A mobile billboard ad is readable in 3 seconds when it carries one message, in about seven words or fewer, in big high-contrast type, with one clear call to action. Everything else on the screen competes with those four things, so cut it.
Your ad is on a truck that moves, and the people looking at it are usually moving too. They are driving down 41st Street, waiting at a light on Minnesota Avenue, or walking out of The Empire Mall. Nobody stops to study it. For a shorter reference, keep our ad design guide open while you work.
Start with one message per screen
Pick the one thing you want people to remember. Not three things. One. A grand opening. A lunch special. An open house this weekend.
Say the ad out loud to someone who has never heard of your business. If you need a second sentence to explain it, the ad is carrying too much. Split the extra ideas into separate creatives and let each one do a single job.
Keep it to about seven words
As a rule of thumb, aim for seven words or fewer in your main message. It is a habit, not a law, and it forces you to choose. Short copy can be set in bigger type, and bigger type is what gets read from across an intersection.
Compare two versions of the same ad:
- "Now open on Louise Avenue. Fresh pizza daily."
- "We are excited to announce that our brand new location is now open and serving a full menu of handmade pizza, pasta, salads and desserts seven days a week."
The first one can be read in a glance. The second is a paragraph, and a paragraph on a moving truck is just a gray block.
Use strong contrast and big type
Contrast is the difference between your text and what sits behind it. Light text on a dark background works. Dark text on a light background works. Yellow on white, dark red on black, or text laid over a busy photo usually does not.
- Use bold, simple fonts. Skip thin strokes, scripts and anything decorative for the main line.
- Leave empty space around the words. Crowded screens read slower.
- If you use a photo, give the text its own solid area instead of placing words on top of the picture.
Here is a quick check. Shrink your design to about business card size on your monitor, then step back. If you cannot read the main line, people in traffic will not either.
Day and night are different jobs
In bright midday sun, weak contrast washes out. Pale colors and fine detail disappear first. After dark, a large white background on a lit screen can glare and make the words harder to pick out, so dark backgrounds with bright text are usually more comfortable to read at night.
Our shared route is a daytime route, so design for sunlight first. If you book a truck for an evening event, check your artwork in a dark room, or build a day version and a night version.
Pick one call to action
Tell people the one thing to do next. Each option has its place.
- Phone number. Good for service businesses where people call to book. A number is hard to memorize from a moving vehicle, so set it large and keep the rest of the screen quiet.
- Short web address. Often the easiest thing to remember, especially if it matches your business name. If yours is long, set up a shorter one for the campaign.
- QR code. Works when the audience is standing still or moving slowly and can safely point a phone at the screen. Think festivals, parades and parking lots. It is a poor fit for drivers in moving traffic, and nobody should scan while driving. If you use one, make it large and say what people get when they scan.
Use motion and video without losing the message
Our screens can show still graphics, GIFs and video, including full commercials. Motion catches the eye. It can also hide your message if the important words are only on screen for a moment.
- Keep your name and main message visible the whole time, or at least for most of the spot. Let the background move, not the words.
- Do not rely on sound. Design every ad so it works silent.
- Avoid fast cuts, flashing and spinning text. Slow, simple movement reads better.
- Assume people will catch only a piece of it. Any single moment should still say who you are.
Design for all three screens
Each truck has three screens: driver side, passenger side and rear. They are seen in different ways, so they do not have to be identical.
- The sides are seen by cross traffic, people on sidewalks and drivers in the next lane. The view is often brief, so the side screens should carry your simplest, boldest version.
- The rear is seen by the drivers following the truck, sometimes for a full red light. This is the best spot for a phone number, a web address or one extra line of detail.
Keep the logo, colors and main message the same on all three so the truck reads as one ad. The side and rear screens may call for different layouts, so do not stretch one file to fit them all. Our sales team gives you the aspect ratios, file type and other specs, and our designers are available to create the artwork if you would rather hand it off. Designing ads for both sides and the rear screen usually costs $395 to $695.
Run several creatives and swap them
With LED trucks it is easy to switch messages or images, and ads can be changed during a campaign. Use that.
- Give each offer or service its own screen instead of cramming them together.
- Tell a story in steps. A teaser, then the announcement, then a reminder.
- Update for timing. "Opening Friday" becomes "Now open."
With Exclusive Use, only your ads are on the truck, and you can run multiple creatives to tell a story. On the shared route, your ad shows about once every 4 minutes, 2 minutes or 1 minute, depending on the package. Either way, keep the same colors and logo placement across every version so people connect them. You can see where the shared route runs on our truck route page and see the trucks in the gallery.
Your pre-flight checklist
Before you send files, run through this list.
- Is the main message about seven words or fewer?
- Can you read it at business card size from a few steps back?
- Is the text on a solid background with strong contrast?
- Is there only one call to action?
- Is your business name or logo visible the entire time, including in video?
- Is there a version for the sides and a version for the rear?
- Is every phone number, web address and QR code tested and correct?
- Do the files match the specs from our sales team?
- Has someone outside your business looked at it for three seconds and told you what it says?
Get the specs and get on the schedule
Good design is mostly about leaving things out. One message, a few words, big type, one next step.
Book a call and we will go over your campaign, share the exact specs, and talk through whether you want our designers to build the artwork. You can also download our pricing to look at the shared route packages and Exclusive Use.
