Lob (wedge) bying for EMCs

Last week (late August), I played in the annual Business Advertising Council (BAC) golf scramble. BAC is a distinct, local association that includes both on- and off-premise sign members.

My group was doing fairly well. We were five under until #16, a par five. After two shots, we had two balls at the bottom of the hill that were maybe 125 yards out. We chose to play a ball that was only 50 yards away. In front of us were a tree and some bushes. Directly in front of us. We not only underestimated the height of the tree; we miscalculated its proximity. We took a 7.

Afterwards, I spoke with the owner of an outdoor-advertising company. “How’s business,” I asked, completely comfortable with my query’s lack of originality. “We’re down about 28%.” “What about your electronic boards?” “Any profit we’ll make this year will be because of them. I’m just glad I stuck around long enough to be part of them.”

At least one manufacturer of superwide-format printers fears electronic billboards as a replacement technology. Senior Technology Editor/Analyst Darek Johnson received a call that queried how many electronic billboards exist and to what extent this would impact superwide printers. Paint and vinyl manufacturers can probably empathize.

According to the Outdoor Advertising Assn. of America (OAAA), the U. S. has approximately 450,000 billboard faces, and 1,500 are electronic. Or approximately one-third of 1%. So, right now, I’d view the threat as minimal.

But their impact has been impressive, without even considering their commercial value. OAAA has more than a dozen members who have posted AMBER Alert messages since its specific program began in June 2008. The 180 alerts have subsequently been posted in 31 states. Since the Amber Alert program began in 1996, 457 children have been found.

Advertisement

By pure synchronicity (or maybe great minds think alike), the October issue is packed with discussions of electronic message centers (EMCs). Darek’s Technology Update column (see page 10) focuses on EMCs’ effectiveness, as does Dr. Nisa Khan’s EDS Update column (see page 44). James Carpentier’s feature on EMC legislation, a two-parter, debuts this month (see page 74). All three of these columns disclose truths about EMCs’ value, both for on- and off-premise usage.

Darek and Nisa discuss the Ashton Kutcher “victory” over CNN via digital billboards. Nisa discusses the 2008 Arbitron study of electronic billboards in Cleveland. (An 18-page synopsis of that study can be found on the OAAA website at www.oaaa.org.) James and Nisa both delve into EMCs’ role in Amber Alerts.

Clearly, if the fate of EMCs was determined by popular vote, legislative problems would vanish. The Arbitron study shows that roughly 80% of people recognize electronic billboards’ emergency-information value, and majorities find them attractive and informational. A representative number fall into the “unsure” category, and roughly 20-25% don’t like electronic billboards. (How many topics could 75% of Americans agree on?)

And it’s more than just ST. This month, on October 8, the International Sign Assn. (ISA) will host an hour-long webinar that will feature Daktronics’ Roger Brown. On its website, ISA states the webinar will “cover the many different aspects of electronic message centers that concern local officials, including brightness, traffic safety, aesthetics and malfunctions.”

(More generally, ISA’s Signage Foundation Inc. will follow that up a week later with its annual National Signage Research & Education Conference in Cincinnati, October 13-15.)

It’s a shame that a webinar about this marvelous marketing tool must be defensive. But Carpentier’s article helps explain why. He was a planner first. In his article, he provides firsthand proof that the American Planning Assn. (APA) is biased against EMCs. Twice, he’s tried to offer balanced presentations for the APA’s annual conferences. Instead, one presentation showed an EMC, and the next slide showed a car crash.

Advertisement

What James wants to do, and he’ll have more specifics next month, is offer some win-win-win strategies for the sign industry, communities and regulators. Conceptually, this should be easy, because electronic billboards are intrinsically good.

It was just about this time last year that the ramifications of the U. S. economy suddenly became that same tree on #16. Virtually all underestimated its formidability. Virtually no one recognized its imminence. With only two holes left, it still managed to sabotage most everyone’s chance at a good score for the year. If only I’d had a lob wedge (and knew how to use it), we might have hit over it and onto some green. With EMCs, the sign industry, end users and communities have a better shot at it.