Types of Outdoor Advertising and Its Unfailing Impact

In the present consumer driven market, advertising has become the need of the hour. However, with so many brands competing in the same market, for the same set of consumers, how will your product stand out? This is a million dollar question that troubles almost every brand. That’s why in addition to the traditional advertising tools, entrepreneurs are now investing into outdoor advertising.

Outdoor advertising, the term in itself is self-sufficient to give out a meaning. It is nothing but advertising done at outdoors like ads on buses, bulletins and so on. Now that the meaning is quite clear, let’s shed some light on types of outdoor advertising.

Billboard advertising

Placing an advertisement of your products on a billboard hanging right up at the major roadways is one of the most effective ways of promoting a product or service. The stats of traffic movement on the roads are not hidden from anyone. Thus, you know you can reach a considerable number of people with this type of outdoor advertising.

Moreover, those who end up in a great traffic jam have no choice but to stare at the billboards. In this way, you reach to masses either knowingly or unknowingly.

Wrap advertising

A billboard is stagnant, while wrap advertising is mobile. It includes partial or complete wrapping of vehicle in an advertisement. Generally public vehicles are used for the purpose like busses and cabs. I remember witnessing bus wrap advertising so many times. It was done so beautifully that I couldn’t take my eyes off the bus.

Street furniture advertising

In addition to billboards and vehicles, advertisers are now making the best possible use of street furniture. They put ads on kiosk, bus shelters, benches and urban panel. In this way, they enhance the visibility of the advertisement.

These are some of the top types of outdoor advertising that help to market products and services. The reason to why this type of advertising is earning rapid growth is because people now-a-days spend more time in commuting (be it for fun, work or whatsoever random reason); thus, if you wish to hit them, you will have to hit them at the right place.

Choose your outdoor advertising partner wisely

On the whole, outdoor advertising is not only cheaper on cost, but also unfailingly effective on impact. What matters is the caliber of the company that you choose to serve your purpose. The internet may be of immense help to you while choosing the best outdoor advertising partner for your products and services. Just conduct an independent research online to be able to reach the best. If possible, you can try some references also to stay assured that the company you are going to choose serves your purpose all the way.

Auction Listings Are Vital to the Success of Fundraising Auctions

Fundraising Auction Tip: You should always provide potential bidders with a printed Auction Listing of both your Live and Silent Auction items at any Fundraising Auction. A printed Auction Listing is vital for several reasons:

An Auction Listing informs bidders of the order of sale, and what is coming up next. If you keep your bidders guessing, they will simply not bid.

If bidders are not 100% certain of what they are bidding on, they will not bid. A printed Auction Listing should answer any and all questions about what is being sold in order to encourage bidders to bid as much as possible.

Bidders often need time to plan their bidding strategies, especially on multiple and/or larger value items. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Couples often need time to consult with each other about what they are willing to spend on something. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Potential bidders need to know the specifics, the benefits, and the restrictions on any item they are going to bid on, especially on travel and/or other higher value items. A printed Auction Listing should answer all of their questions, in writing.

After bidders see that they have lost an item to another bidder, a printed Auction Listing makes it easier for them to re-strategize on what else they can bid on.
Printed Auction Listings generally come in 3 forms:

Printed in the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-inserted into the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-delivered to all attendees, or left on each dinner table in the room.
Auction Listings cost practically nothing to produce and they can make the difference between the success and failure of a Live and Silent Auction. You should never conduct a Fundraising Auction without one.

A Case Study

Let me share a real-life experience with you. Once I was hired to conduct a Fundraising Auction for a nationally renowned organization. The event was held in a major hotel, in one of the country’s largest cities, with several hundred “black tie” participants attending. It was an extremely professional event, with the music, singing, lighting, speeches, and awards all perfectly timed and choreographed. Everything was done to perfection… exception the Fundraising Auction.

Although I had signed an agreement to serve as their Auctioneer nearly one year in advance of the event, no one bothered to contact me for any advice or help. Approximately one week prior to the Auction date, I contacted the group to see if they had replaced me with another Auctioneer. But they said that I was still their man.

Upon arriving at the event I asked for a copy of the Auction Listing. I was told that there were none. I’m not sure whether they felt that the Auction Listing wasn’t necessary, or whether someone forgot to have them printed. This was never made clear. When I asked what I was to use at the podium, I was told to copy the list of Live Auction items from a committee member’s computer. It took me about 30 minutes to copy three pages of hand-written notes in order to prepare for my role as their Auctioneer.

I knew that they had created a PowerPoint program showing the various Live Auction items. When I asked whether the PowerPoint slide order corresponded to the order of sale I had copied from the committee member’s computer, I was met with a blank stare. The committee member left to check the slide order, and returned to let me know that the slide order did not correspond my notes, and he provided me with the correct slide order… hand-written on a paper napkin. This forced me to re-arrange my three pages of hand-written notes before taking the podium.

There was a Live Auction Table with descriptions of the Live Auction items that were to be sold, but the table was not clearly marked, and it received significantly less attention than the Silent Auction Tables, which were clearly identified. Since the Live Auction Table was located adjacent to the “Raffle Table”, it appeared that most people thought it was part of the raffle and therefore paid very little attention to it.

According to the event program (which did not include an Auction Listing), I knew approximately when I was to begin the Live Auction. At the designated time the Master of Ceremonies announced the start of the Live Auction to the several hundred people in attendance, and introduced me as Auctioneer. As I approached the podium I realized that photographs of award winners were still being taken… directly in front of the podium where I was to stand… which required me to stand aside for several minutes until the photographers were done. Can we say “awkward moment”?

