Practical design rules for JOLT screens: one message, huge type, high contrast, brand first, a clear next step, and a video edit that lands inside 8 seconds.
People see a JOLT screen while walking or driving past, or while plugging in a car. You have eight seconds, often from several metres away. The design rules follow from that.
Say one thing. A screen that lists three offers communicates none of them. Decide the single idea a passer-by should carry away and cut everything that does not serve it.
Dark text on a light ground or light text on a dark ground, at full strength. Avoid mid-tones on mid-tones, and avoid text over busy photography unless you put a solid panel behind it. Screens are outdoors and often in daylight, so what looks punchy on a monitor is softer in the wild.
Put the logo where it is seen in the first second, not tucked in a corner at the end. On a still image the logo is on screen the whole time; on a video it should be visible from the first frame.
A short URL, a scannable QR code, a store name, an offer code. Make it big and keep it on screen. QR codes work well on JOLT because people are standing at a charger — see QR codes on creatives.
Keep everything that matters inside the central 80% of the frame. Screen bezels and viewing angles clip the edges.
Shrink the creative to the size of a matchbox on your screen and step back two metres. If you can still read the headline and recognise the brand, it will work on a JOLT screen.