Why is Gas Station Advertising So Effective?
These days, advertisers are struggling with gaining attention from a target audience that is already trained to tune them out. Every media form comes with its own set of challenges for reaching a captive audience. However, one thing we can be sure of is that regardless what route a consumer travels- or what radio stations they happen to bounce between, everyone who operates a gas-powered vehicle ends up at a gas station, and while they are fueling up, they are a captive audience at the pump. People are very habitual about their gas station habits. Most go to a station that is within 1-2 miles of their office or home. On average, consumers spend 3-5 minutes filling their cars, meaning they have time to look around and absorb the advertising. With gas station and convenience store advertising, you can be sure that your audience is going to be there, so you are guaranteed to reach them while they are captivated.
How to use this to your advantage.
According to data from NACS, nearly 40 million Americans fill up their vehicles at gas stations each day. 44% of those gas station customers have shopping on the brain, stepping inside convenience stores to make a purchase. While they pump their gas, these consumers become a captive audience. They are ready to receive engaging brand messaging that informs their decision-making.
That’s why gas station advertising has become one of the top marketing mediums in America. Pump ads put messaging directly in a customer’s line of sight. A single customer might interact with a gas pump ad and ads in the convenience store window on a single visit. With strategic implementation, you can easily catch consumers’ eyes and ensure your brand is front and center.
Are you ready to capture the attention of your demographic while they’re on the go and ready to spend? Keep reading to learn more about the subtle power of gas station advertising.
How to Utilize Gas Station Advertising
Today, many major gas chains use gas pumps with screens. Often, these screens are interactive, allowing consumers to engage with content and make active choices about what they see. These gas station advertising displays pair video, animation, messaging, and sound to create a compelling, immersive experience.
With that said, traditional static advertising, such as posters or pump ads, can effectively reach audiences without exorbitant overhead costs. Leads don’t necessarily need to be standing up and pumping gas to interact with your brand. A well-designed, eye-catching poster is visible from the street, the gas station parking lot, and even nearby businesses. A bold enough ad might entice consumers to visit the convenience store, even if they weren’t planning to stop for gas that day.
If you do want to catch consumers at the pump, consider gas nozzle ads. These smaller signs attach directly to the gas pump nozzle, ensuring every customer sees them while pumping gas. Your captive audience will have no choice but to engage with your message. Paired with other static options, such as pump toppers and one sheet poster ads, you can tell a complete and compelling story right at the pump.
Understanding the Gas Station Audience
Advertising at gas stations allows you to reach a diverse audience of adults. Per the Federal Highway Administration, drivers span in age from teenagers through senior citizens. The majority of drivers are between the ages of 35 and 50 years old.
Both local gas stations and highway gas stations have their benefits. Local gas stations in suburban areas can help you reach a higher-income demographic. In contrast, high traffic highway stations are often where you can attract families with household incomes.
Consider that, by advertising near major highways where other advertising is scant, you will reach rural populations. This ensures you’ll have the right eyes on your branding and develop the ideal leads for your products or services.
Effective Gas Station Advertising Strategies
Whatever gas station advertising ideas you have in mind, they must be compelling. The more you know about the local demographic, the better you can target your messaging to reach your audience. Consider leveraging specificity to attract interest and attention, incorporating local references, landmarks, and slang. Your storytelling will feel more personal, drawing eyes and interest. Are you interested in leveraging the power of gas station advertising? Learn how AllOver Media can help tell your story. Learn more about gas station and convenience store advertising and begin your next campaign.
Why You Should Include Gas Pump Toppers In Your Advertising Strategy
Compared to other out-of-home locations for advertising, gas station advertising is currently one of the most cost-effective solutions in Out-of-Home advertising. With gas pump toppers and other gas station options, you can add can’t-miss messaging to your advertising strategy with gas station domination.
Benefits of Gas Pump Toppers
According to a recent study, 85% of men and 75% of women visit a convenience store or gas station at least four times a month. If you have yet to include gas pump toppers into your advertising strategy, here’s why you should.
- Gas pump toppers are framed, full-color advertisements that are placed on top of the gas pump. Since consumers spend an average of 3-5 minutes at the pump filling their tanks, gas pump toppers have their full attention — because gas pump toppers are located at eye-level, they are viewed several times, not just once.
- The typical consumer visits a gas station within 1-2 miles from where they live, work, or play. With trips on an average 5-7 times a month to fill up, that translates into 116,500 impressions per month, per station at 50,000 stations.
- Gas pump toppers are the single most cost-effective advertising method to engage your consumer with your brand’s message while they’re involved in their everyday activities.
And gas station toppers become even more effective when combined with other creative ways to reach consumers while they’re filling their gas tanks:
Gas Pump Fillboards
Ads on the nozzles used to pump the gas are becoming more and more familiar. The consumer will see them as soon as they start pumping gas. Gas Pump FillBoard™ is an AllOver Media patented product that affixes prominently to the gas nozzle handle. These platforms are effective as consumers must engage your message at least twice during the fueling process.
Gas Station Radio
It’s a high-quality audio system that plays professionally made advertisements that promote your products and specialty services, as well as thank customers for their patronage. 71% of customers specifically recalled listening to Gas Station Radio after they left the pump. Plus, AllOver Media controls 100% of the content and can update messaging daily if necessary.
Diesel Pump Toppers
Because they spend an average of 15-20 minutes at the pump, truckers will repeatedly read and engage with your advertising message. As they spend more time out on the road, your message retains their attention. Diesel pump topper ads are printed on weather-proof placard material and placed in frames on top of diesel fuel pumps. The same advertiser has one side of every pump under the fueling canopy. And the number of pumps vary from as few as 4 and as many as 20.
