Why Hospitals Use Billboards: Chicago Billboard Cost & Demographic Data

Any business or organization that is trying to communicate its message to the public needs to focus on being effective.  When your mission and your message is about improving the health of your community, being effective is doubly important. We’ll examine why hospitals and other community-focused organizations use billboard advertising (like Bus Wraps) to engage communities with health messaging, yielding healthier populations, and better communities.

BENEFITS OF OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

Before analyzing how billboards can help hospitals build their brands in the neighborhoods where they operate, let’s focus briefly on the benefits and features of billboards. 

In busy streets—and Chicago has plenty of these—billboards are the center of attention. The more dense a neighborhood is, the more power a billboard has to reach potential patients. 

Chicago is a great example of a city where billboards can effectively help hospitals reach more patients. Consider that neighborhood hospitals, by definition, mostly serve people within their neighborhood. Some Chicago hospitals have such a great reputation that people from all around the area come to seek medical help in these facilities, but even in those cases, most patients come from the surrounding areas of the hospital. By advertising in the areas surrounding their location, hospitals can reach thousands of potential new clients with only a few well-placed billboards. 

Another aspect of how patients find hospitals to consider is that people aren’t always aware of what hospital they need or can go to. It’s not like people go to the hospital all the time; more often than not, people don’t think about their choice of hospital until they need to go to one. This is why billboards are super effective for neighborhood advertising. By leaving a constant presence of their brand in busy streets, Chicago hospitals can increase the likelihood that when people need medical care, they will remember their name and choose them.

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Quick Facts

• According to many, 65% of humans learn best from visual communication 

• Billboards can reach a much broader audience base than other advertising media

• Billboards make geographic targeting (an important tactic in hospital marketing) very simple

• Outdoor advertising is often more affordable than other advertising media

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LIMITATIONS OF BILLBOARD ADVERTISING

Of course, no advertising medium is perfect, and even though billboards have many benefits, there are some limitations that do affect marketing. It’s always important to be aware of all the facets of an advertising medium in order to pick the best strategy available that suits your objectives.

Critics of OOH like to point out that billboards aren’t as good at targeting different audiences. At first glance, this can make sense; a huge Wallscape goes up in Tri-Taylor—how do you control who it is targeting? Well, it turns out billboards are actually deeply targeted because different neighborhoods have different people living in them. We have created neighborhood profiles with information about income levels, age ranges, and more. When we choose a location for your billboard, we know exactly who’s more likely to see that ad. 

Billboard auditing through Geopath gives us even more information about who is seeing your advertisement, and based on that information, we can make adjustments to make sure we actually reach the audiences you are interested in reaching. Also, for hospitals it can be even more beneficial to reach a larger swatch of people from all backgrounds rather than specific demographic groups. 

Another aspect to consider about outdoor ads is how they are paid for. Billboards are contracted for weeks at a time, sometimes even a whole month. Some people might think this makes them expensive, but we see this as a positive aspect. Instead of setting up a billboard for months at a time, you can choose to only pay for it to be up during the right time for your brand. For example, you can create a holiday campaign that runs through December, and then stop the outdoor campaign. Also, we pride ourselves in getting our customers results. We won’t just set up a billboard and leave it up—we’ll monitor its efficacy and make adjustments, if necessary. When we work with hospitals, we operate as their advertising partner to make them successful.

As you learn more about outdoor advertising, you can determine whether or not it’s beneficial for your business, but we often find that there’s a billboard strategy that works for any business, big or small.

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Schedule a FREE Consultation

Billboard advertising is easier when you have experts by your side. Talk to one of our billboard experts about advertising for your hospital and explore the strategies you can use to increase your reach. 

SCHEDULE TODAY

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Billboards for Hospitals

Now that we’ve covered many benefits for outdoor ads, we can look more specifically at three strong reasons why billboards are uniquely suited to help hospitals with their marketing efforts.

PEOPLE LIKE BILLBOARDS

A recent study shows that the target audience for hospitals receives outdoor advertising messaging favorably.

John Fortenberry (School of Business, Louisiana State University) sought to understand the effectiveness of billboard advertising for hospitals and conducted an experiment. Collecting perspectives from over 1,500 patients what he found was that:

1. Billboard advertising is, in fact, being noticed by patients

2. The advertisements are favorably viewed by the patients

3. The advertisements were effective in increasing patient patronage

An expertly placed billboard in a specific neighborhood or community has a tremendous effect, John elaborated saying,

“Contextually, outdoor advertising firms seek to place billboards at locations with the highest traffic counts in given marketplaces as a means of increasing the exposure potential of the featured advertisements [18, 21, 22]. This makes high-density, urban areas top choices for billboard placements. While most of the audiences encountering billboards have only fleeting exposure (e.g., transiting by them as they pursue their ultimate destinations), those residing in close proximity to given displays face constant exposure to the associated advertising messages”

This effect was not just noticed in new patients that were led to the clinic, but also in returning clients who became more aware by the campaign. With OOH, you can create a constant reminder of your brand so that when patients need care, they will think of your hospital and already have prior knowledge of your accomplishments and reputation.

Billboards are Effective in Targeting Specific Segments of the Population

A common problem with marketing in the medical field are the restrictions of laws like HIPPA that make it tough for digital marketing to target your specific audience. But, what John found is that the common misconception that billboards can only reach broad audience is not founded in data. He states,

“Although often viewed merely as a tool for reaching broad audiences with little regard for precision, billboards actually can be used somewhat surgically to connect with desired audiences. Its segmentation potential—the ability of a medium to be directed effectively to engage a group of individuals sharing common characteristics—actually is quite good and, in some cases, can be excellent, depending on the particular audiences sought.”

YOUNGER PATIENTS PREFER ESTABLISHED HEALTHCARE BRANDS

Branding is one of the most important aspects of advertising, and it applies to the hospital and healthcare industry as well. You might be providing high quality care with hundreds of happy patients, but if your branding is not spot on, you might be missing out on new patients. Especially when it comes to Millennials, a strong branding effort can help you stand out from your competition, which results in a growth of market share, loyal patients, and of course, higher levels of profitability.

There are many ways to showcase your brand to your community, but many hospitals opt to introduce newborn babies, spotlight donor stories, or advertise new technologies they are using. If you’re a neighborhood hospital, proving you are a vital element of the neighborhood should be simple—just show your audiences how much you’ve been doing, and make sure the branding helps them remember who you are!

Furthermore, younger generations also trust outdoor advertising more than they trust social or online advertising. Consider that younger generations are more tech savvy—they know how to install ad blockers, and they’re much better at ignoring online ads. Billboards are great at blending in with the surrounding buildings and landscape, while also having the gravitas of traditional media. If you’re able to gain the trust of a young person, you might be able to secure a patient for life.

Billboards Drive Results For Hospitals and the Health of the Community

We know that communication is the key to change and that’s no different when it comes to advertisements. Bottom line: when you promote a lifestyle of healthy choices along with the location of medical centers in an area of a disadvantaged population, it raises the healthy choices of that population and community.

But, how do you most effectively communicate that message to an underserved population? Many avenues are expensive and have a narrow audience scope. But when you look at highly populated urban areas, billboards are extremely effective in getting a message noticed for their price. Billboard advertising, as concluded by the research, might be the best path for fostering a healthier community and better educated population. A true win-win.

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We believe strongly in the power of billboard advertising for hospitals. But, it needs to be done effectively. That’s why working with local Chicago experts is the key to targeting your specific audience and driving new and returning patients. Our staff has years of experience working with hospitals along with a deep knowledge of the many diverse Chicago neighborhoods.

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