Digital Billboards: Bright Future or Not?
Digital billboards are popping up everywhere including here in the Twin Cities. I remember reading a few articles locally on the City of Minnetonka, MN having a dispute with Clear Channel over the new billboards and the public/resident reaction. There are currently three that I know of in the area on 494 and 394 (one pictured to the right). For us at Prime, it is the outdoor sibling to our digital indoor advertising service.USA Today did an article on the new outdoor advertising technology today and covered the resident angle with complaints from those living near them and also safety groups that worry about distracted drivers.
The positives for Clear Channel and the advertisers is very apparent. The advertisers have the ability to appear in a network of area billboards, not just one location. The brightness at night is very commanding and draws the eye. The advertiser can also deliver a more current message, just a bit of computer work can update the ad. How often do we drive by a billboard hyping an event or sales from 2 weeks ago?
So I’m wondering the thoughts of marketing professionals and small business owners/managers.
Does this type of advertising appeal to you (your clients or your business) for these positives? Do you we care that we continue to grow more and more intrusive with our need to get noticed, or is that what we are all after anyway?
Posted on September 5th, 2007 by Aaron
Filed under: marketing, small business, technology
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I personally like the idea. They certainly do catch your eye. It is too bad that we are having such a hard time just getting a regular sign for our business where we are located. It makes me mad that certain cities have more restrictions than others.
Thanks for your thoughts Barb. It does seem like local gov’s and groups are pushing hard for signage limits and rules as more companies push to stand out. The fact that the playing field isn’t level is unfair from city to city. We feel your pain here … we have great Interstate frontage with no ability to have a custom or lighted sign! Ugh!
Good question! I really like them - both from a consumer / motorist standpoint as well as from a marketer’s standpoint.
As a consumer/motorist, I find them much cleaner and easier to read than the old “paper” boards - and certainly no less distracting than watching a new paper board being installed - or worse, trying to squint to read too-small copy on a poorly-lit board (not that anyone on this blog would ever create boards like that - but other people’s boards!)
As a marketer, I love the ability to update messaging and think there’s great potential for using a network of boards to creatively get a client’s message out there - much more so than with the traditional boards.
I’m for ‘em!
Caroline
Hey Aaron,
Good questions and a tough call. I think I have to say they are a good thing - both for the advertiser and motorist. I understand the camp that says they are distracting, but so is talking on a cell phone. From an advertiser standpoint, they’re perfect. No more large, printed banners that - as you say - go out of date too quickly.
Caroline- Good points. I also like what you’re hitting upon with using multiple boards to build a message or story to a campaign. Thanks for weighing in!
Pat- Cell phones distract people? I do think the Lonely Marketer billboard would distract people, digital or not!
Looks like the advertiser can change the ad with a little computer work? I think this alone is a huge plus.
It’s appealing to me for the same reasons as others posted, and it probably would be for clients although that goes beyond our Web expertise.
Oh boy Paul … your comment made me think a bit (dangerous thing) and know I have to post tomorrow on my new idea … “Billboard AdWords”. Yikes.