FHWA Greenlights Digital Billboards

(Washington, DC) – This week, the Federal Highway Administration issued clear guidance authorizing digital billboards. The memo says the high-tech signs are not flashing or intermittent.

The four-page September 25 document (click for full document) is signed by FHWA Associate Administrator for Planning, Environment, and Realty Gloria M. Shepherd. The highlighted portion of the memo reads: “Proposed laws, regulations, and procedures that would allow permitting CEVMS (commercial electronic variable message signs) subject to acceptable criteria (as described below) do not violate a prohibition against ‘intermittent’ or ‘flashing’ or ‘moving’ lights as those terms are used in the various FSAs (federal-state agreements) that have been entered into during the 1960s and 1970s.”

These guidelines suggest display times between four and ten seconds with eight seconds as the recommended static dwell time. In regard to lighting, the memo said signs should be “not unreasonably bright for the safety of the motoring public.” (Click here to read the full story)

Digital Billboards Hailed As Effective Marketing Tool And More

New York, NY (AHN) - Digital billboards are being hailed as a seamless marketing tool to reach a digitally plugged in generation when they are in their cars instead of online. The cost of the changeable displays by the sides of highways can even be split between several advertisers.

The large signs are easily visible to motorists, especially those stuck in city stop-and-go traffic. Each message stays up long enough to be read before it disappears and the next advertiser's message appears.

But more than that, the huge wide-screen digital displays are seen as a way for advertisers to continue a branded campaign that is easily recognizable by digitally-savvy consumers.

In other words, a consumer sees the same ad campaign on the road as he drives to work, on his computer and on his cell phone when he looks for the the same ad campaign that the consumer saw on the highway on the way to work also appears on his desktop computer; when he looks for a digital sports clip, the same ad appears on his cell phone. And, all of this can be organized remotely. (Click here to read full story...)

LED sign technology is changing the way Wichita advertises

Wichita Business Journal - June 22, 2007 - You may have never heard of light emitting diodes, but you see them every day.

LEDs are the small light bulbs in your cell phones, digital clocks and traffic lights. They are a versatile tool in electronics.

Unlike ordinary bulbs, LEDs don't burn out. They never even really get hot, except in the world of advertising, where they are helping to cast a newer -- brighter -- light on how to convey a message.

You can hardly drive anywhere in Wichita without seeing some kind of LED sign or billboard. Some of them have a basic, Lite-Brite appearance. Others, like the 14-by-48-foot billboard above the Starbucks on Central and Rock Road, have television quality.

The electronic displays are similar to a regular billboard, except the displays may change every six to 10 seconds.

When the sign message needs to be changed, there's no need to send a crew out to replace the billboard. It can all be done from a computer.

"They're innovative, they're new, they're bright and shiny, and they're not overexposed yet," says Mike Snyder, CEO of the Associated, Wichita's No. 2 advertising firm, according to the Wichita Business Journal's 2006 Book of Lists. "People notice them more. I think the future of these things can be somewhat dynamic." (Click here to read full story...)