Outdoor Media Investments
Outdoor Advertising is
available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year which
generates repeated exposure to your potential customers.
Outdoor Advertising captures your
consumers on their way to the buy.
Outdoor Advertising is perfect for
reaching mass audiences and is also great for targeting specific
groups and ages. In terms of getting the best exposure
for your advertising dollar, Outdoor Advertising is second to none.
With the new digital billboards and
technologies, Outdoor Advertising is only getting better!
OutdoorBillboard.com is for all those involved in the Out of Home
Advertising Industry. This is where you, as an outdoor industry
professional will connect with other industry professionals and more
importantly, your potential customers.
Your potential customers will find you here
and this will lead to more sales and profits for your company. Is your company looking to keep your
Billboards and Other Advertising Media Rented?
Are you looking to find the actual Company
behind the Billboard so you can get your message on it?
Are you wanting to get
your product and service in front of those whom it will benefit?
OutdoorBillboard.com can help you get your message out and reveal
the information you are looking for!
Whether you are a billboard owner, a mobile
advertising company, or have any other types of outdoor media, this
site is going to help you find companies and ad agencies looking to
place their advertising on your billboards or other outdoor media.
If you are looking to buy or sell billboard signs,
mobile billboards, other structures, or entire outdoor advertising
companies, then you will find this information as well.
In addition, you will find companies that build
and install outdoor advertising structures, do the designs and
graphics for you and your advertisers, provide insurance and
financing and much more!
Traditional Billboards
Billboards are typically large signs displays
advertising goods or services not sold where the sign is located. In
North America, "bulletins" are typically 14'x 48' (height x width).
(They are smaller in other places.) The display is painted or
printed on a vinyl sheet or Vinyl banners which are stretched over
the face of the display. Smaller 12'x 24' billboards are called
"posters." Poster displays can consist of a series of printed paper
sheets that are pasted or are single sheet vinyl displays.
Bulletins are sold individually or as part of a
rotary program where the advertisement is moved or "rotated" between
locations at regular intervals.
Posters are usually sold as part of a group called
a "showing" that is designed to reach a specific percentage of the
market population on a daily or weekly basis. A showing is a
specific outdoor GRP level.
Mechanical Billboards
Some billboards utilize a
technology called tri-action movement (also known as rotating or
multi-message billboards). These billboards show three separate
advertisements in rotation using a mechanical system. They are made
up of a series of trilons (triangular prisms) arranged so that they
can be rotated to present three separate flat display surfaces. The
displays for these billboards are printed on strips of vinyl which
are fixed to the faces of the triangular panels, with one strip from
each of three different displays attached to each panel. In this way
as the panels rotate and pause three unique advertising messages can
be displayed on the same structure.
Another popular form of mechanical sign is the scrolling billboard.
These billboards are able to show up to 30 images per side using a
roll-up, scrolling mechanism that is controlled by a computer. The
images are printed on a special material that allows the images to
be back lighted for night viewing. Many of these scrolling
billboards are used on trucks for mobile applications and can also
be mounted to fixed sign poles for permanent applications.
Digital Billboards
New billboards are being produced that are
entirely digital (using LED and similar techniques), allowing static
advertisements to rotate in succession. Even holographic billboards
are in use in some places.
Interaction is an emerging process identified with
digital billboards. In Piccadilly Circus the Coca-Cola billboard
responds to the weather and responds with an animated wave when
passersby wave at it. London movie theatres are experimenting with
billboards which contain an embedded computer chip which can
interact with the web browser found in many cell phones to provide
more information on the subject of the advertisement.
In the spring of 2004 in
Times Square in
New York City,
a Yahoo! Autos promotion displayed on an LED billboard allowed one
to call a phone number with a cell phone and play a two-person
racing game where the cars appeared on the billboard. There are also
upcoming billboard technologies that will synchronize with
advertisements on radio stations. Shinjuku in Tokyo, Japan, is
famous for its large digital billboards.
Mobile Billboards
Billboards can also be made mobile, either by
mounting a traditional billboard onto a trailer or flatbed truck, or
by covering an entire vehicle in a "wrap" image. This is sometimes
used in bus advertising, though it is more common to mount smaller
"boards" on those vehicles.
There are also mobile billboards on Segways and
Pedicabs. Cargo containers are also used as billboards either on
their own, or stacked on top of each other. Often these are placed
in fields next to busy roads and are often cheaper to use than more
permanent structures.
