
Billboards are an old but booming ad medium - jkuria
https://www.economist.com/business/2018/11/08/billboards-are-an-old-but-booming-ad-medium
======
libertine
Well I think there's an important thing to be mentioned here (something that I
believe Nielsen stated in the past), which clogged the mind of many marketers
- the effectiveness of a medium isn't bound to an action.

An ad doesn't need to be clicked, or have any form of interaction, to be
effective, because there's no correlation between clicks and brand
impact/recall.

It's like for years brands were buying snake oil and online advertising
brought the truth forward, and was the only truly transparent medium - backed
by data. Funny enough it has been increasingly showing itself as nothing but
transparent... fortunately there are tools and organizations focused to help
clear these waters (with ad fraud and viewability metrics).

Anyway, this all goes to say that, depending on the brand, a proper media mix
for a brand communication strategy is quite complex. For a long time there has
been data to back it up (though admittedly not the most accurate one - but
still, it had something to support it).

In some countries radio is audited by declarative studies for example - it's
far from perfect, and it has room to improve - but it's not a blind pick based
on gut feeling.

Online advertising just created this odd gap between marketers and traditional
media. Maybe because the barrier to access online advertising was lower, both
in terms of cost as well as to the medium itself... but it has always been in
use.

For an instance, luxury goods never stopped investing in OOH... Apple
positions itself near such OOH communication as well, for a long time.

So, it's good media owners are focused on improving the measurement of this
medium, and maybe should focus as well on the way it's bought (though they
seem to do fine without the bidding system of online advertising).

~~~
rdtsc
> An ad doesn't need to be clicked, or have any form of interaction, to be
> effective, because there's no correlation between clicks and brand
> impact/recall.

With billboards there is an implicit "click" in a way for every car that
drives by. It is shoved into their faces, whether they want to or not. At
least online, you can block ads. So the action is a car driving by. With some
modeling could guess how many average cars would drive on that particular
segment. A billboard on a rural road might be worth a lot less than one one
say I-90 or I-75.

With magazines it's the same, they know how may subscribers it was sent to, so
there was always some modeling around number of impressions made. How well
that's correlated to the people interested, and then people who went and
bought something because of it is probably where most of the snake oil is.

Another interesting thing is that online, users don't have to just block
click, but they can actively subvert the click-based metrics by generating
false clicks. Which this extension does:

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/adnauseam/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/adnauseam/)

~~~
closeparen
No, there is not an implicit click. There’s an implicit impression. The online
ad business has long counted and valued clicks and impressions separately.

~~~
rdtsc
Ah you're right. A click would indicate user is interested while an impression
is that they just saw it.

~~~
libertine
Just to add that a click can be a mistake as well, or can even not be a human
click... one has to be very critical when checking this data.

You can generate interest and just trigger an impression (depending on the
creative).

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nkurz
It's worth noting that even in the US, billboards are not universal, but a
conscious choice of local voters. Four US states prohibit them: Vermont,
Maine, Hawaii, and Alaska. It's possibly interesting that all of these states
also have excellent reputations for scenic beauty.

Here's a Vermont Public Radio story from 2008 about how they were banned in
1968: [https://vprarchive.vpr.net/vpr-news/billboard-ban-
turns-40/](https://vprarchive.vpr.net/vpr-news/billboard-ban-turns-40/).
Interestingly, it was mostly a Republican party initiative, although it
eventually gained enough bipartisan support to pass.

~~~
ianleeclark
Just an anecdotal add-on to this, but when driving through South Dakota, I
encountered more billboards than I'd previously seen in my entire life.

~~~
dzwillia
...and half of them were probably for Wall Drug! ;-)

~~~
ianleeclark
Oh god so many for Wall Drug. The funny thing is that I have no idea what Wall
Drug is, just that it was ahead... Until it wasn't.

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jasonwilk
For what it’s worth, I find out about every new tv show and movie almost
exclusively from billboards. While tough to measure, they have an affect.

~~~
macintux
I still remember the excitement the first time I saw a URL on a billboard,
probably 1995, and it was for a sci-fi movie (although which, I no longer
remember).

