When it comes to creating large graphics, businesses have multiple options for designing and positioning their prints. Custom banner signs, building wraps, and wholesale backdrops all help increase brand familiarity, making advertising campaigns successful. Among the many options for large scale advertising, wholesale backdrops may be the least common and most poorly understood type of custom graphics available through large format printing companies. Are they worth the investment? Let’s compare an advertising poster with a printed backdrop to answer this question.
The difference is two-fold. First, wholesale backdrops are always on ground level, where people can stand or sit in front of them to be photographed. As the name implies, they are designed to be a backdrop for selfies and other photos which customers can easily post to social media. Advertising posters may be on the upper stories of buildings, hanging above doorways, or set against a busy street. These positions don’t allow photo opportunities.
Secondly, wholesale backdrops aren’t designed to grab attention or convey as much information as advertising posters. A compelling backdrop may have little overt advertising, displaying only company themes, logos, and campaign hashtags. Advertising posters often describe new products in large print and offer deals.
Most people and businesses are well acquainted with the benefits of advertising posters. Fewer people understand the situations where they can use branded backdrops and how their company can benefit. Consider these two wholesale backdrop case studies:
The store sells running shoes and accessories and has a distinct barefoot logo. The building has large versions of the logo on signs above each entrance. Like many car brands, the store’s customers often associate the logo with the store even before the business’s name. In line with this widespread logo awareness, the wholesale backdrop features rows of their logo against a textured navy blue. The logos vary in size. The hashtag #runtheworld is displayed in the bottom right corner, drawing attention to a recent public fitness campaign.
On an average day, the backdrop stands in the foyer of a track and field stadium. During track meets, the event organizers place the wholesale backdrop behind the podium during the prize-giving ceremonies. The backdrop provides a location where medal winners can be photographed with a professional and uncrowded background.
Winners of large track meets often have sponsors and followings. Thus, the backdrop is likely to be shared widely across social media platforms. Athletes with worn-out shoes think most about buying replacements while training on the track. As they leave the stadium, some notice the backdrop and consider visiting the running store to purchase new shoes. Teams take fun photos in front of the backdrop in the foyer at the end of training sessions. These actions lead to greater brand awareness and more business for the running store, especially since the primary users of the backdrop are the company’s target audience.
The brand is known for its tropical flavors that transport customers to their favorite beach resorts in southern climates. To leave an impression on guests, the company has designed the backdrop with an assortment of oversized beach items. An ice cream cone takes up one corner while tropical fruit fills another. A shade umbrella, pop art waves, and palm trees add to the periphery of the backdrop. In the center stands a bottle of branded tequila, nine feet tall.
The company places the backdrop front and center in the entranceway of the headquarters building. It stands where almost every visitor will see it on their way in and out of the conference rooms and office spaces.
The tequila brand’s headquarters hosts company conferences, social gatherings, and a small number of loyal fans as they happen by the building. Visiting fans love the display. It provides an easy way to document their visit and express their fandom online. Similarly, after a conference with clients, sponsors or employees, the backdrop offers an easy way to take pictures with new acquaintances, work teams, and leadership. Even those who do not take photos with the backdrop, can’t miss the beachy vibe the tequila brand embodies.
Backdrops made for photography and branding purposes may seem less promotional compared to in-your-face advertising posters. However, studying the behaviors of consumers reveals that giving visitors an experience with the brand is far more likely to produce loyal customers than being bombarded by overt advertising. Custom photography backdrops allow customers to take photos and connect with a brand in a positive and shareable way. Backdrops are also a very successful and cost-effective tactic to encourage consumers to share photos with your brand online increasing your brand visibility.
Advertisements certainly have advantages, especially when applied to noticeable spaces high on buildings, above entranceways, and on windows and billboards. However, backdrops give customers a commodity that advertising posters rarely accomplish: a creative and uncluttered place where the customers are the center of attention. Custom company backdrops make the customers the stars. And who doesn’t want to feel like a star?