Billboards: The timeless business of "made you look"

One tech company is all about cutting cords—but not cutting boards. Billboards, that is. In April, Netflix reportedly offered more than [$300 million]( to buy Regency Outdoor Advertising, a company that has a lock on billboards on LA’s Sunset Strip. If Netflix successfully acquires the advertising group, it would be its largest acquisition yet. This move may seem out of the blue from a cutting-edge tech company, but it’s actually entirely logical. Billboards are the one traditional form of advertising that continues to grow in the digital age. They seem old-fashioned, but that’s exactly their selling point. We can’t turn them off or block them—and they can’t meddle in an election or steal our data. Yet. 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Brought to you by [Quartz Obsession] Billboards May 23, 2018 Your ad here! --------------------------------------------------------------- One tech company is all about cutting cords—but not cutting boards. Billboards, that is. In April, Netflix reportedly offered more than [$300 million]( to buy Regency Outdoor Advertising, a company that has a lock on billboards on LA’s Sunset Strip. If Netflix successfully acquires the advertising group, it would be its largest acquisition yet. This move may seem out of the blue from a cutting-edge tech company, but it’s actually entirely logical. Billboards are the one traditional form of advertising that continues to grow in the digital age. They seem old-fashioned, but that’s exactly their selling point. We can’t turn them off or block them—and they can’t meddle in an election or steal our data. Yet. 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Giphy By the digits [2.7%:]( US growth of outdoor advertising in 2017 [$45.37 billion:]( Projected revenue for global out-of-home advertising in 2019 [341,910:]( Number of billboards in the United States as of early 2018 [10,000:]( Number of illegal billboards in Beijing marked for removal late last year in a crackdown that aimed to “purify the city space” and “create a beautiful skyline” [25%:]( Proportion of top 100 out-of-home advertisers that are tech companies [56,672:]( Size in square feet of the largest billboard in the world (slightly smaller than [Tori Spelling’s childhood home]( The record-holding billboard displays a Ford ad in Madrid [400%:]( Increase of Christian Aid Ministries’ spending on billboards between 2010 and 2015 [$2.5 million:]( Cost per month of the largest billboard in Times Square New York [$140,000:]( Cost per month of a billboard ad on Los Angeles’s Sunset Strip [$550:]( Cost per month of a billboard ad in Bozeman, Montana 🐦 [Tweet this]( Jumping on board --------------------------------------------------------------- [Most consumers]( agree on one thing: Targeted ads have gotten really creepy. We’ve all had that freak-out moment when we see an ad on our Instagram feed targeting a product we were just talking to a friend about. ([Here’s the Quartz Obsession]( partially explaining what that’s all about.) Startup companies get the message: They’re looking for ways to gain our trust again. This is where the billboard comes in. Billboards are old-school. They make us say, “Did you see that billboard?!!” rather than “Agh, I got this creepy ad again.” Out-of-home advertisements (which probably should be renamed off-screen (data-free?) advertisements), stand out in a way that online ads can’t. In the 1960s, billboards got people talking about a brand. Today, billboards get people googling or tweeting about those companies. Last year, Netflix anonymously put up billboards in LA and New York that boldly proclaimed [“Netflix Is A Joke.”]( Why? To sow confusion. The tactic worked exactly as planned. Immediately, Twitter users took to the social media platform and started sharing photos of the mysterious billboards. [Screen Shot 2018-05-23 at 11.03.41 AM] The most coveted billboards for software startups are the ones that line the 40-mile stretch of highway from San Francisco to Silicon Valley. If you’re not a software coder and you drive down this hallmark of roadside real estate—or, more likely, are stuck in traffic on it—there’s a high chance that the billboards will make absolutely no sense to you. They aren’t supposed to. Tech companies know better than anyone that when we get confused about something, we either Google it or post on social media. One startup, Twilio, put up a bright-red billboard that said “Twilio. Ask your developer.” Traffic to their site immediately spiked 👇: [Screen Shot 2018-05-22 at 4.54.07 PM] Brought to you by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Diversity support groups are often missing crucial members: people who need to hear their message the most. --------------------------------------------------------------- Perceiving bias at the office is hard to see if you don’t experience it. That’s why Stephen Koch, a Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase, is working to communicate the importance of diverse perspectives.[Here’s what he did to fight bias >]( in the news Shame spiral --------------------------------------------------------------- Chinese courts have been on a national campaign to shame “deadbeat borrowers,” publishing personal information of nearly 10 million people in newspapers and in train stations, effectively blacklisting them from certain activities, like buying plane tickets. In the latest maneuver, local courts in the Anhui province capitalized on heavy traffic over the May 1 holiday to broadcast the names and photos of more than 100 debtors on giant screens in public squares, [according to the South China Morning Post.]