How effective is bus advertising for local businesses?

[Ali_SA]

Hi all,

I run a after school club where we teach kids creative tech such as coding, animation, games design etc.

I've seen some tuition centres advertise on the rear panel on busses (but they have multiple centres in the city, but we only have 1)
I've been thinking about advertising on busses.
I've looked arround and I can't seem to find anyone sharing their experiences with bus advertising.
Has anyone had any such experience? How effective it is?

Please note I'm not talking about "outdoor advertising" in general, I'm asking about bus advertising in particular. And to be even more precise, advertising on the rear panel, which is smaller than advertising on the big side panels (and less costly of course.)

Any ideas, stories or experiences would be highly appreciated.

 

[EmployMe]

I had experience with advertising on bus stops. It was expensive and didn't give the results I expected for. But your business area is totally different from mine. Your idea could be successful. Just plan your budget carefully.

 

[AllUpHere]

As with all things marketing, if done well it will probably be successful. If executed poorly, it will probably be a waste of time.

 

[antropy]

I think there could be better ways to market your after school club as it isn't very targeted and as highlighted it is expensive. Alex

 

[Nochexman]

Yes, it can work.

However, focus on your objectives and how you want to achieve them. Choose an advertising medium that is most likely to help you to achieve your goal.

So if your objective is to reach out to people driving in cars towards the city centre it might be a great medium.

However, if your objective is to get more students to come to your after school club there might be be better ways to achieve this goal.

 

[MEAVO]

At my past start-up we did bus advertising (but the large side panels, super expensive) it didn't meet expectations. Should you still want to do it, I would somehow make it measurable, e.g. have some discount code or something which when redeemed you can allocate to the bus campaign, then you can compare the ROI to other campaigns. My hunch is that digital campaigns or other ways are more effective.

Often large companies do outdoor campaigns more for brand building, they can afford it. They don't expect an immediate return.

 

[chole_yt]

The front of a bus bench has space to hold a rectangular advertisement that's large enough for pedestrians, bus passengers and drivers to read in passing all day long. It is more economical compared with standard print advertisements.