The Takeaway
Silicon Slopes ran a large-format flight across 18 boards to promote its annual tech summit. The campaign produced 137,118 blips and roughly 1.42 million estimated impressions. Combined with the team’s existing social, networking, and event marketing, attendance climbed 87% and search interest jumped 300% during the campaign window.
Why Silicon Slopes Turned to Billboard Advertising
Silicon Slopes is the Utah tech community’s flagship annual gathering. For 2018, the team wanted record-breaking attendance and a national-scale spike in search interest around the event.
Digital and in-person channels were already doing their work. What was missing was regional visibility that reaches attendees on their drive to work, on their way to lunch, and on their daily commute. The team wanted the flexibility to spread the budget across many boards in the target region without a fixed-term contract.
How Silicon Slopes Built Its Billboard Campaign
Director of Operations Garrett Clark ran the entire program in-house through Blip’s self-serve platform.
- Boards selected: 27 large-format placements across a targeted geographic region in Utah, sized to reach the tech-community audience most likely to attend.
- Creative approach: Event dates, brand mark, and a short call to action. The design updated as messaging shifted through the runup.
- Ongoing management: The designer logged in to update creative; the director logged in to manage spend and schedule. No outside agency.
- Budget approach: Pay-per-play across 18 active boards, spread over a targeted campaign window. Spend followed delivery.
The Creative
The design was updated multiple times throughout the campaign as messaging shifted. For event teams building their own artwork, Blip’s billboard design guidelines cover what reads at highway speed.
What Silicon Slopes’ Campaign Delivered
The 18-board flight produced 137,118 blips and roughly 1.42 million estimated impressions. Alongside the team’s existing social, networking, and event marketing, event attendance climbed 87% year over year, and search interest around Silicon Slopes rose 300% during the campaign window.
That is the pattern a well-timed out-of-home flight tends to produce when it runs alongside an already-working multi-channel plan. The boards give the summit a physical presence in the community it serves, and the search lift confirms that recognition is turning into active interest. For a tech-community summit that needed record attendance, this is what the model looked like.
We were very pleased with Blip. We loved how quick it got the word out and it really helped drive record attendance. From our end, it was really good as far as the customer service and results. We are looking forward to working together again in the future.
Garrett Clark, Director of Operations, Silicon Slopes
Why This Campaign Worked
- Regional concentration: 18 boards across a targeted geographic region kept exposure in front of the community that could actually attend.
- Self-serve control: The design and operations teams ran everything themselves, without an outside agency.
- Creative iteration mid-flight: Updating the design as the runup progressed kept the same audience seeing new information.
- Multi-channel reinforcement: Boards paired with social, networking, and existing event marketing to build recognition across channels.
What Event and Community Organizers Can Take From This Campaign
Community summits and tech gatherings can put these ideas to work:
- Concentrate in the region you draw from: A run in the towns your attendees drive through is more useful than a national spread.
- Update creative through the runup: Announcement, mid-campaign, and countdown messaging tend to outperform a single design.
- Own it in-house: Design and operations can manage the program themselves without an outside agency.
- Judge results against attendance and search: Both should move together for an awareness-led event campaign.
Run an Event Billboard Campaign Like Silicon Slopes
Concentrate the boards in the region your attendees drive through, update the creative through the runup, and pair with your existing social and networking.
Frequently Asked Questions About Silicon Slopes’s Billboard Campaign
How many boards did Silicon Slopes use?
The program ran across 27 large-format boards, with 18 active during the peak campaign window.
What results did Silicon Slopes see?
Event attendance climbed 87% year over year, and search interest rose 300% during the campaign.
How was the campaign managed?
The designer and director ran everything in-house through Blip’s self-serve platform. No outside agency was involved.
Is an event billboard effective for a tech community summit?
For Silicon Slopes it was. The lift in attendance and search interest came from pairing the boards with the team’s existing social, networking, and event marketing.
How quickly can a campaign go live?
Campaign setup can be completed in minutes; displays begin after creative is approved and the selected inventory is available. Garrett specifically praised how quickly Blip helped get the word out for this campaign.