Are you looking at the billboard, or is it looking at you?

by Molly Burgess, Internet Website Marketing – November 3, 2003

Outdoor-advertising is about to take a high-tech change. Roadside billboards and posters on buses and subways are going to become more modern. Between 1999 and 2002 spending on outdoor advertising increased by 20% while television advertising, a wider market, grew only 10%.

Smart Sign media is one of several companies to develop new technology for outdoor advertising. They adjust billboards based on the radio stations playing in passing cars. Smart Sign can calculate the average income of the person inside the car based on the radio station and will adjust the billboard accordingly. AdSpace Networks uses CoolSign a digital technology that allows them to wirelessly coordinate the content of many billboards. CoolSign allows companies to change their message based on what is currently popular and the time of day. Clear Channel Communications also has developed the technology to change signs over the course of the day. Clear Channel believes that the revolutionary technology being used will increase the rate of outdoor advertising faster than advertising in general.

The outdoor-advertising industry is very happy about the advancements; they lost 40% of their clients in 1998 when tobacco companies were prohibited from advertising on billboards. The resurgence in outdoor-advertising will cause large increases in revenue.

*The Wall Street Journal

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