Update: New Location Dale Mabry & Fletcher

The face of the 12'x25' digital billboard on Dale Mabry, south of Fletcher Ave has been installed. The sign will not be turned on until May 1st when power will be hooked up, but advertisers can secure their slot on the board now. Four of the eight slots will be sold as a stand alone digital location, to anyone who'd like a bold, dynamic presence at this high-demand intersection. The other four slots will be used to supplement market coverage for traditional posting campaigns.

Some clearing of tree branches that come into the face of the sign will be completed before the board goes live in May.

To advertise, call Clear Channel Outdoor at 727-571-2224.

Full Market Coverage May Be Possible Soon

Tampa City Council is considering allowing the placement of digital billboards within the city limits. Currently, the boards have been limited to roads such as Dale Mabry, the Veterans Expressway and I-75, but this settlement would give advertisers digital coverage on the other major roads such as I-275 and I-4.

Some detractors of digital billboards envision bright, animated signs like the ones seen on the Las Vegas strip. However, the new locations would still be limited to static images which change every 8 seconds. With the use of dimming sensors, the digital signs don't look much different from a traditional billboard, as you can see in this video.

According to a poll conducted by Bay News 9, citizens are in favor of allowing the signs, which are also used for public services such as Amber Alerts and FBI wanted ads. View Poll

New FL Amber Alert!

Within minutes of being issued, this Amber Alert notification was sent out to Clear Channel's Digital Outdoor Network in Tampa. It is the billboard company's policy to suspend all other advertising for one hour, showing only the Amber Alert, after which the design is placed into a rotation with the paid advertisements. Here's a webcam shot of the board, which went up literally 10 minutes ago...

UPDATE: Investigators are calling Haleigh's disappearance an abduction... Read More

Better Than The Bat-Signal: Digital Billboards Used To Fight Crime

Glyn Richards, a 45-year-old white collar criminal wanted for defrauding his victims of approximately $5.8 million through a ponzi scheme, was arrested on Friday.

The FBI suspected that he had recently fled Pennsylvania and that he may have been hiding out in the Tampa area. On Wednesday, Feb. 4th the FBI contacted Clear Channel Outdoor in hopes of using digital billboards to alert the public. Two days later, Richards was taken into custody as a direct result of a tip that was generated by the billboards.

This was the third time that Clear Channel's digital billboards in Tampa were credited with helping the FBI capture wanted criminals. The first two instances involved local murders. According to Dave Couvertier, Public Affairs Officer for the FBI's Tampa field office, the FBI has captured numerous criminals nationwide, since this service has been provided.

Clear Channel also makes their digital billboards available for Amber Alerts and hurricane evacuation messages.

The Forecast For Digital Outdoor

Christian Vaglio-Giors, CEO of Neo Advertising, gave a presentation in Amsterdam on Monday at the ISE DOOH Business Conference. There are several interesting points made, including the assessment that digital will represent 50% of all out-of-home advertising by 2012. It's definitely worth a read if you have the time.

Neo Advertising - ISE DOOH Presentation

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Presentations & Slid neo media group neo advertising

How do I know I got what I paid for?

Digital billboard advertisers aren't limited to using one design in their designated slot. Multiple ads can be rotated throughout the course of a day. Different ads can be used for different days of the week. One ad can be played in the morning while a different message is scheduled to play only at night. This flexibility is what makes digital outdoor the revolutionary medium that it is.

But with all of these ads rotating in such complex schedules, how can an advertiser be sure that their campaign was executed accurately? Clear Channel Outdoor has responded to this concern by providing their clients with detailed completion reports that show exactly how many spots were delivered. The report lists each individual design and shows how many times it was played on each board.

This comes in especially handy for companies who are using co-op dollars to fund portions of their campaigns. For instance, say a shoe store has purchased a four week digital outdoor campaign and has gathered some funds from her various brands to help offset the cost of the ad space. If Nike has contributed 50% of the funds, with Adidas and Reebok contributing 25% each, the ads can be scheduled to receive the same percentages of the digital billboard spots. At the end of the four weeks, the shoe store can deliver a report showing that the percentages had been allotted correctly, along with the invoice.

Clear Channel's completion report complies with the industry standard set by the OAAA.

The Growing Footprint Of Digital

The expansion of digital outdoor is one of the most exciting developments in the current media landscape. Each time a new digital billboard is built, advertisers gain an opportunity to reach out to a new group of potential customers.

In April 2009, Clear Channel Outdoor will complete construction on a brand new digital billboard on Dale Mabry Hwy just south of Fletcher Ave. in Carrollwood. The new display will be twelve feet tall and twenty-five feet wide reaching consumers with more of a "full screen" aspect ratio, as opposed to the rest of the digital billboards in the bay area, which take more of a "widescreen" approach.

Boasting a price tag that is approximately 40% lower than the other Tampa locations, this new display will offer local businesses the opportunity to run with the big players like AT&T, Disney and Coors, who purchase space on the digital billboard just South of this one on Dale Mabry at Waters Ave. Additionally, because it's the same size as Clear Channel's static (or non-digital) poster units, this panel will actually allow advertisers to incorporate a changeable, digital message as part of their traditional outdoor poster campaign.

Click here to explore the area where the board will be!