Advertising Style
Billboard advertisements are designed to catch a
person's attention and create a memorable impression very quickly,
leaving the reader thinking about the advertisement after they have
driven past it. They have to be readable in a very short time
because they are usually read while being passed at high speeds.
Thus there are usually only a few words, in large print, and a
humorous or arresting image in brilliant color.
Some billboard designs spill outside the actual
space given to them by the billboard, with parts of figures hanging
off the billboard edges or jutting out of the billboard in three
dimensions. A humorous example in the United States around the turn
of the 21st century were the Chick-fil-A billboards (a chicken
sandwich fast food chain), which had three-dimensional cow figures
in the act of painting the billboards with misspelled anti-beef
slogans such as "frendz dont let frendz eat beef."
Placement of billboards
Some of the most noticeable and prominent places
billboards are situated alongside highways; since passing drivers
typically have little to occupy their attention; the impact of the
billboard is greater.
Billboards are often drivers primary way of
finding out where food and fuel are available when driving on
unfamiliar highways. There were approximately 450,000 billboards on
United States highways as of 1991. Somewhere between 5,000 and
15,000 are erected each year. In Europe billboards are a major
component and source of income in urban street furniture concepts.
An interesting use of billboards unique to
highways was the Burma-Shave advertisements between 1925 and 1963,
which had 4- or 5-part messages stretched across multiple signs,
keeping the reader hooked by the promise of a punch line at the end.
These sort of multi-sign advertisements are no
longer common, though they are not extinct. One recent example,
advertising for the NCAA, depicts a basketball player aiming a shot
on one billboard; on the next one, 90 yards (82 meters) away, is the
basket. Another example is the numerous billboards that advertise
the roadside attraction South of the Border near Dillon, SC. They
stretch along I-95 for many states.
Many cities have high densities of billboards,
especially in places where there is a lot of pedestrian traffic,
Times Square in New York City is a good example. Because of the lack
of space in cities, these billboards are painted or hung on the
sides of buildings and sometimes are even free-standing billboards
hanging above buildings. Billboards on the sides of buildings create
different stylistic opportunities, with artwork that incorporates
features of the building into the design e.g. using windows as eyes,
or for gigantic frescoes that adorn the entire building.
Visual and Environmental Concerns
Many groups such as Scenic America have
complained that billboards on highways cause too much clearing of
trees and intrude on the surrounding landscape, with billboards'
bright colors, lights and large fonts making it hard to focus on
anything else. Other groups believe that billboards and advertising
in general contribute negatively to the mental climate of a culture
by promoting products as providing feelings of completeness,
wellness and popularity to motivate purchase. One focal point for
this sentiment would be the magazine AdBusters, which will often
showcase politically motivated billboard and other advertising
vandalism, called culture jamming.
In 2000, rooftops in Athens had grown so
thick with billboards that it was very difficult to see its famous
architecture. In preparation for the 2004 Summer Olympics, the city
embarked on a successful four-year project demolishing the majority
of rooftop billboards to beautify the city for the tourists the
games will bring, overcoming resistance from advertisers and
building owners. These billboards were for the most part illegal,
but had been ignored up to then.
Road Safety Concerns
In the United States, many cities tried to put
laws into effect to ban billboards as early as 1909 (California
Supreme Court, Varney & Green vs. Williams) but the First Amendment
has made these attempts difficult. A San Diego law championed by
Pete Wilson in 1971 cited traffic safety and driver distraction as
the reason for the billboard ban, but that law too was narrowly
overturned by the Supreme Court in 1981, in part because it banned
non-commercial as well as commercial billboards.
Billboards have long been accused of being
distracting to drivers and causing accidents. Signs with bright
colors and eye-grabbing pictures may cause drivers to look away from
the road during a crucial moment.
Electronic, animated signs in particular have been
singled out as a cause. Studies have also shown that billboards at
junctions and on long stretches of highway may have a particularly
detrimental effect on road safety.
Researchers at the
University of North Carolina
prepared a thorough report on driver distraction for the AAA
Foundation for Traffic Safety. This study, released in June of 2001,
said: "The search appears to suggest that some items--such as CB
radios, billboards, and temperature controls--are not significant
distractions."
Traffic safety experts have studied the
relationship between outdoor advertising and traffic accidents since
the 1950s, finding no authoritative or scientific evidence that
billboards are linked to traffic accidents. However, many of these
studies were funded by the Outdoor Advertising Association of
America, which has led to accusations of bias. The methodology used
in certain studies are also questionable.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, State
Department of Transportation and property/casualty insurance
companies statistics on fatal accidents indicate no correlation
between billboards and traffic accidents. A broad sampling of law
enforcement agencies across the country found no evidence to suggest
that motor vehicle accidents were caused by billboards.