As the photographers cleared, I approached the podium and began my Live Auction introduction. Approximately one minute into my introduction, the “Raffle Committee” approached the podium and stopped my Live Auction Introduction in order to pull the 8 or 9 Raffle Winners. These drawings lasted about 5 minutes. Upon it’s conclusion I was allowed to resume the start of the Live Auction.

When standing at the podium two intense and extremely bright spotlights were pointed directly at the podium. The lights were so bright that I literally could not see the center 1/3 of the room. I could see the tables on the right, and on the left, but was totally blinded when looking straight ahead. It took perhaps five minutes before the spotlights were turned off.

While at the podium and describing Lot #1, I had to ask someone to start the Lot #1 PowerPoint Slide… because apparently no one was assigned that job.

So with only the Auctioneer’s verbal description, and a PowerPoint slide, it appeared that few people in the room had any idea about what we were selling… or when we were selling it… until it was announced by the Auctioneer. As a result, bidding was extremely light and the final results fell several thousands of dollars short of where they should have been
The learning experience is this:

The Live Auction is where you place your better items, and where the real money should be made at any Fundraising Auction. Let bidders know as far in advance as possible what you will be selling, and the order of sale, so they can get excited about the Auction, and plan their bidding strategy accordingly.

Auction Listings are absolutely vital to the success of both Live & Silent Auctions. In my opinion, revenues at this Auction fell thousands of dollars short of where they should have been, because no Auction Listing was provided to the guests.

If bidders are not perfectly clear on what is being sold, including both the item’s specifics, benefits, and restrictions, they will not bid.

When you have a committee of volunteers, especially volunteers having full time jobs and/or very busy schedules, the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can help to keep the committee on track.

And once you retain the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer… use the services that you are paying for.

Yahoo Small Business – The Many Benefits

When a person starts a small business, there are many preparations to be made to ensure the overall success of the business. Some of these preparations include setting up a webpage, developing a domain, implementing emails for the business, getting internet access that is appropriate to the needs of your business, as well as developing a marketing strategy. If you implement the use of Yahoo Small Business, you can get all of this and more! In this article, you will be introduced to a number of benefits when it comes to using Yahoo Small Business.One of the main benefits of using Yahoo to assist you with your small business needs is the Yahoo Small Business Web Hosting service that is offered. With Yahoo, you can enjoy a multitude of wonderful features. The first being that you can design your website with a great deal of flexibility! You can also implement the use of the many professionally designed templates, or pull a template from a 3rd party.In addition to this, Yahoo Small Business Web Hosting service gives you a lot of web hosting space for your products. Each month, you are permitted to have an unbelievable 200GB of bandwidth in which data can be transferred to your customers. You can also enjoy a large 5GB of web space to effectively design your website.When you sign up for Yahoo Small Business Web Hosting, you can get a free domain name in order to brand your website. If you already have a domain name, that is no problem! Yahoo will allow you to bring your own name with you! In addition to outstanding features that come with your web hosting subscription with Yahoo, you can enjoy the comfort of knowing that there are specially trained professionals available to you every hour of the day of the week if you have questions, concerns, or issues with your service or website.Many small businesses enjoy the Yahoo Small Business Web Hosting service because the subscription runs on a month to month basis, and there are no contracts involved in which you must commit to a certain term of service. Furthermore, the prices are quite competitive. You can have all the benefits of this service for as little as $7.77 for the first 2 months, and then $8.96 per month thereafter! This is an exceptional value!When using Yahoo Small Business, you can enjoy a variety of marketing features. Marketing is a key component to the overall success of your business. One of the most popular methods that many business owners use is advertising in Yahoo! Local. You can display your business logo, describe your business, advertise your products, and more by implementing the use of this effective marketing strategy.Individuals who take advantage of the marketing tools in Yahoo Small Business can submit their website to the Yahoo search engine. Many business owners also submit their website to the Yahoo Directory, and promote their products in Yahoo Shopping. By using these various marketing tools, a business can gain exposure, increase their search engine ranking, and potentially earn an outstanding income. Yahoo Small Business works to make every effort to ensure that each business is successful in their endeavors.Internet access is often very important when it comes to the productivity of the small business. While there are numerous providers of internet service available today, if a business decides to use Yahoo as their one stop business solution, they can enjoy the collaboration of Yahoo and AT&T. This collaboration can provide you with an inexpensive way to ensure high speed internet access with great reliability. For as little as $14.95 a month, one can enjoy exciting features such as enhanced business security, effective and reliable connections, and many tools that allow you to communicate with your clients, customers, and coworkers.Email is an essential part of every small business. When you utilize the email service that is provided by Yahoo Small Business, you can enjoy many features, which include:- Unlimited Space on the Email Server- Your Domain Name on Email Addresses- Free Email Newsletter- Spam Solutions- Name Brand Antivirus SoftwareBy using this Yahoo Business Email service, you can assign personalized email addresses to individuals that conduct work within your small business. If you want to create a professional, high-quality solution to your email needs, Yahoo provides outstanding services that make this possible.As you can see, utilizing Yahoo Small Business can prove to provide many benefits to your small business. You can depend on this service to provide highly technological solutions for your business with outstanding reliability and customer service.Create a yahoo web site for yourself and see the excellent benefits and features that you can have for a great price. The Site Solutions tool alone will amaze you with how easy it is to build a web site. These features are a great beginning on why anyone should choose Yahoo Small Business.