This article originally published in Self-Service World magazine's special section, FOCUS: Digital Signage & Touchscreens, April 2007.
In January, the city of Eagan, Minn., placed a temporary moratorium on digital billboards. A few weeks later, Des Moines, Iowa, followed suit.
Public worry over distracted drivers is nothing new; five U.S. states currently ban cell phone use while driving, and another 15 have partial restrictions in place. That same worry will impact the future of digital technology in outdoor advertising.
"Drive down a road with an electronic billboard on it and you'll know right away that they attract attention," said Bill Gerba, president of WireSpring Technologies. He frequently travels a stretch of I-95 near the Ft. Lauderdale Airport where "the electronic billboard is so bright compared to everything else around, it's impossible not to notice."
Safety concerns
The technology behind digital bill-boards is not inherently hazardous — Times Square and Las Vegas are ample evidence of that. But the placement of it in a new environment may cause growing pains.
The Federal Highway Administration recently commissioned a study on what digital billboards mean to driver safety. The federal government also committed $150,000 to study the issue.
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| Digital billboards are an accepted part of the landscape in places like Times Square and Las Vegas, but they are beginning to pop up elsewhere — and that has safety advocates concerned. |
John McDermot, analyst with technology consultancy Accuvia, said digital billboards will present risks and safety hazards, especially initially. "They are not an everyday occurrence for most drivers," he said. "I believe legislation will eventually strike a balance and dictate a correlation between video and traffic speed."
The burden, it seems, will fall on ad agencies and content creators: They will have to resist the urge to pull out every flashy tool in their bag of tricks. They also will have to take into account factors like brightness control and how it interacts with day-parting at the design stage.
Public safety possibilities
The billboard industry has been starving for innovation for years. Federal and local regulations make it difficult to put up new billboards, so the challenge has become squeezing more revenue out of existing ones.
Digital billboards seem to do that very well. Tracy Libertino, analyst with Accuvia Consulting, said 94 percent of people who saw a moving billboard recalled the product being advertised, versus 43 percent for traditional billboards. That led to a sales increase of 107 percent for products shown on moving billboards, versus 54 percent for static ones.
Digital billboards open the door for a larger number of ad sales and a higher rate. Libertino said the average cost per thousand impressions on a traditional billboard is around $2; for a digital billboard, it can be almost 20 times as much.
But besides retail benefits, there are very real public safety benefits. For example, on Feb. 12, a 14-year-old Minnesota girl went missing. Several digital billboards in the area ran a multimedia Amber Alert, and the girl was found the very next day.
In Huntsville, Ala., police recently commenced a manhunt for a registered sex offender. Lamar Advertising Co. worked with Crimestoppers to display on the regional billboard network artwork that resembled the suspect. The messages began at 5 p.m.; at 9:45 p.m. the suspect was captured.
