You have probably been to a sporting event or beach and seen a plane fly overhead pulling a banner. This is an aerial banner ad and is designed to convey the message randomly to thousands of people. Such banner ads are very popular and are used to remind people of established businesses, to tell of new stores or restaurants, to promote political candidates, even to convey proposals for marriage or birthday wishes.

Aerial banners have been proven effective as a relatively low cost high impact means of advertising. The message is virtually uncontested as it grabs the attention of a large audience and repeats the message many times as the plane flies over the crowd. The cost per contact is unparalleled in the retail world of advertising.

The ad has a captured audience, no competition, the sound of the plane to draw attention to it, and the factor of repetition for usually the plane will fly over the audience many times in one afternoon. All this is part of the technique. All the messages are, by necessity, brief. The people have just 17 seconds to read it. Yet some ads are more effective than others in persuading an audience to consider a certain product or service. What makes a good banner ad?

Several factors make up a good banner ad. The advertiser has a goal in mind and the brief message must reach that goal. The message must be catchy, readable, attractive, and it must be easy to remember. The printer will take care of the readability, usually using seven foot letters. They will also have suggestions on making it attractive. Your job then is to plan a message that at once conveys what you want to say in few words and is easy to remember.

Here is a poem that has helped many people plan: There are six honest serving men Who taught me all I knew. Their names are what and when and why And how and where and who. So first you should write down everything you feel is important enough to include in the ad. You must be concise. Notice that some of the six question words above will not need to be answered on the banner. For example, they don’t need to know how you operate. But the questions what, when, and where are needed to get people to visit you. Sometimes too much information is needed to include on a banner so the banner merely tells of a phone number or web address where more information is available.

Once you finish your list of must know information, then work on the wording until you are satisfied it is the best possible. Short messages are harder to write than long ones. It would be nice to tell the captivated audience all about yourself but the banner simply wouldn’t allow that, nor would the people remember it.  Perhaps best would be to tell them just enough to get them interested in learning more.

Now that your full message is concise, ask yourself, “Is it easy to remember?” Why is this important? People at a beach or sporting event are normally not going to be prepared to take notes. After all, you ad is a brief diversion from their main purpose in being there. It is good to test your idea on others to see if they think it will be remembered. Take your time to make it catchy. It will be worth the effort.

Once you have followed these steps, it is time to get in touch with a banner towing company and get it printed and into the air. It won’t take long before your well planned message will be read by thousands and the result in sales will soon follow.