Additional Options for Gas Station Domination
Your product or service message on Squawkers, Door Clings, Concrete Graphics, Squeegees, and U-Gloves, which are disposable glove dispensers attached to gas pumps. U-Gloves make pumping gas less of a mess while preventing the spread of diseases and viruses, keeping drivers clean, safe and healthy at the gas station. U-Gloves create an interactive advertising opportunity promoting your brand on the dispenser and gloves. Creatively using outdoor locations at the neighborhood gas station is a smart move for your next advertising campaign. “It’s great for ethnic buys, or you can go to upper- or lower-end zip codes,” states AllOver Media president and CEO Tony Jacobson. “You can also do radius buys, such as gas stations within a three-mile radius of a new store.”
4 Ways Gas Station Advertising Drives Traffic to Tourist Destinations
What’s the best place to advertise your tourist destination? It’s hard to find a better location than the highway they’re driving on. If your attraction is located on the famed Route 66, it makes sense to advertise along Route 66. Another great place to advertise is within 25-50 miles of the state border — close enough to make actionable travel decisions. Gas station advertising is the ideal way to reach those audiences in both of those places. In recent years Americans’ time in their cars has increased by more than 30%, and the U.S. Department of Transportation predicts highway miles will continue to climb. Better yet, the U.S. Travel Association reports 4 out of 5 domestic trips are taken for leisure purposes, such as to the beach or visiting other tourist destinations. Since gas stations are everywhere on the road, they’re perfect places to reach consumers with your marketing message. Here are 4 ways gas station advertising can drive traffic to your tourist destination.
1. Use Gas Pump Toppers
Gas pump toppers are framed, full-color advertisements that are placed on top of the gas pump. Since consumers spend at least 5-minutes filling up — and pump toppers are located at eye level — you have a captive audience for your advertising message. Pump toppers are the perfect solution to direct travelers to their next port of call, especially if they’re new to the area and looking for their next adventure.
2. The Road Ahead Is Beneath Your Feet
Road trippers often stop to fuel up with snacks, making more in-store visits than most gas station customers. Catch their attention by advertising on vibrant, durable floor graphics. These prints are a perfect way to advertise tourist destinations, theme parks or other entertainment venues. Floor graphics are colorful, eye-catching. and reach your tourist consumer while they’re browsing the aisles or waiting in line at the gas station.
3. Restroom Captive Audience
When road-weary travelers answer the call of nature, it’s often at a gas station restroom. For advertisers, that’s the ideal spot to break through consumer distraction. With restroom advertising, your marketing message can be targeted to males and females differently. Furthermore, research has shown some of the highest recall rates are associated with indoor advertising. 64% of consumers recall seeing one or more indoor ads. And most ads have the undivided attention of consumers for up to 5 minutes.
4. Consider a Frozen Billboard
When planning an advertising campaign for your tourist attraction, don’t forget about all the ways your target audience interacts with their environment, especially when they are away from home and out on the road. When consumers visit a gas station, they typically look around while waiting at the pump. Wrapping your big, bold message on ice boxes, bins, and coolers makes it impossible to ignore. A gas station ice box can become a striking 3D frozen billboard, perfectly depicting your tourist destination with visibility from over 50 yards away. The ice box wraps with a big, bold image that effectively captures your audience’s attention. It’s a 24-hour medium, available day or night. Whether you represent a casino, convention visitors bureau, or stand alone attraction, creatively using advertising at gas stations near and on the way to your tourist destination is a smart and effective move for your next advertising campaign.
Fuel Up Your Gas Pump Ads
As temperatures continue to dip and Frank Sinatra starts crooning on the radio, that can only mean one thing: the holidays are approaching fast. Now, with everyone desperate for a change of scenery, an increase in travel is expected.
More people hitting the road (and inevitably stopping for gas) means there’s no better time to utilize gas station advertising. Trust AllOver Media to get your ads noticed!
Why Gas Pump Advertising is So Effective
The average person stops at a gas station 5-7 times a month, and with holiday road trips on the horizon, that number is bound to increase. By targeting consumers with a gas pump ad, you have a unique opportunity to reach them in a “distraction free zone”, where they don’t have much to do besides pay attention to the advertisements on the gas pump or nozzle.
By reaching your audience when they’re less distracted, you have a higher chance of sticking in their minds once their tank is full.
Gas Pump Toppers
These types of signs sit on top of the gas pump, strategically placed at eye level. By investing in a bold image situated in a highly visible area, you have the unique opportunity to catch the eye of whoever is tasked with filling up the tank, which can take anywhere from 2-3 undistracted minutes.
Plus, these gas pump advertisements bring the customer straight to your messaging, which means it’s less invasive than other ad campaigns.
Gas Nozzle Advertisements
You’ve probably noticed these advertisements placed right on the gas nozzle when you’ve filled up your own tank. In addition to being placed in an ideal spot for an undistracted consumer to take in, this placement can generate 116,000 impressions per month per gas station.
That’s a lot of eyes on your unique messaging!
Proximity to Home/Work
Most people visit gas stations that are 1-2 miles from their home or workplace (although these days that might be the same place!) This will help you target your audience with even higher accuracy, helping you put the ideal messaging in front of your intended demographic.
Gas pump advertisements are ideal if you’re looking to pack a better punch without taking a big hit to your wallet. Whether you choose to place your advertisement on top of the gas pump, or on the gas nozzle, these gems are a cost-effective way to place your product right in the eye of the consumer.
Get Connected with AllOver Media
Ready to start enjoying the benefits of gas pump advertisements? Great! Contact us at AllOver Media and let’s get your product, service, or message to your customers.
