THE GROWTH OF DIGITIAL BILLBOARDS

In the 21st century of Outdoor Advertising, the emergence of digital billboards offers itself as a new frontier with its own pioneers staking out electronic advertising territories along its highways and urban byways. Light emitting diode (LED) full color displays have been around for more than a decade, most prominently found in the huge video displays one finds in stadiums and on billboards.

In a fast-changing and innovative society, digital billboards had also become far more significant in creating a “sense of place” and facilitating changing trends than was generally appreciated. Since the society is increasingly information-driven, digital billboards will become the most available and ubiquitous form of speech available for providing information to other members of society.  

The fact is digital billboards have been around since the turn of the 21st century, its beginning years caught up in the tangle weeds of counter productive municipal sign codes, advertisers who were still mostly more comfortable with print billboards, and when used, not always in the most efficient ways.

Times have change, and now the digital billboard has become a "killer ap" (a runway marketing success) for both the LED manufacturers who make them and as well, for their users, the top outdoor advertising media companies, all who have very aggressive digital billboard acquisition and installation plans for deploying these electronic boards in major cities in Malaysia.

Based on the survey done in 2008, of the approximately 450,000 billboards in the U.S., there are approximately 1,800 digital billboards whose total amount is growing on an almost weekly basis. The digital billboard expansion is a splendid opportunity that emerges from changing outdoor advertising strategies, lower acquisition costs of such billboards, and a more reasonable municipal sign code that recognizes the legitimacy of installing such billboards on roadside locations.

Leveraging on China’s World Factory

In view of the massive growth of LED display applications and its competitiveness in this challenging environment, maintaining a full-fledge manufacturing facility in Malaysia is no longer an edge due to the stiff competition from China and the recent AFTA exemption of import duties for electronic components. After leveraging on Daktronics’s strengths for more than 12 years in the design and manufacturer of electronic display systems, LEDtronics is now 100% Malaysian-owned and had started to form entrenched partnerships with more world-class LED component manufacturers, especially from China. Our objective is to help our customers to invest in the right product, increase the eyeballs, create valuable impact and inspire their customers using affordable, high-quality and reliable LED video display as a powerful advertising media.

Despite the current disheartening economic times, the overall manufacturing and political environment for electronic billboards has never been better. Talk about supply and demand, most of the major LED display manufacturers in China are experiencing an exponential growth and many of them have increased their manufacturing production capacity by doubling their billboard factory space to meet high demand customer requirements. And likewise, just about every major and midrange outdoor advertising company has an ongoing collection of digital signage in their advertising inventories.

Lower Cost of Investment

In the last four years, the purchase of a single digital billboard has come down by at least 50%. In 2006, an average 5 metre high x 7 metre wide digital billboard was about RM 1.1 million per board. Today, the same billboard can be acquired for about RM 550,000.

Digital billboard acceptance

Over the last five years there has also been a lot more municipal government acceptance of digital billboards and in some cases, the revising of state and or municipal ordinances to accept the installation of such boards. This has been done on a state-by-state, and individual market by individual market approach. 

The market would expect to continue to see large growth numbers for the next few years, both domestically and internationally. As the digital billboard component of outdoor advertising percolates its way into the outdoor advertising community, there a few critical market drivers that will continue to stimulate its growth:

1.) The cost of acquiring digital billboards continues to descend, making them more readily available for both outdoor advertising companies just getting started with digital billboards and for those who are expanding an already existing outdoor electronic media network.

2.) As media planners develop their clients marketing campaigns, so will they see digital billboards as an important part of their advertising buy into regional and national markets reinforcing outdoor advertising companies strategies of building and expanding their already existing digital billboard networks.

Putting billboards in a new light

As these digital billboard inventories continue to grow, so will many print billboard locations be destined for structural conversions, a trend that will only accelerate as the economy improves. With more digital billboards appearing roadside, it will give advertisers and media planners the chance to position their messages in a new light and create a greater reach in connecting with the passing public.

Dynamic and attractive outdoor digital billboards are capturing the attention of any passerby. The outdoor digital billboards are popping up everywhere; don’t miss your chance to be an early adopter. Information for the outdoor digital billboards or digital signs is managed in one central location and can be quickly and easily updated. On just one digital sign you can have dozens of messages or advertisements rotating instead of just one on a traditional outdoor billboard. Plus, you’ll be able to change your messages based on the time of day and traffic patterns; coffee ads in the morning and restaurant ads during the evening rush. Outdoor digital billboard has proven to be extremely profitable for outdoor advertising companies around the world. This will eliminate the need to print, distribute, and maintain static signs each time your content changes, saving you costly printing and distribution fees.

Deliver the right message at the right time to the right audience consistently at every location and make real-time adjustments to stay ahead of your competition.