Digital Billboards in the Right Locations Drive Big Revenue
Digital billboards have been around for more than a decade now, so I'm always surprised when I read or hear comments bashing digital billboards as risky or too expensive. The truth is, digital billboards can be a great investment — in the right location.
As an outdoor digital advertising company, we made our first investment in digital billboards. Today we have 17 Watchfire digital billboards and soon will install two more. Our total digital network will be 21 faces.
While digital billboards make up a very small portion of our outdoor inventory — currently just 19 of about 1,150 total faces — they generate 10 percent of our revenue. That's because we're strategic about where we place digital billboards, our sales staff understands how to sell digital space and our advertisers are taking advantage of the unique marketing communication that digital billboards enable.
Static billboards are still a great choice for many locations and advertisers — we have hundreds of static faces and many advertisers who find them to be perfect for their marketing goals — but digital billboards are able to help us in areas where we do not have enough supply to meet demand. Since outdoor advertising is a heavily regulated industry, digital can be a key vehicle to grow our inventory. Converting one static face to digital increases our inventory by a factor of six.
The key to success is having advertisers understand the unique benefits of digital:
· Digital is flexible
· Digital can be changed frequently
· Digital networks deliver targeted coverage
· Digital is quick
Finally, and not incidentally, digital billboards allow my company to be more supportive of community events; something that isn't cost-effective on static billboards. We use unsold slots to advertise messages for nonprofit and community events, including anti-drug messages for schools and Crime Stopper programs for local police departments.
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