A Turning Point For Digital Creative?

Whenever something new comes along, there are always early adopters. But it usually takes time for game-changers like digital billboards to become a natural part of the ad planning process. With all of the cool things digital billboards are capable of, the fact remains; the medium is only as powerful as the creative message it displays.

While digital outdoor advertising has been one of the fastest growing segments of the ad industry, we've only seen a handful of advertisers push the creative possibilities to their limits. This seems to be changing.

In the past few weeks, several exciting campaigns have launched here in Tampa. In addition to E! News, Fox Sports is currently advertising weekly headlines for their Fox NFL Sunday program. And instead of cramming all 6 co-hosts onto one billboard design, they are rotating several designs, each one featuring two of the on-air personalities.

In anticipation of the premiere of the all new Jay Leno Show, our local NBC affiliate is running a live countdown, which keeps Tampa informed of how much longer they'll have to wait to see the new 10pm comedy program. Down to the minute. Talk about building anticipation!

Back for a 3rd consecutive year, Universal Studios Orlando is using our digital network to tease the theme for this Fall's Halloween Horror Nights. The boards feature classic horror movie villains, such as Chucky and The Wolfman, announcing their eventually takeover of the theme park starting September 25th.

Setting Up The E! News Digital Billboards

Digital billboards have been making lots of headlines over the past few days. Ad Age, Media Week and several industry bloggers have all reported on the E! News channel's decision to use digital outdoor displays in several markets, including Tampa.

125 billboards, 12 in the Tampa Bay area, will provide commuters with dynamic headlines that are pulled directly from a website. "The ability to test different headlines in different ways is very interesting to us," said Annemarie Batur, VP-marketing and advertising, E! Entertainment. "E! News is all about what's happening in that moment. The fact that we will now have the ability to change out headlines as breaking news happens will be a great way to see how we drive traffic."

Here's how we set it up. First we uploaded the background image with Ryan Seacrest, Giuliana Rancic and a yellow background on which the live headline could be placed. Next we added the dynamic content item. To do so, first we enter the address of the website from which we want to pull the headline; http://www.eonline.com/ for example.

Next, we need to indicate which piece of text from the webpage we want to place on the billboards. To do this, we need to look at the website's html code. You can look at the code of any website just by clicking "Source" in the "View" menu of your Internet Explorer browser. Once we find the desired headline in the code, we look at the last piece of text before the desired headline, and the first piece of text after the desired headline. We enter these "tags" into our software so that the program knows to pull the text in between the tags.

Now, any text that is entered in that spot on the webpage will automatically appear on the digital billboards. From there, we can adjust it's placement, font, color and size. Essentially, whomever is updating the website is changing the billboards simultaneously. The picture below shows the "Dynamic Content Editor" screen in our software, where we make the magic happen.

Some local advertisers, such as Action Air Conditioning and the Transitions Championship have already used this type of live feed on their digital billboards. What has me particularly excited about the the E! News campaign, is that it indicates that national advertisers are starting to jump on board with the capabilities of our new medium.

Paper-Thin Digital Displays

I'm always on the lookout for potential game-changers in the development of digital billboard technology. Billboard companies have experimented with alternative technologies in a few cities, LED technology probably won't be completely replaced any time soon.

Meanwhile, Sony and Samsung have been tapping into OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology to make sleek, thin screens for televisions and cellphones. However, brightness is still an issue. What looks great on a television in an artificially lit room, simply can't overcome natural sunlight.

Interestingly enough, Ford Motor Company began the research project that might be the next big breakthrough in digital out-of-home advertising. Originally intended as a way to make brake lights that blend seamlessly with the contour of a car, ILEDs (inorganic light-emitting diodes) can also be printed on thin, flexible materials, but are much brighter than OLEDs.

What does this mean to the outdoor advertising industry? In addition to improved portability and ease of installation, digital billboards would become much more energy-efficient, since ILED technology doesn't require a backlight. Such screens could be applied to the surface of existing billboards like wallpaper, allowing advertisers to change their message remotely.

Of course, it's still very new and very expensive, so it may be a long time before we're seeing cityscapes like the ones in Minority Report or Bladerunner.