billboard test

Definition

The principle that your key message should be clear and compelling enough to be understood if displayed on a billboard for only a few seconds. If you can't explain it while driving 65 mph, it's too complicated.

Example Usage

Your value prop failed the billboard test—I have no idea what we actually sell after reading that paragraph.

Origin

Classic advertising principle from outdoor media planning

Source: Traditional advertising and copywriting terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

Top of Funnel

The widest part of the marketing funnel where you cast the broadest net possible and hope some fish are actually interested in enterprise software. It's where you attract the maximum number of people who will never, ever become customers.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

ownable

A brand attribute, message, or positioning unique enough that competitors can't easily copy it. The marketing equivalent of a defensible moat, but made of adjectives.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

lookalike modeling

An algorithmic process that identifies new prospects who share characteristics with your existing customers, based on the bold assumption that people who look similar on paper will buy similar things. Statistical stereotyping, but make it marketing.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Beginner

kickback creative

Ad content rejected by legal, compliance, or clients and sent back for revision. Usually featuring claims too good to be true because they literally are.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Beginner

boost

Marketing's favorite verb for describing any incremental improvement, no matter how modest. Whether it's engagement, sales, or morale, everything gets boosted in corporate communications. It's the professional alternative to saying "make bigger" and sounds way more impressive in quarterly reports.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

social listening

Monitoring social media channels for mentions, conversations, and trends related to your brand, competitors, or industry. It's definitely not eavesdropping when it's for business purposes—it's 'market intelligence.'

📣 Marketing / Advertising

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