Construction Site Advertising:
Spotlight on Your Message

Construc­tion sites are a paradise for creative outdoor adver­tis­ing. No other place would provide such spaces, would offer such exclu­sive­ness of media. Be it a hoard­ing of 100-meter or a high-rise scaf­fold­ing: When imagery and message go togeth­er, it is virtu­al­ly impos­si­ble not to be intrigued by such adver­tis­ing. Construc­tion site adver­tis­ing, there­fore, is para­dig­mat­ic for Valdivia’s series on types of market­ing and adver­tis­ing specif­i­cal­ly for construc­tion and real estate.

Oppor­tu­ni­ties on Site

Self-market­ing suggests itself as the most conve­nient way. You promote your project in your own surround­ings, draw your buyers’ or tenants’ atten­tion to said project as well as to your company’s other ones. Rent­ing adver­tis­ing space to third parties is a little bit more diffi­cult. Obvi­ous­ly, your users want to be sure that their adver­tis­ing will be noticed. And the author­i­ties will have their say as well:

• Adver­tis­ing space needs to be easy-to-see and should not be covered by trees or parts of build­ings. A well-frequent­ed loca­tion is to be preferred, such as inter­sec­tions, tram routes or pedes­tri­an areas.
• Commer­cial adver­tise­ments will only be permit­ted on construc­tion sites in mixed devel­op­ments with both resi­den­tial and commer­cial build­ings. Pure­ly resi­den­tial areas will be exclud­ed from commer­cial adver­tis­ing and so will public sector projects. Restric­tions also apply if the object itself or its imme­di­ate surround­ings are list­ed as protect­ed heritage.

This sounds like a lot of effort but it is worth it: depend­ing on the size of space and the loca­tion, rent­ing can yield a hand­some sum. Stan­dard banners on scaf­fold­ings or hoard­ings are most common­ly rent­ed out for 28-day inter­vals; special formats and perma­nent instal­la­tions, converse­ly, have to be arranged individually.

Being Creative Is Being Attractive

Stretched over 6 or 8 storeys of height, even a stan­dard poster will leave an enor­mous impres­sion. This is even more true of the new trend called high-impact adver­tis­ing. True to the motto ’less is more’, high-impact formats are aimed at reach­ing high levels of atten­tion through large spaces and creative designs.

In order to fully exploit the specif­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties of construc­tion site adver­tis­ing, press for creative solu­tions match­ing the given context. A long stretch of hoard­ing, for instance, is ideal for story­telling or for present­ing the consec­u­tive steps in a devel­op­ment – and why not as a cartoon? Mega­pos­ters on scaf­fold­ings, by contrast, work effec­tive­ly both at close range and from a consid­er­able distance. For this reason, images and texts have to come in strik­ing and simple design.

Construc­tion panels do not allow for that much vari­ety, with their contents being subject to legal require­ments. And yet, even they can display an attrac­tive 3D image of the object, a short message in the subline, and a URL for further information.

From Gate Signs to Paint­ings of Light

Apart from that, numer­ous other elements at a construc­tion site can serve as a tempo­rary or perma­nent adver­tis­ing medium:

• With a cover in match­ing colours, contain­ers can be turned into a ‘design sample’ for the build­ing to be completed.
• Consis­tent signage for orien­ta­tion and safe­ty high­light the char­ac­ter­is­tics and unity of larg­er projects.
• Hoard­ings can be equipped with attach­ments contain­ing novel and unusu­al messages.
• Even machin­ery can be incor­po­rat­ed in the gener­al idea: After all, who has never been fasci­nat­ed by construc­tion sites at night with their cranes’ lights paint­ing colour­ful lines in the other­wise pitch­dark sky?

Espe­cial­ly in self-market­ing, howev­er, consis­ten­cy is key: Effi­ca­cy in the real world relies on clear and consis­tent messages. And then there is this one popu­lar and inex­pen­sive ‘adver­tis­ing space’ at construc­tions sites: the peep­hole in the fence for curi­ous passers-by.