How digital billboards changed the out-of-home game

There’s a pivotal scene in the first season of Better Call Saul that could, in the not-so distant future, be impossible.

Bob Odenkirk’s titular Saul (who at this point in the series is still known as Jimmy McGill; trust us, it’s complicated) has set up an all-too-literal publicity stunt to make himself out to be a hero. He’s in the midst of shooting a commercial for his law practice when a worker stretching a billboard vinyl out behind him falls, hanging perilously from his harness. McGill runs to go and save him, appears to be a hero, and potentially garners the kind of positive attention he needs to make himself a local household name.

If a real-world huckster wanted to try the same scheme today, they could make it happen. But as digital billboards continue to proliferate across the country, that could be increasingly more difficult to manufacture. The Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) estimates that there are roughly 30,000 digital billboards across the US today, up from 16,000 in 2023, and that more than a third of OOH buys are now digital.

While it’s still a small fraction of the approximately 350,000 static billboards across the US, digital billboards, which include both large-scale bulletins and smaller poster units, according to the OAAA, are growing, slowly but surely changing the industry. That change is coming in terms of media buying and planning, as well as creative approaches.

Game changer for creative

Digital billboards have changed the game for the creative possibilities of the medium. While static billboards rely on a single image and message to tell a story, the digital billboard has given the freedom to do far more.

Take, for example, the introduction of the first robotic 3D billboard in August 2017: The Coca-Cola Company rolled out a billboard with undulating pixels that looked as if they were jumping off the screen. Even the early approach of a simple motion graphic has evolved; “today, it’s full movement,” John Mergen, chief media officer at independent agency The Shipyard, said.

“We’ve leveraged that [format] across a lot of our clients,” he told Marketing Brew. “It’s eye-catching…you see it when you walk around Times Square. You see people just staring at boards, because it is probably the most creative place to do it.”

Those kinds of activations can be more resource-intensive than static billboards, making high foot-traffic areas like Times Square and the Las Vegas strip prime places for brands to look to stand out.

“It takes more time, production, creative resources, and the cost is higher, obviously, than a normal board,” Stephen Weber, senior media manager, integrated media investment at Rain the Growth Agency, said. “Its usefulness is dependent on what your campaign goals are, but it can really help break through…in a way that other channels can’t really match.”

The format’s possibilities are changing the way advertisers view the medium and understand what a billboard can do. Unlike static boards, digital boards can be used to respond to the moment, whether that’s a change in the weather, a sports score, or a major news announcement.

“Now we have this canvas. How do we digitally use that to not only target our campaign toward what we’re looking for, but how do we measure it?” Billy Long, EVP, Publicis Media, OOH Practice, said.

Changing the creative to reflect real-time moments is making OOH all the more contextual, an attractive option that is fueling the category’s growth. “It’s been fantastic [for] us,” Anna Bager, president and CEO of the OAAA, said, noting that about 30% of the group’s total growth is coming from digital. Despite being “a very small part of our signage,” she noted, digital billboards are where “most of the dollars go now.”

Frequency, frequency

The rise of digital billboards has also brought with it other shifts to the category beyond new creative possibilities.

In the past, consumers who drove past three billboards on their way to work would have seen the same three advertisements over and over again on their commute, at least until the ads were physically pasted over. But digital billboards mean media owners can cycle in more advertisers in the same location. That frequency pitch can be appealing to marketers when they understand that “you might not get them in that one time, but over the course of a 30-day period, you’re probably going to reach them about six times,” Mergen said.

To Mike Hauptman, founder and CEO of programmatic ad shop AdLib, the addition and wider availability of digital billboards has ultimately made billboards a more accessible medium.

“You used to have a piece of paper pasted on a thing, and [have] a team go up there, [they were] big commitments,” he said. Now, “the number of screens and the number of experiences that have been created has just grown exponentially, and it’s now mainstream. We recommend all of our brands do it.”

This is one of the stories of our Quarter Century Project, which highlights the various ways industry has changed over the last 25 years. Check back each month for new pieces in this series and explore our timeline featuring the ongoing series.

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