Property and casualty insurance companies have
conducted detailed studies of traffic accident records and conclude
no correlation between billboards and traffic accidents.
However, studies based
on correlations between traffic accidents and billboards face the
problem of under-reporting: drivers are unwilling to admit
responsibility for a crash, so will not admit to being distracted at
a crucial moment. Even given this limitation, some studies have
found higher crash rates in the vicinity of advertising using
variable message signs or electronic billboards.
It is possible that the presences of
advertising signs in rural areas are of value in reducing a driver
boredom, which many believe is a positive contribution to highway
safety. On the other hand, drivers may fixate on a billboard which
unexpectedly appears in an otherwise monotonous landscape, and drive
straight into it (a phenomenon known as 'highway hypnosis'). So far,
there is little scientific research on the effects of advertising
billboards on rural highways.
Surveys of drivers and
road users show that the lighting provided by billboards provide
security and visibility to many motorists. The Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) went on record (Federal Register, March 5,
1999) stating that the agency agrees that appropriately regulated
billboards do not compromise highway safety. It should be noted that
this statement was made before the release of the FHWA report
'Research review of potential safety effects of electronic
billboards on driver attention and distractions in 2001. What level
of regulation is appropriate for billboards in different areas is
still under discussion by road safety experts around the world.
Laws Limiting Billboards
In 1964 the negative
impact of the over-proliferation of signage was abundantly evident
in Houston, Texas, and motivated Lady Bird Johnson to ask her
husband to create a law. At the same time the outdoor advertising
industry itself was becoming
keenly aware that the existence of too many signs, some literally
one in front of the other, was bad for business.
In 1965, the Highway Beautification Act was
signed into law. The act applied only to "Federal Aid Primary" and
"Defense" highways and limited billboards to commercial and
industrial zones created by states and municipalities. It required
each state to set standards based on "customary use" for the size,
lighting and spacing of billboards, and prohibited city and state
governments from taking down billboards without paying cash
compensation to the sign's owner. The act requires all states to
maintain "effective control" of billboards or lose 5% of their
federal highway dollars.
The act also required the screening of junk
yards adjacent to regulated highways, (An interesting note about
that legislation: around major holidays, volunteer groups put up
large highway signs offering free coffee at the next rest stop to
keep drivers awake on their long treks from state to state. These
billboards were specifically exempted from the limits in the Act.)
Currently, four states Vermont,
Alaska, Hawaii,
and Maine have prohibited billboards.
Uses of Highway Billboards
Most highway signs
exist to advertise local restaurants and shops in the miles to come
and are crucial to drawing business in small towns that no one would
stop at otherwise. One illuminating example is Wall Drug, which in
1931 put up billboards advertising "free ice water" and the town of
Wall, South Dakota
as it is known
today was essentially built around the 20,000 customers per day
those billboards were bringing in as of 1981.
Some signs were even placed in locations great distances away, with
slogans such as "only 827 miles to Wall Drug, with FREE ice water."
In some areas the signs were so dense that one sign almost
immediately
followed the last. This situation changed after
the Highway Beautification Act was passed; the proliferation of Wall
Drug billboards is sometimes cited as one of the reasons the bill
was passed.
Big Name Advertisers
Billboards are also used to advertise
national or global brands, particularly in more densely populated
urban areas. According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of
America, the top three companies advertising on billboards as of
2003 were McDonald's, Anheuser-Busch and Miller. A large number of
wireless phone companies, movie companies, cars manufacturers and
banks are high on the list as well.
Tobacco Advertising
Prior to 1999,
billboards were a major venue of cigarette advertising; 10% of
Michigan
billboards advertise
alcohol and tobacco, according to the Detroit Free Press. This
is particularly true in countries where tobacco advertisements are
not allowed in other media. For example in the U.S. tobacco
advertising was banned on radio and television in 1971, leaving
billboards and magazines as some of the last places tobacco could be
advertised. Billboards made the news in America when, in the tobacco
settlement of 1999, all cigarette billboards were replaced with
anti-smoking messages. In a parody of the Marlboro Man, some
billboards depicted cowboys riding on ranches with slogans like
"Bob, I miss my lung."
