Going Home for the Holidays?

Happy Thanksgiving!

The holiday season is upon us and many people will either be traveling to see family and friends or opening up their homes to family and friends. If you fall into one or both of those two camps, then we have a few, very helpful ideas for you and your display!

Community Messages

The primary use for most LED displays is to advertise goods or services. But you can also use your display to keep your community informed of events and to celebrate special occasions. Using your display for these messages can really build a sense of togetherness and goodwill in your area.

Think about how your campaign can involve community events and public service announcements. A recent survey revealed that 55% of shoppers believe a message board shows the store cares about the community.* So, it’s important to look at your city’s calendar to tie in specials with local tournaments, meets and events.

Now is also the perfect time to use your display to remind people to drive slowly and carefully.  During the holiday season, more people are out on the roads than normally, driving on both familiar and unfamiliar roads. Not only that, during this time of the year the roads can be treacherous and slippery due to ice or snow, depending on where you are.

Take Inspiration!

I’m sure up to this point you have followed all of our best practices and recommendations and used all of the tips and tricks from our blog articles to get the most out of your display. Way to go!

But always keep one thing in mind. Even the best ad campaigns can become stale or dull to passersby. I’m not saying that you need to change up your messages every single day, but you should always know what is playing and how often it has played. Repetition is a good way to get the message out to the world, but eventually people will get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again and will simply stop looking.

If you want a quick fix, simply change the background color to something people aren’t used to. You can also change your messages’ wording. For example, instead of “Buy one, get one half off,” try changing it to “Half Price, buy one first.”

Also try emphasizing certain words in your message by capitalizing them, making them bold, or underlining them. Remember though, reading text in all caps actually takes longer than reading normal text, so only place emphasis on certain specific words.

Another way to find inspiration is to notice what others are doing when you travel! You won’t believe how many ideas you will come across traveling to other cities and states. People come up with amazing unique ideas and ad campaigns. All you have to do is keep your eyes open and pay attention while you’re driving!

Remember, it’s okay to write things down and take pictures if you’re worried you won’t remember by the time you return home. If you see something that really catches your eye on the road, chances are it will do the same back home!

FREE Holiday Content

As most of you probably already know, you can find Thanksgiving-, Christmas- and New Year-themed content in your FREE Media Kit. If you haven’t gotten the free Media Kit yet, then please click the link below and follow the instructions to get more than 200 pieces of free creative content.

How do I download the Venus Control Suite Media Kit?

Once you have the Media Kit, you can find holiday content by choosing from the Animations or Stills folders and then clicking on the Holidays category.

Now you will see more than 30 pieces of holiday content, including 2 for Thanksgiving, 2 for Christmas and 2 for the New Year. Just upload this content into the Venus Control Suite software and schedule to play on your Daktronics display!

If you want to add even more holiday cheer to your display, then be sure to visit our e-commerce site where we offer tons of content for you to buy and even a whole bunch of free content to download!

Now is the time to get started creating community and holiday messages when the holiday spirit is high. Be sure to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Thanks for reading!

* The Economic Impact of Exterior Electronic Message Boards, April 2014