Cardboard Displays In A Digital World

Posted on Sep 12 2014 - 12:30pm by Editorial Staff

Cardboards

There’s no denying it: We live in a digital world. We write and sign papers digitally. Paper, not required. We send and receive digital mail, much to the chagrin of analog junk mailers. We even have digital relationships. We share digital baby and puppy pictures. We digitally hook up and break up, all without meeting in person. We express our deepest feelings with emoticons.

Naturally, advertisers have taken notice. Some Facebook feeds have more messages from advertisers than friends and family. Even Twitter has gone the way of stuffing your feed with ads. Internet TV by way of Hulu is so plentiful and intrusive, they make one miss terrestrial TV.

Billboards have also been digitized. Some of the most beautiful and appealing display technology is devoted to showing you a picture of a fake Big Mac on Highway 10. In as many seconds later, it is showing the concerned face of a personal injury attorney.

Even the grocery store experience has gone digital. TV screens and digital monitors extolling the virtues of Hidden Valley Ranch are just as common as traditional end-caps. Bendable, water-damageable cardboard signage is being slowly squeezed out. And that’s a real shame, as there are good reasons to use cardboard signs in a digital world. Here are just a few:

Affordability

It may not matter if you are one of the lucky few making McDonalds money. But if you are a typical small business owner, the cost of marketing materials matter. How many jumbo LCD monitors can you afford? How many more cardboard displays could you afford?

Each display represents ad impressions. The only thing cardboard displays need do to generate those impressions is simply to exist in a place where people can see them. Now ask yourself which is better, one display, or ten. Though not always true, in this case, more is better. Affordability matters

Convenience

Cardboard displays are among the most convenient type of marketing material there is. You don’t need a power outlet to plug in a cardboard sign. You don’t need a cool, dry space to protect finicky electronics. You don’t need it at just the right viewing angle as to be visible by all. You don’t have to find a stud in the wall, and the right kind of wall mount. You don’t need to run cables, or engage in expensive maintenance when things go horribly wrong.

A cardboard cutout of the Slim-Jim man enjoying a tasty, larger-than-life treat will stand or lean just about anywhere, reminding every passerby that a tangy, jerked snack will make everything just a little better.

Consistent Messaging

The thing about a television ad is that the images are constantly moving, and the message shifts from moment to moment. Turn away for a second or two, and you might miss the punchline that made it worth watching in the first place.

The beauty of a cardboard display ad is that it is the same every time for everyone who encounters it. It is the moment of culinary excellence when the trucker takes a hearty bite of that ThickBurger, his unspoken ecstasy frozen in time, causing subliminal salivation for generations to come. Now that’s an ad.

Environmentally Friendly

Cardboard displays are biodegradable. That means even if you just threw them away, nature would reclaim them. Of course, there are much better options such as recycling. The raw material from the display that sold your widget can be used as the raw material for someone else’s success story down the line.

A computer-type display is usually made with environmentally unfriendly toxins. They have to be very carefully disposed of when they are no longer in service. Just turning them on and lighting that panel burns non-renewable resources.

Cardboard displays are cost effective, convenient, consistent, and conservationist. As a marketing tool, they’re not broke. They most certainly do not need to be fixed by digital displays.

Photo Credit/Source: Cardboard Main Flutes Labeled by Chris 73

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Editorial Staff at I2Mag is a team of subject experts.