Every day when you drive to work, you pass how many billboards? 1…5…15…20? Whatever it is, Clear Channel is placing digital LED Billboards up throughout several cities. 149,760 (720w x 208h) LEDs make-up just one of these bright and beautiful billboards.

So what?

How about if I told you that in the five markets (Albuquerque, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Tampa Bay and my hometown of Milwaukee) Clear Channel has started placing these boards up as a connected network. A network that will rotate your message to each LED billboard as part of rotating plan. This means your ad not only gets seen on the north side, but also the south, east and west side of town. I must preface that Clear Channel is not the only company in the LED displays, Lamar Outdoor has these as well, however not in the Milwaukee market, where I am.

Here is how it works. Each billboard is connected to Clear Channel via a DSL line that is used to communicate to the network of boards what creative rotation and frequency the boards should be showing. Frequency? Yep, these billboards will switch ads every few minutes, and over the course of a month may even move your ad to another billboard every few days.

This means no more seeing a wind torn water drenched billboard that has deteriorated over the course of a month. It also means that there are significantly smaller to no production costs. However, with a better chance to have your ad seen over the course of a month or even year, these boards are not cheap to post on. A four week LED posting can cost up to $34,000+ depending on market and your ability to negotiate rates. It is almost as though you had purchased multiple boards for the four weeks, equaling more eyes and a larger demographic reach.

Ok, enough about the boards… well, almost. The unique thing is that Clear Channel in Milwaukee is placing local artists work on these LED billboards too! No more sore eyes during the drive to and from work anymore.

You can check out the specs on the Clear Channel and Lamar boards as well as the Milwaukee art displays below.

http://www.clearchanneloutdoor.com/products/digital_outdoor_net.htm
http://www.lamaroutdoor.com/index.html

Milwaukee art-show
http://newmke.com/artshow/