Best practices
Messaging
Billboards target people driving. Therefore, your audience will have about six seconds to read your billboard. You may be able to push for a few more words depending on their length and ease of reading, but good billboards communicate without a lot of words.
Include a headline and sub-headline, if applicable. Play with colors and font sizes to differentiate one from another and make it easier to read.
Suggested word count
- Headline: Max. 8-word count
- Sub-headline or main content: Max. 8-word count
- Call-to-action: Phone # and/or website
- Make sure to have a clear call-to-action. This can be a phone number, website link, etc. Be sure not to overpower your call-to-action as you do not want to overstate the action.
Visual elements
Photography is highly recommended
- Unique, vibrant, high-quality photos are ideal.
- Avoid using stock photos.
- You can check out FIU’s Flickr account in case there’s a photo that will work for you. If you’d like to do a photo shoot, please contact fill our Multimedia team by filling out this request form.
Use bright and vibrant colors to grab the audience's attention. Mix bright colors with a high level of contrast between the text and the background, so your ad is easier to read.
- Make sure your image or background photo does not compete with the overlaying text.
- Make sure your font is legible. You may have to change the type of font used in order to ensure drivers can easily read your ad.
- FIU’s official fonts are Adobe Garamond (serif) and Helvetica (sans-serif), but you may use other fonts as well.
Specs for on-campus billboards
- FIU billboard's dimensions are 40’ x 12’
- File size: Press Quality
- Hi-res PDF for final submission
