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Billboard Advertising Enters The Digital Age With A Bang

By: Carlton Birch

It's been shown over time that billboard marketing is an effective means of advertising one's products and services. By posting the company's logo, an image, a message, or a combination of the three on a roadside billboard, companies have found that most drivers and their passengers will take notice, even if only subconsciously.

Consider interstates and turnpikes that you've driven one recently. Outdoor billboard advertising is posted in advance of exits and at the exit ramp for restaurants, gas stations, theme parks and even automobile dealerships. In major cities, you'll find billboards boasting products, cars, clothing, entertainment, food and other kinds of businesses.

The Challenges Of Outdoor Billboard Advertising

While billboard advertising is effective in most cases, there are times when the ads begin to blend in with the landscape - and not just because of where they are positioned: it's because people are so accustomed to seeing the sales message that they no longer consciously view them.

There also comes a time when all businesses begin to look for methods to increase the efficiency of their marketing materials, and billboard advertising is no exception. Business managers and marketing departments begin to look for outdoor billboard advertising that will accomplish more recognition and sales, improving the cost-effectiveness of their advertising dollars.

With billboard advertising, some marketing teams have decided that the best way to keep their marketing message fresh in the eyes of consumers is to move the physical location of that message at regular intervals. Others have decided to change their displayed message at regular intervals. Even on television, companies tend to change their commercials every few months to keep their message fresh in the minds of consumers.

A Fresh Perspective On Billboard Advertising

Just as home computers and high-speed Internet connections are changing the way people watch movies and listen to music, electronic billboards will change the way that marketers look at outdoor billboard advertising.

Why should business managers and marketing departments consider using electronic billboards to market their business and the products or services that they offer? There are a number of reasons:

* Electronic billboards have a high impact on viewers because they show a clear, bright image;

* Advertising on electronic billboards is affordable, costing far less than traditional outdoor billboard advertising;

* When advertising with this technology, ads will be rotated with a maximum of two other ads at set intervals. This keeps the advertising fresh and ensures that a business' sales message will be shown thousands of times each and every day.

Intelligence Gathering Possibilities

For those who market with electronic billboards, it is also possible to gather information about drivers who have seen their message, by installing a radio monitoring system on the billboard itself.

This radio monitoring system - or RMS - enables advertisers to know which radio stations drivers are tuned to on their car radios. This information allows advertisers to look at listener information from those stations to determine more accurate consumer demographics. This information is essential as it allows marketers to develop a demographic profile of the viewer and to tailor their advertising to that market.

LED Technology Delivers An Advertising Message That Stands Out

Traditional outdoor billboard advertising cannot be compared apples-to-apples to LED / electronic billboards; once consideration is given to the additional benefits an advertiser can gain from electronic billboards.

Electronic billboards enable advertisers to know that it's more likely that drivers and passengers alike will notice and remember the advertisements that they have seen. By their very nature, the bright LED screens are far less likely to blend into the landscape or buildings that they are near.

For those who are not aware, these LED screens can deliver full-color, television-quality images. Most people will have been introduced to this technology at major sporting events, as LED technology has become a popular messaging system at coliseums around the world.

In addition, because electronic billboards have been designed to rotate advertising, marketers are not left to use a static image. Their advertising can take advantage of video technology, or the advertiser will be able to purchase each of the rotating ads on the billboard so that they are able to communicate more effectively with those who are viewing the ads.

Changing Direction On A Dime

If advertisers discover that they are reaching a different audience than they had anticipated - based on reports from the radio monitoring system - they will be able to easily change their advertisement quickly and easily without the higher production costs associated with standard outdoor billboard advertising.

With ordinary billboards, the advertiser would need to return to their large format printing company, and then rehire the labor required to install the new sign. Instead, a quick bit of reprogramming is all that it takes to change the advertising message on the electronic billboard. In most cases, an advertiser could put a new advertisement in motion on the very day they decide to change their message.

The Digital Age Delivers Results

While electronic billboards are still a relatively new technology, there is little doubt that they are a great medium for marketing products and services. Why settle for traditional outdoor billboard advertising when you can be among the first to take advantage of outdoor digital advertising and electronic billboards?

Article Source: http://www.articlesinsight.com

Carlton Birch writes about the influence of technology on modern living. Smart Sign Media is a technology-based outdoor marketing and advertising firm operating a national network of LED digital-video billboards located in top ranked DMA's with premier highway exposure. To learn more about outdoor billboard advertising and electronic billboards, visit www.smartsignmedia.com

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