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rossdavidh
So, in my hometown of Austin, Texas, there are numerous billboards which once
had advertisements, which in recent years go unused. Typically they will put
up a public service announcement or just a random piece of art, but it's clear
they'd rather be renting it to a paying customer. I am suspicious of the idea
of a billboard "boom".

~~~
SippinLean
Anecdotal evidence may be unreliable due to cherry-picked or otherwise non-
representative samples of typical cases.

~~~
glibgil
True, but “boom” has a meaning. The Austin market looks like a bust. Could it
be that a company that sells outdoor ads is pushing a narrative?

~~~
reaperducer
It could also be that the entire world isn't Austin.

~~~
glibgil
> It could also be that the entire world isn't Austin

I'm saying that it is. If the Austin outdoor ad market looks weak,
anecdotally, then it is probably weak everywhere and this article is a lie.
Why can't the article just be a lie? That seems like a better use of
everyone's time. Just assume the article is a lie and move on

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mnx
Well, the physical world is the last place where I still have to see ads. So I
guess if you want to appeal to an adblock-using demographic, it might make
sense.

~~~
esotericn
Indeed.

It's actually kind of funny that here in London, we want to encourage people
to take the train, but we simultaneously scream at them that they're too fat,
poor, and bald.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
It's funny that the UK is one of the most expensive places in the world to
catch a train, and when we do we're bombarded with advertising the entire
time.

Actually, perhaps "funny" isn't the right word...

~~~
esotericn
I posted about this in another thread. In order to delete all advertising from
TfL services (~5% of revenue) my bus fare would go from 1.50 to 1.58.

Of course, immediately after that, someone brought up the fact that they can't
afford 8 pence. I figure they must have spent it all on hair loss products
from the advertising.

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fernandotakai
the city where i live banned every single billboard/outdoor advertisement[1]
and, imho, it was one of the best ideas our local government had.

[1] [https://99percentinvisible.org/article/clean-city-law-
secret...](https://99percentinvisible.org/article/clean-city-law-secrets-sao-
paulo-uncovered-outdoor-advertising-ban/)

------
EA
When I drive across Germany, England, and Ireland, I rarely ever see a
billboard.

Are there any tools online to see billboard density maps per country?

~~~
dazc
In England billboards tend to be in urban areas and not, so much, on major
roads. There is legislation which prevents this, on safety grounds,
[[https://www.gov.uk/guidance/advertisements#considerations-
af...](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/advertisements#considerations-affecting-
public-safety)] which has led to a few innovative workarounds such as large
vans parked in fields near to motorways with signs on the side.

One person used a redundant rocket transporter as an innovative alternative
and got a fair amount of publicity in return.
[https://www.lingscars.com/missile-truck](https://www.lingscars.com/missile-
truck)

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ComputerGuru
Tangential question: has anyone here used billboards before to advertise a
web-based product or service? How did you track conversions (special phone
number, url, sms address, etc)? Have you found them effective at targeting a
particular segment of the market or for pushing a particular niche?

~~~
anitil
Sydney buses have ads for various tech brands - Salesforce, Xero (I think?)
and a couple more I can't remember. If you think 'enterprise software' it's
mostly brands in that category. The fact that I can remember some of the
brands means it's working I guess, but I can't speak to your actual question.

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adwmayer
Roadads ([https://www.roadads.de/](https://www.roadads.de/), I can't seem to
find an English version of the site) is an interesting idea of trying to apply
some of these tactics, but adds location to the mix. Eg. advertising for a
specific restaurant at the next exit. They're giant e-ink displays though
instead of LCDs. That could probably be used stationary too, anywhere full
color ads are less important.

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radcode_co
I've seen flower company billboards all over SF. Surprisingly it has to work
as I've heard from my friends that there is buzz about them.

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jak92
Another form of tracking people. Wifi/Bluetooth and IMSI catchers? Is there
any business without intrusive forms of surveillance today?

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jkuria
By the way, there is an interesting discussion about this on Capital & Growth:

[https://capitalandgrowth.org/questions/1334/are-
billboards-r...](https://capitalandgrowth.org/questions/1334/are-billboards-
really-holding-their-own-against-di.html)

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tonydiv
Cannabis companies are limited to only a few means of advertising so
billboards are one of the best. FlowerCompany is finding strong results using
them too.

