What does your billboard say?

In an advertising universe driven by complex algorithms, Internet cookies, television ad buys, and targeted email, the old-fashioned roadside billboard seems almost quaint. But the discipline required to convey a marketing message in six seconds to someone driving 70 miles an hour holds a lot of lessons for those of us trying to draw attention to the important work we do. 

Here are the basic rules for billboard design: 

• Clearly state what you want people to think or do. This is no place for muddle. Do you want people to go to a website, visit a place, buy something, or simply like you?

• Employ a simple, compelling image that perfectly captures your message. This is one-picture-speaks-a-thousand-words territory.

• Seven words max.

• Will someone remember it ten minutes after driving by?

 Nonprofit language is full of acronyms, qualifiers, tangents, tropes, four-syllable words, flowery rhetoric, and excruciating detail. And a billboard that has to deliver results at a cost of thousands of dollars a day has room for none of that.

Given this, what would your billboard look like?