Some advertisements aren’t intended to sell you anything. There is an entire category of ads whose primary purpose is to educate the public to help keep people safe, healthy, and informed. These advertisements are called public service announcements.
Unlike brand ads placed by for-profit companies, PSAs are commonly placed by non-profit entities like a local, state, or federal government agency, or a charitable or public-service organization.
The goal of a PSA is to raise awareness of a topic that serves the public interest.
Commonly placed PSA topics include:
- Safe and sober driving
- Tobacco and drug use
- Domestic violence
- Mental health and suicide prevention
PSA topics tend to be (but not always) non-controversial themes that most citizens support and hope others adopt. Again, these are messages for the good of the people rather than promoting a brand, a company, or a special interest.
But do PSAs work, and what’s needed for them to influence a person’s behaviors successfully?
Are PSA Ads Effective?
Yes. Just like any ad, a well-done PSA will draw attention, stir interest, trigger desire, and convince the audience to take action. However, compared to purely commercial ads, PSA performance is sometimes tracked with a different level of rigor.
Brands typically measure ad performance carefully, looking at daily, weekly, quarterly, or yearly assessments. The brands will track sales performance, lead capture, and other metrics to validate the effectiveness of ads within a campaign. However, PSAs are often placed by mission-based organizations, where timescales and definitions of success can be different. (And, let’s be honest, there is sometimes less budget allocated for performance tracking.)
Many PSAs support long-term cultural adoption/migration of positive behaviors. The changes are gradual and can take place over months, years, and even decades. Think of topics like smoking cessation or deterring drunk driving. Even when the numbers improve, you will need to continue to convince new audiences. There is always a new generation or group of people entering a particular age/activity/sphere of influence.
How To Create a Successful PSA Campaign
Creating an effective PSA is often identical to building a purely commercial ad. While the overarching goals of a campaign may be awareness and — ultimately — behavior change, you will still see specific calls to action. For example, visiting a website, scanning a QR code, requesting information, or making an appointment. And so, many of the same rules of thumb apply.
Have a Focused Message
Keep your message short, powerful, and rational. It’s often a clever tactic to provide statistics or data to emphasize the importance of the topic. For example, stating that “every 85 seconds, someone is killed or injured in a drunk driving crash” can cause people to consider just how widespread the issue remains. Also, keep in mind that many PSA messages are delivered using out-of-home media like gas pump toppers and table tents. These are, by nature, formats that are not designed to hold the audience’s attention for more than a few seconds.
Know the Audience
The nature of many PSA messages is beneficial for everyone. For example, everyone should wear a seat belt. However, some PSAs need to be targeted to specific groups of people. For instance, PSAs about Medicare enrollment are typically targeted at people who are or about to become 65 years old. That message has less value to young adults as enrollment isn’t available to most until later in life.
Understanding who you want to influence and who you can avoid is critical to effective media buying and creative messaging.
Start identifying your audience by asking who stands to benefit from your message and who will find it irrelevant. Then dig deeper and gather some core demographic and psychographic information.
Seven Starter Questions for Targeting Your PSA Audience:
- What are their age ranges?
- What is their gender and/or sexual orientation?
- Where do they live?
- What is their primary language?
- What is their household income?
- What are their interests and hobbies?
- What is their current behavior/awareness relating to the PSA topic?
Make a Clear Request
A PSA advertisement is only as effective as the audience’s level of reaction and behavior adjustment.
Odd as it may sound, a good PSA may need to connect the dots. Looking back at our earlier example, saying “every 85 seconds, someone is killed or injured in a drunk driving crash” isn’t enough. It likely needs a follow-up saying something along the lines of “Don’t be on the clock. Don’t drink and drive.” Without a clear ask, the stat is a little more than a dreadful factoid.
Using Out-of-Home for Public Service Announcements
Few media options offer the precise targeting and economical cost of out-of-home media.
Among the other strengths of out-of-home media is the vastness of formats and opportunities it provides to reach and influence audiences.
Popular OOH Formats for PSAs
- Door hangers
- Gas pump toppers
- Pump handles
- Retail posters
- Table tents
- Truck wraps
How, when, and where a message is delivered is just as important as the message itself. The media tactics listed above target people in moments of opportunity. Those are times when the audience is not preoccupied with another activity, like watching a favorite television show. The PSAs come as a welcome and natural part of their day, rather than an interruption to some activity.
Ready to Improve Your Public Service Announcements?
Creating compelling PSA is only one aspect of in-the-moment marketing — a strategy created by Momentara. We turn in-store, out-of-home, and event promotions into useful touchpoints that sync with the customer’s routines to encourage behaviors. The Momentara approach makes your marketing messages a welcome, impactful, and natural part of the customer’s day.
Whether your marketing needs are focused on OOH PSAs or if you’re intrigued by the omnichannel opportunities offered by Momentara, we invite you to reach out. We bring you the technology, experience, production, scale, resources, and national presence to build certainty and programmatic success.
