Steve Crayne on OOH Website Design

Steve Crayne knows how to design an effective out of home website.  Crayne designed the Boardworks website which placed first in Billboard Insider’s 2018 Out of home website rankings with a perfect score of 20 points.  Crayne’s latest project was designing a website for Trilogy Outdoor.     Insider talked with Crayne about how to design an effective website.

What were the challenges associated with developing the new website?

The biggest challenge in the Trilogy Outdoor project was the turnaround time to build a site from start to finish in five business days or less and with a budget under $2,000. This means I needed to nail the design phase of the project instantly.

Understanding the client’s tastes is critical in the design phase otherwise you can spend a week just to get the right look and feel for the site. You also want to stand out from the crowd.

The first idea that came to mind was using a black and white theme which exudes class. The only colors on the site are the digital billboard photos and red highlights based on the red from the Trilogy Outdoor logo.

Where did you get the pics.

We used a drone to shoot the dramatic overhead shots which capture the beauty of Atlanta and massive traffic that drives by this new digital billboard. There is no better way capture the massive traffic that drives hundreds of thousands of impressions in Atlanta.

The background image for the website was purchased through Shutterstock and then converted to black and white.

As a web design expert what are some common drawbacks you see in out of home websites?

First off, I’m flattered to be considered an expert. Luckily, I had a great mentor, Patti Reeves of Reeves Media, who represents Trilogy Outdoor and introduced me to Boardworks Outdoor, where and I learned a lot when I oversaw the development of the Boardworks Outdoor website some years ago which has been previously voted the number one website by Billboard outsider.

There are some great websites in the industry but the biggest drawbacks I see is ease of use and not being mobile friendly. When a customer visits your website, you have a short period of time to convince them to call or email you. The website should follow the same principles as billboard advertising. Clear, bold messaging with a call to action and not cluttered with stuff your customer is never going to read.

I have visited many outdoor websites and on some it took way too long to find a billboard in a specific location.

I think it’s very important for small billboard operators to have a website that they can update when they need to with new photos and ride sheets and not have to pay the web developer every time they want to make a change.

That’s what I love about WIX. I can train my clients how to make changes on their site and update their blog in less than an hour and their phone support is second-to-none.

You can contact Steve about your web project at Starting Gate Marketing, Steve@SMGCrayne.com, 770-853-0318.

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