Is a billboard the best way to market?

For the last 15+ years our church had one billboard on one of the major intersections in Edmond, OK.  It is the busiest intersections in town and thousands of people saw it daily.  This past week I was sent the new contract for the year.  The yearly cost of the billboard was $27,600.00.  That is just to use the billboard.  To make any changes to the billboard it is an additional $6,000 per change.  I believe that the billboard needs to be changed at least 6 times a year to look and stay current.  Six changes at $6k per change is $36K.  Add that to the yearly cost and we would be spending $63,600.00 per year for ONE billboard.

So…we didn’t renew the contract.  It was agreed upon by all, our Lead Team, that we could use the money spent on the billboard in other ways that would gain us more exposure.  I’m in the midst of looking at all the other options available for us to advertise HHBC. 

• What would you have done?  Keep the billboard or burn the contract?
• If you burnt the contract, what modes of advertising would you use?

I’m really interested in your thoughts.

Just a side note, when I called the billboard rep and told him we were not renewing the contract his exact words were, “OK”, and then I heard a click.  I’m sure there was a waiting list for the billboard.  Hope it works for the next company!