What are Backlit Posters?
You know when you’re walking into a cinema screen and you pass all the posters for the upcoming superhero extravaganza, Disney adventure or mind warping horror?
Those are backlit posters.
As are the ads at bus stops and in the freestanding carousels in most town centres.
They are a great way to get a little added pizzazz to your marketing message. Plus - if you do happen to be advertising in public, people will be able to see your message in the dark. Which is nice.
As with any piece of design the location of the lightbox and the desired audience will have a direct effect.
What are Backlist Posters made from?
It may surprise you to know that a backlit poster is not just a regular poster shoved into backlit frame.
Well it is, but there’s a bit more to it than that.
For a start, despite appearances, backlit posters aren’t made of paper. In fact, your design is printed on special semi-transparent substrate that is then coated with a thin film that ensures the light in distributed evenly across your poster.
Compared to the more traditional posters, the image quality of backlit posters are much sharper. Between the film substrate and the backlighting the posters are a much clearer image with richer colours and greater details.
What are Backlit Posters good for?
The superior production value means it’s not something you’d use to promote your local jumble sale. The reality is the cost and the required infrastructure - specifically a powered lightbox - means applications are quite specific.
However, the upside of only being able to put your poster where a lightbox already exists is that you know it’s going to be in a high footfall area such as prime highstreet locations, airports, shopping centres and leisure complexes.
That means lots and lots of people seeing your ad.
More to the point that means lots and lots of people seeing your snazzy ad with a little something extra.
Backlit posters are great for delivering a high impact message in an extremely premium way.
Because the frames are in premium settings there is inevitably the benefit of being perceived in a premium way.
That gives your brand a boost that most other forms of offline advertising just can’t do.
A billboard is impressive but a beautifully designed, glowing lightbox poster really shows people who’s boss.
Backlit posters are good for giving you and your product or service the attention they deserve.
Providing you’ve got your design right, you’ve also got a great opportunity to win some new business.
How to make it measurable
This is the rub when it comes to offline advertising. How do you prove it works?
Well the agency that owns the ad space will be able to tell you how many people walk and/or drive by on a daily basis.
That’s helpful because it gives you a rough idea of exposure but the number is soft and totally unverifyable. Short of installing a camera and watching people.
Which might get you in some degree of trouble.
However, there are ways of tracking how many people liked your poster enough to do something about it.
- QR Codes
- Customer URL
- Checkins
See our range of backlit posters here.
If you have any questions, we’re always happy to help!