What Is Above the Line Advertising?

Above the Line advertising refers to ad campaigns designed for wide audiences through mass media promotions. Above the line campaigns do not follow any specific form of audience targeting. The idea behind it is to get your brand messaging out there and broadcast it to the masses. 

Above the line advertising strategies can be complemented and combined with other forms of advertising, such as the below the line more targeted approach and through the line advertising.

Whereas above the line advertising campaigns connect with broad audiences from all walks of life, below the line campaigns are sophisticated in order to make an impact on more specific target audiences.

Here Drovo explores above the line advertising.

Examples of Above the Line Advertising

When it comes to above the line advertising, we are talking about mass media advertising formats.

Above the line advertising includes the following media:

• Billboard advertising
• Radio
• Television 
• Car advertising
• Newspapers

The Benefits of Above the Line Advertising

One of the main benefits of above the line advertising is that it allows advertisers to reach a mass audience that is diverse and encompasses people from all different demographic groups.

It also combines the visual and audio elements of advertisements. Some television viewers in Britain absolutely love sitting down to watch John Lewis Christmas adverts every year to enjoy both the music and the family-centred videography. This is a prime example of how above the line advertising is used to help create mass-scale brand awareness.

What is Below the Line Advertising? 

In contrast to above the line advertising, below the line advertising campaigns are purposely much more targeted. Below the line advertising campaigns can be generated by conducting market research, customer surveys, or accessing census or other sources of government data. 

What’s more, below the line advertising steers away from using mainstream forms of media to spread a message, which means no radio, television, or newspaper campaigns, for example. 

To be effective, below the line advertising efforts need to have target customers or potential target customers in mind and have a good idea of their likes and dislikes, consumer habits, age groups, and more. Below the line advertising is a much more direct form of advertising than above the line. 

Examples of Below the Line Advertising 

What are some examples of below the line advertising? Here are a few 

• Flyers 
• Email marketing 
• Social media marketing 
• Localised Google ads

There are so many daily users of social media sites in 2024. Social media marketing therefore has the potential to be a highly effective below the line advertising strategy, and 90% of social media followers follow at least one brand.

What Is Through the Line Advertising? 

Through the line advertising is an eclectic mix of both above the line and below the line advertising. Perhaps you have got plenty of sales conversions through below the line ads, and now want to grow your brand awareness to engage a wider size audience? If so, it is time to start integrating some above the line tactics, such as television or radio ads. 

Many smaller companies that have gone through a scale-up process and hold hopes of growing internationally will switch up their approaches by going back and forth between above and below the line advertising. 

How Drovo Covers Both Above the Line and Below the Line Advertising 

Drovo’s taxi advertising campaigns enable you to do above the line advertising differently and with increased transparency. Our live tracking dashboard allows you to see real-time daily and hourly statistics on on-street impressions and the distance covered by each vehicle.

Voilà, the result is you having full oversight over the progress of your live taxi campaigns.

We know how difficult is to break down audience data for above the line campaigns with mass reach. Our live dashboard breaks down this data for you and presents it in an easily digestible way! Drovo’s tracking technology has been designed to make life easier for advertisers and brands.

Fortunately, we are able to go both ways and also provide a below the line advertising element to your taxi campaigns thanks to shadowfencing. But what is shadowfencing and how does it enhance your taxi campaigns?

The innovative shadowfencing feature we provide is able to continue the conversation from your taxi campaigns by sending targeted ads to the mobile devices of passersby in close proximity to the vehicle as well as passengers travelling inside the taxi. The retargeting element of shadowfencing technology means that audiences can still receive your ads on their mobiles once they are no longer in close proximity to the taxi.

You should now understand a great deal more about above the line advertising and how it works.