( wwdd? Can I use a billboard to reach #1 on the Billboard charts? --------------------------------------------------------------- [Image uploaded from iOS (2)] In 2015, hip-hop superstar Drake invested in one billboard for 28 days on Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway, [a signal]( that the release of his much-anticipated album “Views From The 6” was finally near. It wasn’t just hometown marketing: Drake knew that images of the billboard would spread all over the internet. Clear Channel, which sold the placement, describes it as [“the most viral billboard in history.”]( Reuters/Shannon Stapleton Timeline [3050 BC:]( Ancient Egyptians carve images into tall stone obelisks to publicize laws and treaties. [1796:]( The lithographic process is finally perfected, which gives rise to the illustrated poster. [1835:]( The large-format American poster, measuring more than 50 square feet, is created in New York when Jared Bell begins printing circus posters. [1850:]( The first exterior advertisements are featured on street railways. [1900:]( The first boom in national billboard campaigns sweeps the US, thanks to the establishment of a standardized billboard structure. Confident that the same advertisement would fit billboards from coast to coast, big advertisers are finally able to mass-produce billboards. [1965:]( Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Highway Beautification Act, which attempts to limit billboards and other forms of outdoor advertising—as well as junkyards and other unsightly roadside messes—along America’s interstate highways. [1962:]( Bus shelters, which continue to be built at no cost to municipalities and rely on ad revenue for their upkeep, are invented by French outdoor ad company JCDecaux. [1968:]( Vermont becomes the first state to ban billboards. Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine will follow. [2003:]( Adidas-Salomon hangs two human soccer players off a billboard atop a 10-story building in Tokyo. [2005:]( The first digital billboards are installed. [2018:]( Digital billboards welcoming Saudi crown prince Salman on his official visit to the UK prove controversial. Do the math! Should I buy billboard space in Times Square? --------------------------------------------------------------- Billboards are cool, but not cool enough to travel far out of your way to see. Or wait… [aren’t they, though]( One Times Square, the building that hosts the New Year’s Eve ball drop, only has one tenant. But financially, it’s doing better than ever. In 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported that the building made more than [$23 million]( a year from its exterior billboard space. Times Square advertising is pricey because of the amount of impressions each billboard gets per year. But is it worth it? Let’s see. One billboard in Times Square costs between [$1.1 million and $4 million]( a year and has an estimated [150 million impressions.]( In other words, it costs 1.7 cents per impression, while the average cost per impression for a billboard in the rest of the US is 0.2 to 0.5 cents. But hey, that’s a bargain compared to advertising on TV during the Super Bowl. This year, the cost per impression of a Super Bowl commercial that only played once was 4.5 cents. Watch this! The Mosquito Killer Billboard --------------------------------------------------------------- This billboard in Rio de Janeiro mimics human breathing and sweat to attract and kill mosquitoes. Neature Reclaiming space --------------------------------------------------------------- A 2015 temporary public art installation by artist [Brian Kane]( used digital billboards on highways in the US state of Massachusetts to “provide a moment of temporary relief and unexpected beauty during the daily grind of commuting.” The piece, called [Healing Tool]( for the Photoshop function that fixes errors in photographs, replaced the images on the billboards with images of the landscape that was being blocked by the billboards. During the day, drivers saw images of trees and nature: [95N-July-08-15-shot1-export](Brian Kane)[93S-July-08-15-shot5-export] At night, drivers saw images of the moon and stars: Quotable “Girls take pictures of themselves with the ads and tag us. Can you imagine that happening with, like, Ford Motors?” — Glossier CEO [Emily Weiss]( on the beauty brand’s ads posted on Los Angeles construction barriers AP Photo/Mark Lennihan Pop quiz Which company has spent the most on outdoor advertising since 1999? Coca-ColaDisney McDonald'sFord Correct. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. The way we 🖌now Wait, somebody painted that? --------------------------------------------------------------- Social media is helping bring back another lost art form of the billboard industry: the hand-painted advertisement. The source of value is not just the finished product, but also the time-consuming and dangerous conditions of its production. [Image uploaded from iOS (1)](Quincey Tickner) A hand-painted billboard costs almost twice as much as a vinyl billboard, and according to a painter for [Colossal Media]( leading company for hand-painted outdoor advertising in New York City—it takes three whole days for two painters to create a medium-size ad. Today, brands are trying to associate themselves with meaningful experiences and engagement. Hand-painted billboards foster [“on-the-street engagement”]( that spills over to and thrives on social media platforms. Hand-painted billboards are extremely effective in areas like Brooklyn because they build upon an association with graffiti-and-street-art traditions, which brands use to target millennials. In essence, those ads are meant to make people stop, look up, and be impressed rather than annoyed. Oh, come on And now, the bad news --------------------------------------------------------------- Billboards will soon be able to [collect your data and deliver]( it to advertisers. [“Smart billboards”]( use a radar system that can track mobile phones as they pass by to determine whether the billboard’s location fits certain targeted demographics. This could make online ads that follow you around look downright adorable. Reuters/Lucas Jackson Poll Billboards are... 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