Rate This Board allows a billboard designer to rate a random piece of billboard artwork using the following scale: 1 (not good), 2 (below average), 3 (average), 4 (very good), 5 (great). Then the designer talks about what they may have done differently for outdoor advertising. This week’s rating is provided by Greg Callaham, owner of Greg Callaham Graphic Design who has 30 years of experience in outdoor advertising design.  Insider has used and endorses Callaham’s services.

Turtle Creek Casino

Rating: 2 (Below Average)

• This billboard for a casino makes pretty good use of extensions to draw the eye of the target audience to the name and logo. It appears as though the turtle extension actually hangs down in front of the top edge. If so, it gives the advertiser the option of changing the vinyl and selling message of the board while maintaining the “landmark” character of the overall advertisement.
• However, the selling message is a little bit muddled here. Is this a couple having a good time? Is this a casino employee giving the female patron exemplary customer service? Are they the only two people in the casino? Passersby are left to presume the photo shows the inside of the casino because the background is so blurred and indistinguishable, and the focus is on the two models who are laughing about something we cannot see.
• The ad raises unanswered questions instead of sending a clear message. For that reason, the board gets a 2 (below average).

As always, I do not know the particulars of the art request or components of the campaign this ad may or may not have been part of. But looking at this challenge with the eye of an OOH graphic designer and through the lens of the target audience, I would have urged the advertiser to run the ad pictured below. Using a photo from their web site, we’re drawing the eye from the extensions into the ad with color and letting those colors in that instantly recognizable image do the talking. The target demo knows exactly what the advertiser is telling them.

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