Likely the best-known of the tobacco
advertising boards were those for "Mail Pouch" chewing tobacco in
the United States
during the first half of the 20th century (pictured above). The
company agreed to paint two or
three sides of a farmer's barn any color he chose in exchange for
painting their advert on the one or two sides of the structure
facing the road. The company has long since abandoned this form of
advertising, and none of these adverts have been painted in many
years, but some are still viewable on various rural highways around
the country, though less of them each year, as they are continually
weathering, being over painted or simply tore down.
Non-Commercial use of Billboards
Not all billboards are
used for advertising products and services, non-profit groups and
government agencies use them to communicate with the public. In 1999
an anonymous person created the God Speaks billboard
campaign in Florida "to
get people thinking about God", with witty statements signed by God.
"Don't make me come down there", "We need to talk" and "Keep using
my name in vain, I'll make rush hour longer" were parts of the
campaign, which was picked up by the Outdoor Advertising Association
of America and continues on billboards across the country to this
day.
South of Olympia, Washington
is the privately owned Uncle Sam billboard. It features
conservative, sometimes inflammatory messages, changed on a regular
basis. Chehalis farmer Al Hamilton first started the board during
the Johnson era, when the government was trying to make him remove
his billboards along I-5. He had erected the signs after he lost a
legal battle to prevent the building of the freeway across his land.
Numerous legal and illegal attempts to remove the Uncle Sam
billboard have failed, and it is now in its third location. One
message, attacking a nearby liberal arts college, was photographed,
made into a postcard and is sold in the College Bookstore.
Effective Billboards
The Traffic Audit
Bureau for Media Measurement Inc. (TAB) was established in 1933 as a
non-profit organization whose historical mission has been to audit
the circulation of out-of-home media in the United States. Recently
TAB's role has been expanded to lead and/or support other major out
of home industry research initiatives. Governed by a tripartite
board comprised of
advertisers, agencies and media companies, the TAB acts as an
independent auditor for traffic circulation in accordance to
guidelines established by its Board of Directors.
Similarly, in Canada,
the Canadian Outdoor Measurement Bureau (COMB) was formed in 1965 as
a non-profit organization independently operated by representatives
comprised of advertisers, advertising agencies and members of the
Canadian out-of-home advertising industry. COMB is charged with the
verification of traffic circulation for the benefit of the industry
and its users.
History of Billboards
Early billboards were
basically large posters on the sides of buildings, with limited but
still appreciable commercial value. As roads and highways
multiplied, the billboard business thrived.
1795 - Lithography was invented, making real
posters possible.
1835 - Jared Bell was making 9x6 posters for the
circus in the U.S.
1867 - Earliest known billboard rentals
(source: OAAA)
1872 - International Bill Posters Association of
North America was established (now known as the Outdoor Advertising
Association of America) as a billboard lobbying group.
1889 - The world's first 24 sheet billboard
was displayed at the Paris Exposition and later at the 1893
Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The format was quickly adopted for
various types of advertising, especially for circuses, traveling
shows, and movies.
1907 - The Model T automobile is introduced
in the U.S., increasing the number of people using highways and
therefore the reach of roadside billboards.
1919 - Japanese candy company Glico
introduces its building-spanning billboard, the Glico Man
1925 - Burma-Shave makes its billboards
lining the highways.
1931 - The Wall Drug billboards start to go
up nationwide.
1960 - The mechanized Kani Doraku billboard
is built in Dotonbori, Osaka.
1965 - the Highway Beautification Act is
passed after much campaigning by Lady Bird Johnson
1971 - The Public Health Cigarette Smoking
Act bans cigarette ads in television and radio, moving that business
into billboards.
1981 - The Supreme Court overturns a San Diego
billboard ban, but leaves room open for other cities to ban
commercial billboards.
1997 - Tobacco
advertising is no longer allowed on outdoor billboards in America.
References
1. Cairney, P., &
Gunatillake, T. (2000). Does roadside advertising really cause
crashes? Paper presented at the Road Safety: research, enforcement
and policy.,
Brisbane, Australia.
2. Farbry, J., Wochinger, K., Shafer, T.,
Owens, N., & Nedzesky, A. (2001). Research review of potential
safety effects of electronic billboards on driver attention and
distraction. Washington, DC: Federal Highway
Administration.
3. Wallace, B. (2003).
Driver distraction by advertising: genuine risk or urban myth?
Municipal Engineer, 156, 185-190. Also see 'External-to-Vehicle
Driver Distraction.
