There are so many aspects related to success or fail into an advertising campaign that I consider essential to describe. I will try to highlight essential aspects that however escape to reason and are not used as they should be.

During my professional life into outdoor advertising, I’m still surprised when I see some bad or failed campaigns at streets, commercial centers or any other place we could go by.

It’s a botched job and this is the Word I’d like to use but I could use some others…  And I say it because of the bad use of the space and the concept as we are designing for an outdoor media… Sometimes that botched job takes the campaign to a disaster, when the message is not being correctly sent.  If an image is a thousand words worth, then a bad image will not acquire the proper concept, being ambiguous…

Although most of the times, every mistake is shared among different roles, designers, directors or event the client, my point of view is that every professional is the responsible of the last decision and he or she must do what it is correct, and anybody else.

I don’t want to be detrimental with my mates, but I must try to persuade about something quite simple, that is to be able to distinguish different formats to design. It’s not the same a design in a website or a mobile, than an outdoor campaign in fences, walls, mupis or any other kind. Moreover, according to outdoor advertising, there are lots of different spaces to think about: screens, video walls, flags, boxes, thermometers, buses, mupis, fences, airports, parkings… It’s something quite significant there are some professional that don’t have this in their minds…

Place, light, format, distance, location… These are different elements to consider at all times. Regarding such a wide range of formats to communicate and send the message properly, there are so many times that regretfully, designers still adjust their messages as if they were publishing in magazines, newspapers, flyers… And it is quite obvious this is not the same…

I’m aware quite often every designer is obliged to a commitment. Also, some directors depend exclusively on clients’ decision. But, every designer should and must have a right criteria and opinion. They should stand up sometimes and get out to the city. Walk around the streets and take notice about the outdoor formats in order to design and create the best advertise for every format.

Dear mates, designers and directors:

I hope this is no offense. On the contrary, I expect I can help and make a good job for every client. They expect that from us: our experience, professionalism and advice to satisfy their needs. We would never think we could say something to our dentist when we are obliged to follow a treatment. Then we must act the same.

Every client will value our opinion and decision as we are the professionals who must say what is correct or not. There’s one thing which is most appreciated in life, and that is courage.  We must defend and value our decisions as professionals. The value of design must be marriage properly with the value of an idea…