Human Billboard Advertising – Sell Ad Space On Yourself For Free Money

Human Billboard Advertising is when people display ads on themselves. Sell ad space on yourself for free money. A human billboard advertiser may also be called a brand ambassador. However “brand ambassador” could have other meanings or various job descriptions. Individuals who stand outside retail centers waiving a sign to attract attention could also be called Human Billboards. However, this page deals more with offering ad space on a person, which is displayed where ever the person goes. Usually the ad is printed on a t-shirt or other apparel that the person wears.

The concept of advertising on people has been practiced by brands for decades; they just happen to be getting the advertising for free. In fact, consumers pay to advertise for them. Whenever you buy and wear a brand such as Abercrombie, Nike or Disney, you’re actually promoting them. Why not get paid to do the same for other brands, and often keep the clothing for free?

Is Free Money For Being a Human Billboard Actually Free?

You’re getting paid to wear clothing, which is something you often do anyway, at least in public. Right? Usually the advertiser will cover the cost of T-shirt printing. So this is theoretically free. However, it could take time and even monetary expenses to get to the point where you can offer the service and businesses will buy it.

Human Billboard Advertising was a fad a few years ago when this article was first conceived. eBay listings offering ad space on people, including t-shirts and tattoos, were much more common then. It’s an appealing concept for the “publisher” (the human ad space), because you can wear ads and get paid for it wherever you go, including events, the mall, or even on vacation. You would essentially be getting paid to go shopping or to travel. However, since this is not as trendy as it used to be, the only way you’ll be able to sell this service is by establishing value for the business that is buying the ad space. This will take some creativity and you will need to build your reach, following and influence.

How Do I Sell Ad Space On Myself?

When businesses buy any advertising, they expect it to produce leads. It’s an investment for them, so they are hoping to get a return by making more sales. Advertising on a person might be a cleaver idea, but they won’t buy it unless you can offer actual value to them. You’ll have to demonstrate that their ad will be seen in places that have a lot of people. You could demonstrate value by explaining that the ad can go anywhere you go, including places where other advertising space is not available or where other advertising is super expensive.

If you build your following on social media, then you can post your experiences online and then the advertiser’s ads will be seen by even more people. It would be even better if you could set up tracking to see how many leads you produce. Tracking for print ads can be done through a unique coupon code, unique phone number with forwarding, a unique email, or a unique website address (landing page). The method of tracking has to be unique so that you can be sure that all leads coming through the tracking are coming from you and no other ad space. For example, if the ad you’re wearing has a phone number that is not displayed on any other ads, then every time the phone number is called that means it came from you and that’s a direct lead for the advertiser. You can get a free phone number from Google and set up forwarding to whatever number the advertiser prefers. That way Google will keep track of the calls that come through that number, but the advertiser is still the one responsible for handling the calls. This is actually free for you.

You might want to offer free advertising to a couple of businesses to build a track record. They would just cover the cost of t-shirt printing. Then when you can demonstrate value, you can start charging businesses for the service. At any stage of the process you’ll need to advertise the service itself. You can start by advertising it on yourself and when businesses see it, they may become interested. Or you can cold call businesses, canvas local businesses, go to networking groups, and promote your service online with a website, email and social media. Developing sales skills would be helpful.

One of the most successful human billboards was Jason Zook (formerly Jason Sadler), who created iwearyourshirt.com (no longer active). He was a human billboard that made over $1 million between 2009 and 2013 by working with 1,600 businesses. He was featured on The Today Show, Oprah, Forbes, and CNBC. He now sells a book on how he did it.