I’m not a billboard owner or renter but I have an idea and I need help to make it happen. I’m applying for a grant from Pepsi (www.refresheverything.com) to create a billboard campaign in major cities across the country. The billboards will have an extremely large single word like Inspire, Encourage, Motivate, Amaze, etc and then small underneath will be Kids. That’s it. No ads. I’d like to have the Twitter account address at the bottom but even that’s not necessary. We don’t want to encourage people to text while driving. Need advice on this.
I think these simple messages will remind people they can make a difference in a child’s life, even in the smallest way. And having the one word big enough anyone will see it, even if they don’t see the small one, can make a difference.
This idea was inspired by the God billboards. They certainly have people talking and paying attention to billboards. I don’t know everything that’s involved in creating a billboards campaign but I’m willing to learn and do whatever I can. One thing about these particular billboards, they can be anywhere and they’ll make a difference.
People vote on the projects and the ones with the most votes wins. So we’ll be doing everything we can to tell people about it. We’ve set up a Twitter, Facebook and blog about the campaign to spread the word, among others. Any donations will be listed with information on how to contact the contributors, of course.
If you can help with billboards, sign design or anything else, that would be so wonderful. I’m not affiliated with anyone, its just me and an idea that’s been with me for several years. Now, Pepsi is offering ordinary people a chance to do something to make a difference so I hope, with help, I can.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be happy to answer. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.
Love and blessings to you and yours,
Teresa in Iowa
If you or anyone you know has space they can donate, it will really stretch the grant funds so we can get more of them up all over the country. We hope to touch as many lives as possible. And they don’t have to be in major cities, I just thought it would be easier to have 2 or 3 per city but I guess it wouldn’t make any difference as long as they’re out there, right?
I have a question about the signs. Would it work, or even be possible, to have a set of signs made that would be removable so they could be used multiple times? If so, would that be a better alternative to more permanent signs? I’m thinking this way they could be up for a month or however long we can get a space and then taken down and moved to the next location. Traveling signs. What do you think?
But maybe I’m making this harder instead of easier. At first, I thought we could get one of those trucks with the signs on the side or have signs made for the side of buses but both of those opinions seem very expensive.
If you have any thoughts on how to do this, I would love to hear them. Thank you so very much!
You might try approaching the local offices of the major US billboard companies. The ones in my market give free space to non-profit charities, foundations, etc. all the time. It’s often space that would be unsold otherwise, and they can use it to make themselves look good for “giving back to the community.” They might want you to be a registered non-profit or charity though. And typically you would have to pay for the production of the vinyl sign. To answer your other question, if you have a vinyl produced, it can be used on different billboard structures. It probably depends on the climate you’re located in, but in my area I’ve seen some last for well over a year before any significant fading.
I will contact some local offices and see what they can tell me. I read a post here about what to do about vacant billboards and thought donations would be a good use for them and benefit the owner at tax time, too. You’re probably right about being non-profit. I may have to do that to benefit everyone involved in this project.
Thank you for the information about the vinyls. Traveling signs might be a better way to go. Then you only have the production costs for sets of signs instead of new ones for each billboard.
I’m very thankful for any ideas. I have the project, just not the behind-the-scenes knowledge to get it done. If there are things I should know or tips you can pass along, that would be so great.
Thanks a million!
Love and blessings,
Teresa from Iowa