A Damn Good Billboard
What goes into a Billboard? More than you may think.
Legal billboards are in such plentiful supply, that you can hardly drive on a highway without seeing a half dozen “Personal Injury” billboards. So what do you do when you want to stick out in a sea of sameness on a limited budget?
That was the question posed to me when Hill & Rainey approached me to help them design a billboard to advertise their personal injury business. They had a small billboard purchase in an lightly trafficked area of central southern Virginia, and wanted to use their marketing budget to the best of their ability. It certainly was a pickle of a problem, how would you create something so unique that hasn’t been done 1000 times, and do it on the fraction of the budget. That’s when I started taking mental notes while driving, taking note on what made these billboards so… dull. Here are some things I noticed:
Most legal billboards only featured old men looking serious
Most featured these men in color, along with a neutral/dark background
Most used the same language to capture your attention. I.E. “Injured?”, “Had an accident”.
So what can Hill & Rainey do? Well the first thing I wanted to do was “Zig” when everyone else was “Zagging”. That meant a colorful background that looked bright in dull surroundings, and clearly was different than anything else out there. I made sure to highlight not only the more experienced attorneys, but the young male and female attorneys as well. I think it was important to use their company makeup as an asset to show their broader diversity of talent that a potential customer might be able to relate to.
And finally, I needed to do something that caused a little bit of controversy. I knew that this billboard was in an area that would be highly trafficked by locals, and the area, being somewhat blue collar, might respond to something a little edgy. In this case, I looked up “Damn Good Lawyers”, and noticed that not a single law firm in the country has used this tagline. So let’s highlight that slogan in white (make it pop), and have people either chuckle or do a double take, to see if Hill & Rainey can stick out a bit.
Fast forward a year, and the billboard is now up. I have been told by everyone there that whether they are in town, getting client calling up, or in court, they are often asked “Are you the damn good lawyers?”. Sure, some didn’t like the language, but many more did.
So did the billboard accomplish its goals? Damn Straight it did!
