The Physical Boundaries of Physical Advertising
When you put an ad on a billboard, many people see it. It’s enormous, it’s grand… but how far away can it be spotted? Its reach is measured in short distance.
When you put an ad in a magazine, more people see it. It’s vivid and directed… but it has a similar type of limitation.
Regardless of format, print ads can only cover so much space.
These ads serve a purpose within a certain scope… but they’re limited by access. Billboards can only be seen by people passing a precise location. Magazines can only be seen by people with subscriptions or single issues, often within a certain area. When it comes to physical media space, there are strict physical limitations.
In contrast, virtual media space is virtually boundless. When you put an ad on a website, anyone in the whole wired world can see it. Regardless of whether sites are local, regional, national, or global, online advertising enjoys shared, wide open access. Scattering ads throughout the internet gives a possibility that cannot be matched in print.
Perhaps this is one major reason why traditional newspaper companies are forced to adapt. And surely it has something to do with the troubles of physical media. And they’re certainly not saying this about print ads…
The internet gives brands more reach than any other medium – and this is only the foundation of its advantage. Online ads can be more finely catered to specific audiences, their performance can be tracked, they can be rotated more frequently, they can move, interact, and have unrivaled direct response capabilities.
Online advertising coasts around the physical boundaries of the real world. After all, there aren’t too many places I’ve visited with numbers like these.
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