Sign spinning a questionable outdoor advertising method – but is it effective?

I have been asked about the effectiveness of sign spinning as a method of outdoor advertising. Sometimes called “human directionals,” sign spinners attempt to draw attention to sales and special events through the use of people holding signs in public places.

This concept is controversial: it doesn’t resonate with a lot of people, while others are intrigued by it. A blog post on sign spinning received well over 600 diggs and 200+ comments, which indicate that sign spinning definitely captures attention and cause people to comment (positively or not).

Is it effective? Possibly. Advertising effectiveness is generally measured by Cost Per Thousand (CPM) impressions and by Cost Per Action (CPA). The Impressions are the number of people who see the ad on your sign and the Actions are the desired responses (typically purchases). So to measure the CPM, you need to estimate the number of people (in thousands) will view your sign in a given period. Say you have a busy street corner with that has about 2,000 pedestrians and passing cars per hour. If you pay a sign holder $8 per hour, your CPM is $4.00. Compare this to advertising in other media and you may find that it has a higher CPM than billboards or radio, but a lower CPM than direct mail or Yellow Pages. The key is CPA or cost per action. To track this, have the sign holder pass out coupons or “mention this offer” flyers that are redeemed at purchase. Divide the total cost by the number of actions (sales) and you will be able to track the CPA.

So keep in mind that this tactic seems to annoy a lot of people (some of who might be annoyed by something anyway). If it is too distracting or attention-grabbing, police may consider it a public nuisance or a traffic safety risk. This method is definitely an attention getter. Its effectiveness is determined by the advertiser’s type of business, the campaign objective, the CPM, and the image the advertiser wishes to portray.