Digital Billboard Phenomenon{0}
James Strootman
Nov 30, 2009
I chose my research paper topic on smart advertisements. I chose this topic because I believe that this is going to change the advertisement industry for the better. The whole process is really quite exquisite. All you need is an idea and a computer (Advertising Trends…). Do not get the idea that there are zero flaws in this operation, but I believe that the pros outweigh the cons. Now let me go into more detail about what kind of advertisements I will be talking about. I would first like to give information about the ads themselves. The ads that I am talking about are the LED (Light-Emitting Diode) Signs. What this is, is a billboard that is replaced by the old vinyl traditional boards (The New Digital… ). The great thing about this is that there is no one that needs to come and strip the old advertisement and put the new one up. The other astonishing thing about this is that ads can be very target oriented to fit a specific audience. Now, advertisements can change instantly from one sale a company might have to the next in a matter of minutes. Another magnificent feature is that these signs can also capture radio frequencies that can change the advertisement based on what a potential customer is listening to on the radio. This also goes for many other ways for the billboard to recognize different things such as face recognition and car identifying (Digital billboards…).
This all sounds great but, like I said there is imperfection in this new age of advertisements. Someone in the greater Los Angeles area has hacked into the computer systems and put an ad of his own up there. It is somebody known as skullphone (Melanson, Donald). He is just a pirate taking over time slots that were paid for by companies. Another affliction of these great ads is that from any moment to another the sign would generate a different advertisement. What this means is that no company has full reign over a certain region of advertisements (Zita Torok). A company buys time slots, not locations anymore. So if a driver is at a traffic light and is exposed to thirty seconds of advertisement, and on average an ad last seven seconds the audience would have seen about four ads. So potentially the consumer would miss many other ads that should have been seen. This is not a good thing for the advertisers paying money to have people see their ads. This is another faulty issue that a company will have to address when considering this. The throughput will tell if the money was worth the initial payment up front.
Now as radio frequencies are accepted from each vehicle, information is gathered and puts up an ad that is target specific. A good example of this is say if I was driving and listening to a country station then an ad may pop up concerning great deals on new four wheel drive trucks. This happens because studies say that if a person listens to country music that they must drive a truck or in the market to get one. This is very helpful to companies and keeps the target audience very specific. It also gives instant information to a potential buyer, say for example how much that truck is or what kind of financing is available to them. My last source came out and said that from cameras on the billboard it can recognize individual cars and advertise to them as well. Such things in the article mention oil that is specific to a car make and model. What this does is inform the driver of discounts that would apply to his/hers vehicle (Digital billboard…).
In conclusion I think that this new wave of billboards is the future and that the old ones will be obsolete in a few years. Companies won’t waste their money to engage in a lifeless advertisement.
Advertising Trends: Digital Billboards. The Marketing Spot. 4 May 2009 http://www.themarketingspotblog.com/2009/05/advertising-trends-digital-billboards.html
Digital billboard ads recognize individual cars. Screensmedia. 22 Sept. 2009. http://www.screens.tv/article/11833/Digital_billboard_ads_recognise_individual_cars.html
Jay Ehret. “Advertising Trends: Digital Billboards”. The Marketing Spot. 28 Oct. 2009
http://www.themarketingspotblog.com/2009/05/advertising-trends-digital-billboards.html.
Zita Torok. The New Trend in Outdoor Billboard Advertising.2009. http://ezinearticles.com/?The-New-Trend-in-Outdoor-Billboard-Advertising&id=622779
Melanson, Donald. Skullphone decides to speak, probably shouldn’t have. 28 Mar. 2008. Engadget. http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/28/skullphone-decides-to-speak-probably-shouldnt-have/