They beautify city landscapes and spread your brand’s message to the greater community. In dense urban areas, like New York City, advertising murals stand out from other ad clutter and provide a unique and exciting way to highlight your brand.
Designing and installing a wall mural is a smart investment for brands looking to incorporate creative and innovative techniques into their next marketing campaign. Street art is a great way to capture the essence of your brand, and is especially effective at gaining recognition in a specific geographic location.
What Is Mural Advertising?
Mural advertising is a creative take on outdoor advertising. Advertising murals are large scale eye-catching paintings that are manually applied to city walls and buildings. Most advertising murals involve a street artists who are hired to design and hand paint the mural onto a building.
One of the great things about murals is that there are very few rules and regulations when it comes to where and when they can be placed. As long as the mural design meets city regulations and is approved by the building owner, the mural can be applied to the side of virtually any building. Sizes and locations vary widely, giving your marketing team and hired artist a remarkable amount of flexibility when it comes to designing your mural.
Where Can You Put Mural Ads?
You’ll typically find large scale murals in dense urban areas, especially those with a strong arts tradition, like the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn or parts of San Francisco and Downtown Los Angeles. It’s smart to incorporate the surrounding aesthetic into your mural design. For example, in areas that have a lot of independent streetwear-focused retailers, the murals might incorporate traditional graffiti art. In a region known for it’s avant-guard artist culture, like Haight-Ashbury, a mural might reference counterculture themes and Beat artists. This ensures your design will seamlessly incorporate the surrounding attitudes and aesthetic and be viewed positively by the community.
Adidas is a brand well known for their murals, and often incorporate graffiti artistry into their mural ads. They typically partner with known local artists to ensure their designs are respectful of the surrounding culture.
How Does Mural Space Work For Advertising?
Because murals incorporate artistry and well-known cultural themes, they can easily go viral and expand your message beyond the immediate surroundings. Many murals are designed to engage with social media, incorporating a hashtag or otherwise encouraging people to take photos and post on social media. Initiatives that encourage engagement are proven to have higher impact than those that viewers passively engage with. A strong example of a mural designed for engagement are those that incorporate painted wings, which are often photographed and posted on social media.
Because of this unique ability to go viral, murals are a high-impact form of outdoor advertising. This type of advertising holds special appeal to the advertising company looking to expand brand awareness in an authentic and exciting way.
Who Designs The Mural Ad?
The typical mural painting is designed by local artists or a team of artists who specialize in mural designs. Because murals are different from traditional forms of art, they take a high level of technical skill and require special tools to execute. Make sure you work with a vetted artist or team of artists for your mural advertising campaign, and take a look at their previous work before moving forward in the process.
How Long Does Mural Advertising Take?
Like other forms of outdoor advertising, or OOH, the length of time it takes to get from creating a design concept to seeing your mural up on a wall will depend on several key factors. Perhaps most importantly, finding and securing a location can take longer if you choose to put your mural up in a high-demand location. An established mural artist will be able to design and execute your marketing campaign pretty quickly once you give them the green light to go ahead. Murals can take anywhere from a few days to a few months, depending on the location and your artists’ timelines.
How Much Does Mural Advertising Typically Cost?
Due to the design and artistry of murals, they are typically more expensive to execute than other forms of outdoor advertising. Pricing will vary depending on location, size, and design, and any other stipulations the property owners specify. Expect to pay anywhere from $13,000 to over $50,000 for massive paintings in high-demand locations.
Is Mural Advertising Illegal?
In many states, yes. In some states, like Vermont, murals are usually considered billboards, which are illegal. In areas like Los Angeles, there are certain rules that govern what is an advertising mural and what is a work of art. Work with a reputable advertising company if you’re unsure of local rules and regulations governing mural paintings.
Industry Use Cases for Mural Advertising
Murals are often considered cool and youthful, and are especially effective for brands attempting to target younger crowds who appreciate street art. Netflix has effectively used murals to drum up attention for upcoming shows that will be released on the platform. Hiring a muralist can be a great way to take your next out of home advertising campaign to the next level and draw a younger, more urban crowd.
