HOW TO CORRECTLY ALIGN A BILLBOARD FOR MAXIMUM VISIBILITY

When I drive down highways today, I am always saddened by all the billboard operators who are taking pretty good billboard locations and wrecking them with poor sign face alignment.  This art seems to be getting progressively forgotten and underappreciated.

When a car is traveling down a road and reading a billboard, one of the critical steps to maximizing the length of the time they can read the ad message is the angle of the sign face to the on-coming traffic.  The more the sign is aimed at the traffic, and the longer it is aimed at the traffic, the better a sign is.  And the better a sin is, the more you can rent it for.

There are three types of initial angles.  There is essentially “no angle” which is a back-to back sign.  In this case, the sign is at a 90 degree angle to the road.  The next is a small “V”, in which the sign is slightly angled at the traffic.  Finally, there is a large “V”, in which the sign is significantly skewed towards traffic.  The cheapest to build is always the back-to back, and the big v is always more expensive than the small v.  What does that tell you?  If price was no object, the big v is always the best!

Another consideration in choosing a v or back to back is how much room you have to work with.  If the sign must stay in the smallest confined spaced, then the back-to-back is the clear winner.  Sometimes, even when cost is no object, this commits you to a back-to-back.

Once you have decided on how much v you can afford and will fit, you must decide on the alignment of the sign in relation to the highway or road.  To do this properly, you must study the visibility from the road and the surrounding obstructions.  If there are trees or bridges that the sign suddenly “pops” out from behind, then you definitely all the v you can get to keep that sign in the viewers windshield as long as possible.  If there is a long, clean view of the sign from both directions, then you will want to favor the left-hand read with the greater angle, since it is read from a farther physical distance.

When you align the sign at the job site, which is done at the time the pole is installed in the ground, be sure to do the alignment from out in the road.  A cheap pair of walkie talkies is perfect for this job.  Have the contractor slowly rotate the pole until you have aligned the angles based on the actual view from the road.  Never align the sign from the field where you are building it.  This is lazy approach, and never works well.  You need to get out there and align it from the road it is viewed from.

With the proper v and proper alignment, and sign can be a winner!

About the Author:

Frank Rolfe started his billboard empire from his coffee table, as a fresh graduate from Stanford University.  It began as a resume builder for graduate school applications, and ended with a sale to a public company 14 years later.
 
Using unique strategies he developed from desperate competition with much larger adversaries, Rolfe eventually owned more billboard units than any private individual in Dallas/Ft. Worth.  Along the way, he fine-tuned the techniques to find billboard locations, rent advertising space, and sell signs and leases.

Rolfe is the author of the Billboard Home Study Course and has also put together the only bootcamp for those looking for a crash course on the billboard industry.  The Billboard Bootcamp is held twice a year in St. Louis, MO.