QUICK QUESTION: To advertise my last one-man show I rented a billboard for one month prior to the show's opening. It worked well and I want to do it again. I've attached the mock-up for the billboard here. If you have a moment, look at my portfolio on this site—or go to my website: RandySteelePortfolio.com—and choose an artwork you think would work well for my show next year.
I don't choose work for people, I wouldn't know what a billboard needs to do for your show versus what it does once someone walks in. But I'm curious: when you rented the first one, did you track what brought people through the door? I ask because everyone I've talked to who's used paid outdoor has a story about whether it was the image or just the sheer presence of it that moved the needle.
Owen, that's a great question, and the truth is that I have no idea what brought people to the show. I do know that it created a lot of buzz. Many people were talking about it, and even took pictures of it, which they sent to me. It did get me noticed. But was it worth the cost? I don't know, and I have no way to measure it. By the way, the billboard for one month cost me about $1000, which compared to advertising in local newspapers was about equal.
The buzz and the pictures might be the same thing, people sharing it means it worked, even if you can't price that part out.
I ran a billboard once. Tracking what it did versus what I hoped it would do taught me more than the month it was up. The image I picked wasn't the one I loved most, it was the one that held from sixty feet at highway speed, and that gap between what works in a room and what works on a freeway taught me something about scale I still use when I'm sequencing a show. Sounds like you already know what moved for you last time, which puts you ahead of most people renting outdoor.
Tavares, you are correct on all points, and you obviously speak from experience, which is rare. I ran the question through this site's AI, and was surprised that it concluded that my painting Cow Belles might work best. But I'm not confident that it's correct, which is why I'm asking the membership here.