How to Use Wheat Pasting as Part of Your Marketing Strategy

Wheat Pasting can be an extremely effective marketing tactic if done right. Consumers are inundated with messages from advertisers on a daily basis. Breaking through the clutter can be a challenge for a lot of brands. According to Zippia, the average American is exposed to 4,000-10,000 ads per day. This media tactic brings your message to the streets, providing eye-level advertisements directly to your audience.

What is a Wheat Pasting Ad?

Put simply, wheat pasting is a guerrilla marketing strategy that utilizes high foot-traffic areas to get your brand message directly in front of your audience. Different from billboards, these postings are ads usually placed on construction sites, fences, street light poles, barricades, and walls of buildings. They are a unique and eye-catching way to grab the attention of passersby. While non-permitted placements allow you the flexibility to pop up in unexpected places, there are also permitted placements that are located in an area where a landlord gives you permission to post on a dedicated unit. 

There are typically two standard sizes for guerilla ads either in 24” x 36” or a larger poster format 48” x 72.” Depending on your goals, some brands prefer the bigger poster for visibility reasons. On the other hand, the smaller size with different creatives in a campaign can create a checkerboard pattern that’s really eye-catching and effective. It’s also important to note that in non-permitted areas, sometimes larger spaces can be harder to come across, especially in smaller markets.

Is Wheat Pasting an Effective Marketing Strategy?

This media type tends to perform really well within the film, fashion, and music industries but can make a splash no matter what category your brand falls into. You only have a few seconds to catch your audience's attention as they walk by so less is more when it comes to design. Wheat pasting is a great way to catch people’s attention while outside and lead your audience to your social feed or generate traffic directly to your website. 

How to Target Your Audience with Wheat Pastings

In the world of wheat paste ads, less is more. More art and less copy. Often posted in urban areas, your ads will integrate with the atmosphere while also standing out. The goal is to get people to notice your campaign, generate attention, and ultimately create a memorable and interactive experience. 

It’s equally important to determine the demographic and utilize communities and areas where you can reach the target audience most effectively. At the end of the day, it’s all about location and being in the right place at the right time. 

Measuring Your Impact

When determining the ROI of your campaign it’s important to consider the size of your audience and sales growth during the duration of the campaign. The most obvious way to measure the campaign's effectiveness would be to analyze sales performance before and after. But this only works if you have no other campaigns running at the same time.

There are a number of ways you can gauge the effectiveness and impact including:

• Increase in calls/emails/texts if contact details are included in the campaign. 
• Use campaign-tailored discount codes, coupons, or QR codes to track how many times they’re used at checkout within your campaign time frame.
• Create a microsite specifically for the campaign to track website traffic. It can then be determined if purchases were made through that URL.
• Integrate a hashtag to monitor social media engagement. This will help gain insights into the audience your ad is targeting and who your message is connecting with.

It’s vital to work with a reputable agency that has experience and knows the ins and outs of the business. Moderne has been helping brands and companies for over 30+ years and has a great understanding of where to place ads for the best exposure. We have access to over 350 markets and can help you penetrate communities nationwide to connect with your target audience. Reach out to us today to see how we can work together or learn more about our media offerings.