Digital billboards have been on the market for about two decades now and it has come to a point where hearing anyone say that it is a ‘risky’ or ‘expensive’ investment is just unacceptable. Why so? Well, there is plenty of evidence to show that electronic billboards, placed in the right location are a great investment. In every which way, digital billboards have several benefits that make the investment ‘worthy’ and ‘affordable’.
Static billboards a still a great choice as marketing goals for many businesses. But digital billboards are relied on when there isn’t sufficient supply to meet the demand. Outdoor advertising is a heavily regulated industry and hence digital billboards can be an essential means to grow inventory. It has been proven that one static face of a company converted to digital can result in a six-time increment in the inventory factor.
So what are these unique benefits of digital billboards that advertisers need to understand?
1. Flexibility:
Digital billboards offer a whole lot of flexibility in terms of display time and content. For small businesses, advertising time can be purchased from a digital billboard owner; something which is not possible with static billboards. And if you can afford a digital billboard investment, renting out advertising space on your billboard can be a separate business in itself, making you a lot of money. This is another one of those unique advantages that only digital display technology can provide.
2. Visually appealing:
The vibrant lighting feature in digital billboards make these visually appealing – making sure they always look their best. Because they are backlit, the colors look vibrant and the real hues are visible. With print advertising, the colors look different in the morning, during bright sunlight, and then at night, it’s not even visible.
The digital format of advertising has an advantage of being able to incorporate animation and videos – which is a huge show stopper. Including motion and 3D graphics in your content allows flexibility during design stage and guarantees to capture the attention of those driving by the digital sign.
3. Updating content:
In addition to space and time flexibility, LED sign content can be changed frequently. Previously, businesses that needed to change messages often never considered outdoor advertising. Now, even convention centers that always have different content for different events have the option of outdoor advertising at a fraction of the cost of either TV or radio advertising. In fact outdoor LED signs can incorporate web based content such as social media feeds and other real-time information such as weather conditions and road blocks to make sure viewers browse through your billboard.
4. Targeting audiences:
Digital networks also offer an upper hand for advertising to a targeted audience. By investing in a network, each digital billboard can display content specific to that particular geographical area. As opposed to home advertising options such as radio or TV, electronic billboards offer targeted coverage to tightly-spaced geographies.
5. Fast and efficient:
The efficiency of digital advertising is also commendable. Within a matter of 30 minutes, a new message can be designed and displayed across the entire network as opposed to about 24 hours taken for other media to display a new message. In terms of time-sensitive advertisers, fast turn-around is crucial, hence digital billboard advertising should be the right choice.
6. Community support:
Digital billboards are a great way to show that your company is supportive of the neighboring community and of events taking place in the neighborhood. As a digital billboard investor, you can make use of unsold slots to advertise for nonprofit organizations and display other messages such as anti-drug content for schools, and crime prevention for the local police.
7. Cost Effective:
Is digital signage a cost-effective investment?
You will be surprised to know that digital advertising can actually turn out to be less expensive than print advertising in the long run. Print media is static, has to be printed, and has to be manually transported to the location of the billboard. All this requires expensive labor and material. With digital billboards, it is a one-time investment of material and labor, so in the long run, there are hardly any costs for refreshing digital content and keeping it up-to-date. Furthermore, as mentioned above, outsourcing advertising space on your digital billboard investment is a great source of revenue.
While it is true that some electronic billboards are more profitable than others, it is also true that each one will definitely turn out to be a worthy investment. The crucial decision for a digital billboard investment to be successful is the location, supply and demand, and finding the right advertisers to reap the unique benefits of the digital world.
