Innovation In Digital Billboards

Digital billboards have become a lot more commonplace in our cities and towns. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for innovation in this space. In fact, with the technology constantly evolving and marketers becoming ever more creative, we’re seeing some incredible examples of what you can do with bespoke LED displays.

Sainsbury’s gave us one example in March with their LED billboards designed to change what they’re displaying based on the weather in their location.

But the BBC has highlighted what could be the next step in display advertising – and it sounds like something out of a science fiction movie.

New technology has been developed that can create incredible 200m high images that seem to appear in the sky and then vanish. These displays are created using a small strip of reflective material and a high-powered projector.

The projector beams light off the reflective strip and when it catches someone’s eye the image is created, just for them.

While this is still in its very early days, there are a growing number of innovative uses of digital billboards cropping up all over the world.

The BBC also mentioned a Russian advertising campaign for Jaguar’s new SUV. These billboards used a machine-learning camera to determine what type of SUV someone was driving. The advert would only display to those not already in a Jaguar model.

In addition, the advert itself would adapt depending on the time of day and weather conditions. For instance, a Jaguar SUV would appear on a dark background at night.

And it isn’t only what and how a billboard displays that’s changing. One organisation has created what it’s describing as pollution-fighting billboards.

These displays are made from a special material that can remove pollutants from the air within 25 square metres of it, Campaign Live reported. Leicester Square and Shepherd’s Bush in London are among the first locations to get these pollution-fighting billboards, with regeneration and development firm Urban Vision behind the campaign.

While these particular versions of the billboards aren’t digital, the technology to install them on digital billboards has been developed.

Global president at Urban Vision Gianluca de Marchi told the publication that his company plans to install these pollution-fighting billboards on all of its new sites in both Italy and the UK.

With growing concern about London’s pollution levels recently, this could be a huge marketing tool for Urban Vision and one that sees the company receive a considerable amount of positive press – something any firm is bound to be looking for.

According to Mr de Marchi, his organisation will install over 300,000 sq ft of these billboards by 2018, which can capture pollutants created by 14 million cars. “We believe everyone has to step up and do their bit to preserve the environment,” he told Campaign Live.

These campaigns and new technical developments could give you some inspiration when you begin to work on your next advertising campaign. Using custom LED displays is certainly worth it if you’re able to attract the attention of your consumers effectively by making greater use of targeted marketing.