatting when creating text (ie. the address, phone number etc) for a LEDwall AD is... Ready? Make letters BIIIG! At least 1/4 of the screen! I cant understand those designers that create super small text, that might look nice on their PC or MAC monitor when they create it, but its terrible when broadcast on the LEDwall.
Second rule of formatting: do not apply shades or glossy effects on text. Get it? As said before, this fancy effects might look nice on the monitor, but they definitely they are not cool on the LEDwall. The reason for it is that, despite of its huge size, the LEDwall has actually less pixels than you PC monitor. Much less pixels. So it is pointless to create special shining effects on a 5 centimetres letter that look big on a PC but its invisible on a LED screen.
Third rule of formatting: use sans serif fonts only. If the text looks blurry on the LEDwall, we should make any possible effort to make things better. Serif fonts (ie. Courier, Times New Roman etc) are very nice on the PC monitor but they do have the serifs which add pointless "noise" to the text and make it look less clear. Imagine this situation amplified by the "blurry" effect of the virtual pixel. Not good.
Instead use Sans Serif fonts such as Verdana or Tahoma, as they appear much more readable on the LEDwall. And if you absolutely have to use a "noisy" font, at least please use it in big size.
Fourth rule of formatting: use contrasting colors. Over 20 years ago Ms Karen Claus published a table, indicating the color-match with the best contrast ratio. She did it for the classic static signage, but the principle is still valid today. According to her research and studies, the best matches are: black on yellow; black on white; yellow on black; white on blue; yellow on blue; green on white; blue on yellow; white on green. Please use text colors in such combinations and try to avoid such things as pink-on-red.
Fifth rule of formatting: the most plain the text is, the better. On LEDwalls, you have 10/15 seconds to make your ad memorable. It means that if the text is not clear at the first sight, people wont give it a second chance. Remember that they are most probably driving at about 35 km/h and hopefully they are more concerned about the road rather than about a fuzzy headline.
First of all, the ad duration: some people make the huge mistake of creating 30/40 seconds ads. 30 seconds? Are you crazy people? Your audience is not sitting on a sofa waiting for the next TV show! They are most probably driving-by at 30/40 km per hour and hopefully they are more focused on the street rather than your screen.
Still they should be able to see the entire Ads, from start to end while passing by. So what's the point of creating a wonderful Ad, if they can not read the advertiser's phone number and address at the end because the ad is too long?! From my experience an Ad should be maximum 10 seconds in length (rarely 15).
Longer ads are pointless because either your target sees the beginning but not the end, or vice-versa. In both cases, 1. you didn't get the message across, 2. the audience did not find an interesting message on your LEDwall, therefore will have no interest in doing it again in the future and 3. your Customer didn't get much in return for his investment, which should be your very first concern if you want him to come and buy your services again in the future.
Of course there are exceptions to the "10 seconds" general rule, say for LEDwalls installed in pedestrian areas, where people have more time to watch the LEDwall. But as I said, those are exceptions. They are rare. And anyways 30 seconds is still too much, even in these cases.
If you read my past articles, you know why text and numbers appear blurry on a LEDwall with virtual pixel. You can not solve that, but at least try not to make it worse! The first rule of formatting when creating text (ie. the address, phone number etc) for a LEDwall AD is... Ready? Make letters BIIIG! At least 1/4 of the screen! I cant understand those designers that create super small text, that might look nice on their PC or MAC monitor when they create it, but its terrible when broadcast on the LEDwall.
Second rule of formatting: do not apply shades or glossy effects on text. Get it? As said before, this fancy effects might look nice on the monitor, but they definitely they are not cool on the LEDwall. The reason for it is that, despite of its huge size, the LEDwall has actually less pixels than you PC monitor. Much less pixels. So it is pointless to create special shining effects on a 5 centimetres letter that look big on a PC but its invisible on a LED screen.
Third rule of formatting: use sans serif fonts only. If the text looks blurry on the LEDwall, we should make any possible effort to make things better. Serif fonts (ie. Courier, Times New Roman etc) are very nice on the PC monitor but they do have the serifs which add pointless "noise" to the text and make it look less clear. Imagine this situation amplified by the "blurry" effect of the virtual pixel. Not good.
Instead use Sans Serif fonts such as Verdana or Tahoma, as they appear much more readable on the LEDwall. And if you absolutely have to use a "noisy" font, at least please use it in big size.
Fourth rule of formatting: use contrasting colors. Over 20 years ago Ms Karen Claus published a table, indicating the color-match with the best contrast ratio. She did it for the classic static signage, but the principle is still valid today. According to her research and studies, the best matches are: black on yellow; black on white; yellow on black; white on blue; yellow on blue; green on white; blue on yellow; white on green. Please use text colors in such combinations and try to avoid such things as pink-on-red.
Fifth rule of formatting: the most plain the text is, the better. On LEDwalls, you have 10/15 seconds to make your ad memorable. It means that if the text is not clear at the first sight, people wont give it a second chance. Remember that they are most probably driving at about 35 km/h and hopefully they are more concerned about the road rather than about a fuzzy headline.
No comments:
Post a Comment