Have you noticed an increasing trend in your city with these digital billboards? Animation on an illuminated sign offering state of the art advertising, sounds like the future doesn’t it? Hardly. If you haven’t noticed, these signs are popping up all over the place, a friend and I counted off the top of our heads how many there are in Regina, sixteen. (to see them all click here) sixteen billboards all claiming to offer thousands of “views” per day depending on the location.
With the city being saturated with these digital boards paired with the difficulty to measure their effectiveness, paying clients to fill the spots are becoming sparse. So who’s advertising on these boards? The surrounding businesses. Count the next time you’re at a red light how many ads show up that are for business in the vicinity of the sign. It’s astounding.
So if the sign owners aren’t making the money and it’s still not a good medium for your company to buy time on, who wins? Obviously the sign manufacturer’s stock is rising.
Now I would hate to complain about this phenomenon without offering a solution. If you still want one of these signs we put together the perfect formula. If you’re going to buy one ensure you put it up in the area with the most businesses around. Find the part of your city that is saturated with businesses and put up a digital board, that way you will ensure getting the most out of the sign.
For more information on why I don’t like this as a medium read Martin Lindstrom’s Buy-ology.
Related posts:
- Your Ego on a Billboard
- 13 Reasons Why Letter-Board Advertising Sucks
- Fight Club for Business
- Marketing Regina
- Goodwill on a Billboard
About the Author
Hi, I'm Jeph. I love helping people make smarter business decisions. I consult, speak, facilitate and do project work on new marketing strategies (It's a cross between word-of-mouth and social media). I'm currently a working on a brand new marketing company and freelancing with a few special clients. The marketing industry is changing very rapidly and the only way to stay on top of it is by a philosophy of continuous learning. Do you have an information strategy? Are you learning faster than the world is changing? If not, we should talk. Follow me @JephMaystruck
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Great points Jeph. I never liked the idea of buying “views” for advertising. I’d much rather buy results instead of fancy lights.
Great article Jeff! However, a better approach may have been to compare the number of digital boards to the number of static billboards. I believe there is more then 15. At that point a person could weigh out the advantages and liabilities of each medium. This kind of “research” would have been beneficial in adding a more realistic and informed approach to your article. Keep up the good work.
Great comment Sebastien but I think static billboards are somewhat in the same category as the digital ones, an interruption to get my attention to communicate an idea. Both are difficult to measure rate of effectiveness and the billboard stats that the agency’s are selling ad-space on are flawed, still based on number of views not number of views turned into leads. There is a place in our world for mass media but it is slowly shrinking. Thanks for the comment!
We’ve observed two benefits of digital sign ads:
1. Brand awareness. People love watching these ads. And for clients who have brand awareness as a priority, this works. Think Houston Pizza.
2. Event promotion. I’ve heard from a few promoters that the digital ads serve as great reminders about upcoming events, which has been reflected in turnout #’s. Think Brandt Centre.
Jeph I like your point about “interruption” marketing. Certainly the most qualified leads are created through “permission” marketing. For those interested in learning more, check out Seth Godin’s idea of permission marketing. http://www.sethgodin.com/permission/
.-= Jay Roach´s last blog ..Become a fan of AdSpark =-.
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
Absolutely! Thanks for reading!