Billboard advertising in Bangladesh, explained
What it costs, how it is priced, which format does which job, where the good sites are and how to tell whether any of it worked. Written by the people who own and run the screens, which is why there is more detail here than a brochure would carry.
Digital billboardsStatic billboardsLED caravansTransit brandingAirport brandingBrand activationSignage & fabricationPrinting & packaging
Costs and budget
- How much does billboard advertising cost in Bangladesh? There is no single rate. Digital LED billboards in Bangladesh are sold by the minute per day, so your cost depends on the site, the screen size, how many minutes a day you take and how long you run. Two screens a kilometre apart can price very differently.
- What is the minimum budget for a billboard campaign in Bangladesh? Lower than most people assume. Digital screen time is sold by the minute per day — the minimum on most of our sites is 60 minutes a day, and on a few it is 30 — so a short run on a smaller panel is genuinely within reach of a single-outlet business.
- Can a small business afford billboard advertising in Bangladesh? Yes, and the ones that do it well tend to buy narrow rather than broad — a single screen on the road their customers already use, held long enough to be noticed, instead of a scattering of sites nobody sees twice.
Formats and inventory
- Digital or static billboards — which is better in Bangladesh? Neither is better; they do different jobs. Static gives you sole occupancy of a face for a month or more, which suits always-on presence. Digital gives you a share of a loop you can change the same day, which suits launches, offers and anything with a date on it.
- How do LED billboards work? An LED billboard is a grid of tiny light modules playing video files in a loop. The number after the "P" in its model name is the gap between pixels in millimetres — P5 means 5mm — and that single number decides how close you can stand before the picture breaks into dots.
- What is OOH advertising? Out-of-home advertising is any advertising that reaches people while they are out of the house — billboards, LED screens, transit branding, airport panels, mall displays and street furniture. In Bangladesh it is dominated by roadside billboards, increasingly digital ones.
- What transit and airport advertising is available in Bangladesh? Beyond fixed billboards, you can brand vehicle fleets and buses, run LED-equipped vans that go to the audience, and take panels and screens at airports, railway stations and launch terminals. We hold screens at the airport approach, Kamlapur and Sadarghat.
Planning a campaign
- What are the best billboard locations in Dhaka? The strongest sites are the ones with the slowest traffic, not the most: Gulshan Circle-1 and Circle-2, Mohakhali, Karwan Bazar, Panthapath, Science Lab, Bijoy Sarani and Mirpur-10. Dhaka carries 38 of the 58 screens in our network.
- How quickly can a billboard campaign go live in Bangladesh? A digital campaign can be on air 24 to 48 hours after artwork is approved, because there is nothing to print. A printed static face usually takes five to seven working days to cover printing, permissions and a mounting slot.
- How many minutes a day should I book on a digital billboard? Sixty minutes a day is the standard minimum across most of our network, and for most campaigns it is also the right answer. Buy more minutes only once you already have enough days — frequency over the run beats intensity on any single day.
- What is the best time of day to run a billboard advert? For most brands, the two commute peaks — roughly 8am to 11am and 5pm to 9pm. But the better move on digital is to run different creative in each: a functional message in the morning and an emotional or offer-led one in the evening.
- Is billboard advertising better than Facebook and Google ads? They are not competitors, they are stages. Out-of-home builds the familiarity that makes people notice and trust you; online ads harvest the demand that familiarity creates. The brands that do best in Bangladesh run both and stop trying to attribute one to the other.
- How do you book a billboard in Bangladesh? Tell an operator four things — the cities, the dates, the format and a rough budget — and you should have a written plan with sites, sizes and an all-in cost within a working day. Artwork follows, then you are live in 24 to 48 hours on digital.
Artwork and production
- What size and format should billboard artwork be? For our digital network: MP4 video, built to the exact pixel dimensions of the screen you have booked. Most sites are 1920 × 1080; a few are portrait at 1080 × 1920 or 1152 × 1536. Design to the pixels, not to a print size.
- How do you design a billboard that actually works? Say one thing. You have between two and four seconds with a moving audience, so the working limit is about seven words, one image, a legible brand mark and enormous contrast. Everything else you add makes those four elements harder to read.
- How do LED billboards handle sunlight, rain and the monsoon? Outdoor LED screens are built far brighter than any television and adjust through the day, so they stay readable in direct sun and do not glare at night. The structures are weather-rated and sealed; monsoon affects mounting schedules for printed faces far more than it affects screens.
Proof and measurement
- How do you measure whether a billboard campaign worked? Two separate things: proof it ran, and proof it did something. We supply the first as a played-spot log for digital and dated site photographs for static. For the second, watch branded search, direct traffic and walk-ins across the run rather than looking for clicks.
- Do you need permission or a licence for a billboard in Bangladesh? Yes — outdoor structures need clearance from the relevant city corporation or local authority, and the structure itself needs to be sound. When you book an existing site from an operator, those permissions sit with the operator, which is one of the practical reasons to book from one.
Cities
- What billboard advertising is available in Sylhet? Sylhet is the second-largest city network we operate, with eight LED sites covering Bondor Bazar, Chowkideki, Jitu Miah Point, Nairpul, Rikabi Bazar, Surma Point, Tilaghar and Uposohor — effectively the whole central ring.
- What billboard advertising is available in Chattogram and beyond? Outside Dhaka and Sylhet we operate LED sites in Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Rajshahi, Cumilla, Rangpur, Bogura, Narayanganj and Feni — ten cities in total. Regional sites tend to be the most efficient reach in the network.