How Small Brands Can Leverage Billboards Like Big Brands

Welcome back to Branded: your comprehensive guide to creative branding.

This week, we dove into a topic we’ve never fully tackled before: full funnel marketing—and how out-of-home advertising, specifically digital billboards, can play a bigger role in your brand-building than you might have imagined. To dig into this, we sat down with RJ Schultz, COO of Blip, an ad tech company making it radically easier and more affordable for brands big and small to run digital billboard ads.

RJ’s background is both fascinating and relevant—before venturing into the advertising world, he worked at Amazon, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Pentagon, and he holds an MBA from Duke. His unique perspective blends psychology, tech, and marketing strategy, which made for an enlightening conversation about driving demand, creating trust, and converting customers efficiently.

In this episode, we break down what full funnel marketing really means, clarify common misconceptions about “top” or “bottom” of the funnel, and explore when and how billboards (yes—even if you aren’t McDonald’s or Chick-fil-A) can boost brand awareness and overall campaign effectiveness. We even learned just how affordable modern billboard ads can be, and heard some truly creative, even petty, case studies in out-of-home advertising.

Here’s what we covered:

• What actually is full funnel marketing? RJ explains each stage—awareness, trust, conversion—and how smart marketers match ad mediums to the right customer journey point.
• Myths about billboards: Are they only for the biggest brands? Why is “Eat More Chicken” an awareness success, even without a QR code?
• The surprising psychology that makes the billboard + social combo so effective (think survival instincts and subconscious brand recall).
• How small and mid-sized businesses can affordably get their brand “in the sky,” and why this still works even if you’re just starting out.
• Real-life stories, like personalizing billboards for conference attendees and cheeky brand rivalries making the most of strategic placements.

5 Key Takeaways:

1. Full Funnel Means Full Journey: Effective marketing isn’t just shouting for attention—it’s systematically moving your audience from awareness (top), to trust (middle), to conversion (bottom) using different tactics and mediums at each stage.
2. Billboards Build Familiarity (When Used Smartly): Don’t expect a billboard to directly drive immediate clicks or visits. Instead, digital billboards excel at planting your brand in customers’ minds—so your later calls to action (online or in-person) pack a stronger punch.
3. The Power of Multi-Channel Marketing: RJ walked us through a McDonald’s case study: pairing Facebook ads and billboards in the same markets increased sales by over 700%, compared to Facebook-only markets. The magic happens when customers see your brand in multiple places, creating subconscious recognition and trust.
4. Digital Billboards Are Affordable and Accessible: Forget what you think you know—thanks to tech platforms like Blip, placing your ad on a digital billboard can cost as little as $0.08 per impression. Even small businesses can run highly local, highly visible campaigns for a few thousand dollars a month, or even less for targeted, short bursts.
5. Creativity—and Even Pettiness—Wins: Whether it’s Buccee’s witty highway countdowns, a rapper promoting tickets, or a company targeting a competitor who just canceled their subscription, the most memorable billboard campaigns use humor, surprise, and clever tactics that spark conversations (and selfies).

If you want to experiment with digital billboards for your own brand, RJ and Blip are making it easier than ever—with no long-term contracts or massive minimums, and even some special offers for Branded listeners.

Thanks for tuning in—and be sure to hit subscribe to keep getting fresh ideas for building your brand from the top of the funnel (and beyond) every week!