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Turn your Vinyl Banner into an Advertising Masterpiece
by Rick Hendershot, Trade
Show Tips
By its very nature, a
vinyl banner is meant to be like a big flexible poster or billboard. That
makes it a piece of ADVERTISING, so all the rules and techniques that apply to
advertising design should apply to vinyl banners as well.
Rookie Design Mistakes
In the advertising business you see rookie advertisers making the same design
"mistakes" over and over again. They think people are going to walk up to their
poster, billboard or vinyl banner and examine every detail. So they cram it with
lots of product information, a detailed map of how to get to their store, and
the phone numbers of all their sales reps.
It comes as a bit of a shock to learn this is not how things work. In fact what
happens is this: since we are bombarded with advertising images all day, every
day, we do our best to ignore them. Especially the ones with lots of boring
details.
It gradually dawns on the budding advertiser that what people DO notice is
something striking, different, loud, funny, or shocking. That is why most
professional advertising tries to create a distinctively memorable selling
feature, and then focus on it with striking images, snappy, memorable slogans,
or catchy, sing-able (often loud!) music.
1. Keep it simple
The first, most important rule of thumb when creating a
vinyl banner
design is to KEEP IT SIMPLE. Stick to two or three main elements that
communicate your most important selling points. Identify your product with a
striking photo (if you have one), and then define the most important selling
features with the other elements: usually a striking headline, and some other
"feature" like the price, the amount of discount, or the "free" thing you are
giving away.
2. Use Striking, Colorful Elements
Of course these days we are talking about vinyl banners made with full color
digital printing. So when creating your vinyl banner design, it is usually safe
to use what I call the "Photo ID Model" for digitally printed state-of-the-art
vinyl banners. The "Photo ID model" uses four basic elements:
1. Product photo or photo collage
2. Main Headline
3. Product Description
4. Company Identifier
The Photo ID Model is not the only design style you can use for your vinyl
banner, but it gives you a professional looking, highly effective place to
start. For a more complete description of this design approach, see my article
titled "The Photo ID Advertising Design Model"
3. Use Color Effectively
Use colors to your advantage. Use full color photographs that contain
interesting bright colors. And make your headlines, special offers, and company
identifiers jump out by using red, white or yellow on a black background.
This is called the "reverse text" or "knock out" technique. Look at the hundreds
of signs you see everyday, and notice how often reverse text is used. The
contrast between the light colored text and black (or dark) background gives
your text much more graphic impact.
4. Use Your Imagination. Be Creative!!!
Unfortunately the
Photo ID Model is so effective -- so obvious -- it is very tempting to use
it without thinking much about the IMPACT or CREATIVITY of the various elements.
So for instance, a typical vinyl banner
or other type of display ad for a fictitious company called "Perk-it-Up
Coffee" will often start out like this:
"Perk-it-Up Coffee" (headline)
Photo of can of coffee (photograph)
"Made from the finest coffee beans, blah, blah, blah." (description)
Order yours today from Perky People Coffee, 1234 Java Highway (identifier)
Notice how this is just list a series of relatively unimaginative "facts" about
the product: the product name, what it looks like, how it is made, where you get
it. Not terribly inspiring. No clear statement of its most important features.
No attempt to "sell" the product.
You can do much better than that! With a little bit of imagination your
"Perk-It-Up" vinyl banner could have MUCH MORE IMPACT. For instance, even a
fairly uninspired headline like the one above will come to life if you associate
it with an interesting photograph.
And I'm not just talking about a picture of the product. Use good looking people
if you can. For example, a photo of happy, wide-eyed person holding a
"Perk-It-Up" mug looking as though she just had a major java hit. Now even a
boring headline like "Perk-It-Up Coffee" means something. And now you can go the
next step and be more creative with your headline too!
Keep it simple, make it striking, use color effectively, and be creative. Then
your vinyl banners will have the impact you are looking for.
Rick Hendershot is a marketing consultant, writer, and internet
publisher who lives in Conestogo, Ontario, Canada. He is the founding publisher
of the Linknet Creative Resource
Library.
The Linknet Network is a library of resource materials spread across more
than 25 websites and a number of blogs. You can place your link text on up to 50 pages spread out over at least
25 different
sites for one small annual fee. For more information go to the
Linknet Network website. |
