Last Friday Billboard Insider quoted remarks of Francois de Gaspé Beaubien, Chairman of Zoom Media and Chairman of the Board of the DPAA to the effect that AI and driverless cars will depreciate the value of non-urban roadside billboards. We disagreed and pointed out that Warren Buffett doesn’t buy that argument because Buffett has a $144 million position in Lamar Advertising. Most Billboard Insider with us. They think that driverless cars will have little impact on roadside billboard valuations. 11% of Billboard Insider5 readers think driverless cars will hurt roadside billboard evaluations. 69% of Billboard Insider readers think driverless cars will have no impact on roadside billboard valuations. 20% of Billboard Insider readers think driverless cars will actually help roadside billboard valuations.
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People seem to forget about passengers. When there is nothing to really do, people look outside the window at the buildings and look at the art on the boards.
Sorry folks, single drivers on freeways and highways have only have 1-2 secs to see and “get” a billboard message. And most of the time they are defending themselves from other drivers, or looking for the off-ramp their GPS just gave them. No drivers except those in the outdoor industry, are looking to see what exciting message they are driving by next. Especially on digital boards, designers miss the point of SHOUTING the company name, by instead emphasizing the hoped for award winning clever phrase or art they sold the client on. They put the logo or name in a tiny lower right corner button that can’t be read. A total waste of money for the client. If a driver gets only one thing it should at least be the name of who is paying to get a message to them. Here’s an easy test. Drive past any billboard with a passenger who has no connection to its message. As soon as you go by, ask them what the sign was about, and who wants them to respond to it. You will be amazed at how often they didn’t notice the sign at all, or if they did know they just drove past it, how little of the message they can recall. Completely filling the sign with RENT FROM AVIS!, bleeding bold fonts to the edges top and bottom, will have 1000 times more results for Avis, than art of a happy couple driving down a beach road, with mid size font “This is the way to have a truly carefree time in Santa Barbara. Rent your vacation car from us!” Then tack a tiny Avis logo in the lower corner. Try it.