Fruits of Success: #OSCAR winning Selling by #Facebook with their Poster campaign coordinating the power of visual

Sunday 22 February 2015

#OSCAR winning Selling by #Facebook with their Poster campaign coordinating the power of visual

"As a filmmaker, I wish we didn't have to do trailers at all, quite honestly. I wish we didn't have to do posters. I wish didn't have to give anything away. I wish people could just come in the movie blind. But as an audience member, I respect that you have to tell an audience that this is worth your time."
Drew Goddard

As the Hollywood Oscars for 2015 are celebrated, it reminds me of another awards competition for posters , hoardings etc. that used to be held.

The event was promoted by OSCAR Outside Site Classification and Awards Research.

The Outdoor Media Industry can teach we in selling a lot about designs for our Pop Up stand, posters and leaflets etc which we use to promote our offering albeit in our smaller scaled manner

Back in the day, 1987 the UK Outdoor Media industry launched OSCAR –

It was felt that audience claims for posters and hoardings were overstated and a more objective set of measures was required.

OSCAR involved noting the physical characteristics of all the poster displayed across the country through a comprehensive survey.

Data collected included :-

· the direction a panel faced,

· its height,

· distance from the road etc.

The number of people passing by a panel could then be ‘netted down’ according to these factors, introducing better accuracy into audience counts. Eyeballs were countered rather differently to our social media clicks of today.

Coverage and frequency estimates that resulted were lowered

– 1,000 roadside posters were now predicted to reach about 45% instead of the previous rough and ready guesstimate of 85% 'rule of thumb'. Most in the business considered the estimates to be far more realistic than before.

Traditional Large poster site

I am not sure OSCAR still exists but if it does, but if I was on the panel of judges my nomination this month would be the blitz campaign of Facebook February 2015.

They have kept it simple.

Few words, a logo and a Photo and a like-tick in the box.

Keep it simple salespeople KISS

Less of a kiss perhaps,more a knock-out combination of advert punches I’d say

What makes for good poster design ?

The poster design needs to convey the message yet at the same time appeal to the aesthetic tastes of your audience.

Behind a good poster should be a message or idea.

The Imax 3D Cinema on the Southbank of Thames

It must communicate something and should reach everyone.

The design should be consistent with the details

At night on the Imax

The same font should be used for the titles of all the series for consistency.

The core skill is learning how to balance a composition, and looking at how the viewer's eye will see it.

Balancing the font type and images is essential as you want people to notice the image.

In a nutshell it must be readable, legible, well-organised and succinct.

When creating an effective poster it is very important to remember that less is more

Video Clip below :The huge screen over the platform entrances at London's Waterloo mainline railway station - the facebook campaign movie !

Display at Waterloo station

1. Try not to clutter your poster and make it look to busy.

2. Keep the writing as short and to the point as possible

3. Choose a simple colour scheme and stick to it

4. Do not overpower the poster with graphics and tables etc.

With this Facebook campaign you sense they tested everything that they used, tried out different font styles and sizes and ask for other people’s opinion.

Lessons for we in selling with our smaller scale posters, leaflets and flyers in selling.

When you have decided what information and graphics you want to use, print them out, cut them out and lay on to the poster sized template, so you can move them around until you think it looks right.

This way you can see what it will look like when finished, and not just up on your computer screen.