17 ms·

We spent $300K on billboards in Boston and it was a bust

13 points by saeedesmaili 4y ago

cloudking 4y ago
Maybe the ad wasn't effective? Just a quote and a really small URL
- Kon-Peki 4y ago
  These are fine ads to put in airport terminals near gates that business travelers use. The target market is the business executive that can make spending decisions, and he definitely wants to hear that his employees want to get more work done. But apparently, this type of person is not walking the streets of Boston lately.
retrocryptid 4y ago
Maybe people thought the billboard ads were crappy.
legitster 4y ago
Yikes. What atrocious billboard designs. Who in their right mind would look at that and want to find out more about the product? If you can do a modicum of decent geographic testing and run actually decent billboard design - it can actually be a pretty high ROI. For $300k these ads got a lot of eyeballs (what they did with them is another story).
mdmglr 4y ago
I've known about Basecamp since the 37signals days. Those billboards are a disservice to the product. It doesn't hook or command anyone to find out what Basecamp is. Also why billboards all over Boston? If your a project management solution why not spend the money advertising at airports? I see a lot of AWS, IBM, Dell EMC, etc. at airports.
- yuppie_scum 4y ago
  The Massachusetts Miracle may be well behind us but there are still a lot of tech companies and MIT/Harvard in Boston.
nitwit005 4y ago
All the same design? Not every ad works. I've never heard someone say "calendar Tetris", so I wonder if it just confused people. The video ad also seem odd. Time travel discussion of calendar problems, that doesn't explain the product at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPmhvY0GCMQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPmhvY0GCMQ
mytailorisrich 4y ago
Not a marketing expert but I remember reading the billboards should be designed bearing in mind that they only get a few seconds attention from drivers so the message should be very short and clear, and very visible. On the pictures I can barely see 'basecamp.com' and it's not clear what the message is about. Maybe lawyers' billboards are cheesy but they get to the point in massive letters.
JohnFen 4y ago
I have to say, I agree with the other commenters saying those billboards are just terribly ill-suited for being billboards on a number of counts. Starting with the fact that if you don't know what Basecamp is, those billboards mean nothing to you. They don't even try to give you a clue about what they're selling.
dotcoma 4y ago
Who created those terrible billboard ads and who gave them the ok? Fire him or her. White on black is hard to read (Ogilvy, anyone?) and makes sense only in very few cases (like the Coldene cough drops ad by George Lois). A black background makes no sense in this case. Is Boston a hotbed of Basecamp use, or hardly so? Did you really expect people to read your ads and feel the urge to go check what your company, unknown to the masses, offers?

13 points by saeedesmaili 4y ago

cloudking 4y ago

Maybe the ad wasn't effective? Just a quote and a really small URL

Kon-Peki 4y ago
These are fine ads to put in airport terminals near gates that business travelers use. The target market is the business executive that can make spending decisions, and he definitely wants to hear that his employees want to get more work done. But apparently, this type of person is not walking the streets of Boston lately.

retrocryptid 4y ago

Maybe people thought the billboard ads were crappy.

legitster 4y ago

Yikes. What atrocious billboard designs. Who in their right mind would look at that and want to find out more about the product? If you can do a modicum of decent geographic testing and run actually decent billboard design - it can actually be a pretty high ROI. For $300k these ads got a lot of eyeballs (what they did with them is another story).

mdmglr 4y ago

I've known about Basecamp since the 37signals days. Those billboards are a disservice to the product. It doesn't hook or command anyone to find out what Basecamp is. Also why billboards all over Boston? If your a project management solution why not spend the money advertising at airports? I see a lot of AWS, IBM, Dell EMC, etc. at airports.

yuppie_scum 4y ago
The Massachusetts Miracle may be well behind us but there are still a lot of tech companies and MIT/Harvard in Boston.

nitwit005 4y ago

All the same design? Not every ad works. I've never heard someone say "calendar Tetris", so I wonder if it just confused people. The video ad also seem odd. Time travel discussion of calendar problems, that doesn't explain the product at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPmhvY0GCMQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPmhvY0GCMQ

mytailorisrich 4y ago

Not a marketing expert but I remember reading the billboards should be designed bearing in mind that they only get a few seconds attention from drivers so the message should be very short and clear, and very visible. On the pictures I can barely see 'basecamp.com' and it's not clear what the message is about. Maybe lawyers' billboards are cheesy but they get to the point in massive letters.

JohnFen 4y ago

I have to say, I agree with the other commenters saying those billboards are just terribly ill-suited for being billboards on a number of counts. Starting with the fact that if you don't know what Basecamp is, those billboards mean nothing to you. They don't even try to give you a clue about what they're selling.

dotcoma 4y ago

Who created those terrible billboard ads and who gave them the ok? Fire him or her. White on black is hard to read (Ogilvy, anyone?) and makes sense only in very few cases (like the Coldene cough drops ad by George Lois). A black background makes no sense in this case. Is Boston a hotbed of Basecamp use, or hardly so? Did you really expect people to read your ads and feel the urge to go check what your company, unknown to the masses, offers?