SDBs on Billboard; No fooling!

In a pilot project proposed by the General Council and funded by the Memorial Fund, the Milton, Wis., SDB Church is now featured in a billboard ad campaign.

A subcommittee named by the Council (Rob Appel, Kevin Butler and Pat Cruzan) had proposed an ad concept and hoped to get it running later this spring. We were planning to use a regular (“static”) billboard on a busy highway between Milton and Janesville.

Then, the local Lamar advertising company offered a special deal to the Milton Chamber of Commerce (the Milton Church is a member). If ten businesses or groups signed on, they would be featured on a new digital billboard in Janesville to entice people to come to nearby Milton. The campaign would start on April 1 and run for three months, at about one-third the cost of a usual digital board ad.

We got busy snapping photos of children to promote Milton’s Wednesday night AWANA and youth group programs. The original concept had nine kids holding up poster boards to spell out the word “WEDNESDAY.” This might have worked on the static board, but once the Lamar artist started working with the pictures, he soon realized they would be too small and too “busy” to use on a digital board.

SO… “Plan B” (featured above) used two of the kids and bigger words to feature “Kid’s Nite.” With the 10 Milton groups, plus some Janesville businesses and public service ads, the church sign can be seen every four minutes. Each ad is displayed for six seconds. (You can see why focusing on 9 cute faces—small faces—plus the words, would have been difficult.)

When the youth program ends in early May, we will be able to change the ad and promote other ministries through June. Let’s pray that some good seeds are planted—even digitally—for the glory of God.