Go BIG For Valentine's Day!

The first batch of personal ads to be displayed via the new CreateYourBillboard.com website will be this Sunday for Valentine's Day. We are taking orders now, and there is a limited amount of space on each of the boards. Just go to the website, select the board that is on your loved one's commute, and type in your message. Spots start at just $50 and you can pay online with any major credit card!

Introducing: CreateYourBillboard.com

Back in August, we started broadcasting a live Twitter feed to our digital billboard network to demonstrate the flexibility of our brand new medium. The campaign generated a lot of attention from the community and from the media. The idea was to generate interest so that people would buy ad space on the billboards.

After a while, I started receiving calls from people who wanted to pay me to post specific tweets. A marketing assistant from a charitable organization requested that I post about their upcoming food drive. The owner of a small gift shop asked that I tweet her contact information. One woman even asked if I would congratulate her son on his college graduation.

All of this got me thinking... What if we could dip into a previously untapped market to generate revenue from unsold digital space? I quickly started drawing out the beginnings of a website where visitors could post a simple, text-based message on the digital billboard of their choice. We created a price point that would be appealing to most anyone, between $50 and $200, and put together a simple billboard template that features the only message and the headline "CreateYourBillboard.com," so the board is it's own call-to-action.

We are dipping into a whole new category of business, and why not? After all, we have one of the most flexible and effective advertising mediums in the world. Our competition? Classified ads, stick signs, greeting card companies and those people who dance with signs on the side of the road. Why would you want this when you can have this? Slots are available now. Buy one to tell your loved one how you feel on a 672 square foot canvas this Valentines Day!

The Captive Audience: Myth or Reality?

Paul Flanigan shared some interesting thoughts this week, over on his excellent "Experiate" blog. Paul makes the bold assessment that "There is no such thing as a captive audience." As I read that sentence, my mind immediately shifted into gear, sifting through dozens of media examples that prove his theory wrong. After all, I've written posts about the power of billboards to do exactly that.

But the more I read, the more I agreed with Paul's statement.

"Under no circumstances are viewers forced to watch the screen. The industry has come to understand that viewer engagement is the objective in compelling messaging," The difference being that viewer engagement is based on choice, not "captivity". He goes on to say, "It is extremely important to build a strategy that serves the ultimate purpose of your digital signage: to engage your viewer."

Paul is right. We can't force people to pay attention to advertisements. And even if we could, I'm not sure that we would. After all, true brand loyalty can only exist if the consumer has the option to choose what they consume. We have to make them want to look . Viewer engagement can be achieved three ways: entertainment, relevance and usefulness.

• Most ads attempt to engage viewers by being entertaining. Just watch the commercials during the Super Bowl.
  
• Relevance is more about where, when and to whom the advertisement is delivered. A billboard in an upscale neighborhood that advertises an upcoming event at a local opera house does not have to be funny to capture the attention of it's target audience. It is simply relevant to the consumer who will see it.
  
• Useful ads dedicate a portion of the ad space to providing topical information. "Your daily traffic report, brought to you by State Farm...." "You have 10 days until April 15th; Do your taxes at H & R Block...." And of course, money saving coupons.

These are all things that should be considered when designing ads for any medium. Our digital billboards have the ability to stand out by offering each of these features in exciting new ways. Dynamic content, new daily copy or countdowns (like the one pictured above that is currently running on the digital billboards in Tampa) are all ways that a standard billboard can be transformed into a highly engaging, effective ad.

An Education in Digital

In November, I was invited to speak at Seminole Vocational Education Center by commercial arts director Chris Juul. Throughout the semester, his students work on creating a marketing campaign to promote SVEC, including a digital billboard which we offered to display on one of our signs for a few weeks in December. Chris brought myself and our Senior Graphic Designer Richard Homer to speak to the students about what works and what doesn't when it comes to outdoor advertising.

I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to share my experience with the class, and was intrigued by their level of exposure to and interest in digital outdoor advertising. When I asked the class to raise their hands if they had ever noticed a digital billboard, nearly everyone's hand shot up. It was eye-opening to see such a response. A year ago, only about 20% of the room would have responded in the affirmative to the same inquiry. It made me sad in a way, knowing that my presentations will no longer be an introduction to a whole new advertising era, now that the majority of people are familiar with digital outdoor. On the other hand, during that day at SVEC, I got to spark the imagination of the classroom on how to use the power of this new medium.

The design that was chosen was created by third-level designer Chandler Burke (pictured), who used the tagline "Build Your Future" to drive traffic to the school's website. Thank you to Chris and his class for being such a welcoming and engaging audience. I look forward to coming back to share again next year.

You can read MSN's article on SVEC's billboard project here.