London Buses To Carry Digital Signage

"Animated computer-generated adverts are to appear on the sides of London's famous red buses for the first time - but only after fears that the images would distract drivers and cause traffic chaos were allayed.

In a sign of how new technology is making advertising more widespread than ever, outdoor ad company Viacom Outdoor will install digital screens on the side of 25 buses that will criss-cross the streets of the capital from October."
-- The Guardian, BBC via We Make Money Not Art

Billboards Still Alive

"The major opportunity for outdoor advertising is technology to give billboards movement or sound, or to meld them with other forms of communication."
-- Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Billboard, Moscow

A billboard in Moscow for a door-handle company.
-- Advertka

Animated Billboards: Lifetiles Lenticulars

Eye Think takes lenticular billboards to a new level. "Rufus Butler Seder first designs each individual phase of movement using original or archival motion picture footage or hand-drawn motion studies. Once he has created the final visuals, he uses analog and digital techniques to compress them into "coded images" that he indelibly fuses into the clear tile backs. When the casual observer passes a LIFETILES mural, the ribbed tile lenses optically unscramble the coded images "frame by frame," and the observer's brain links this rapid succession of images together, creating the impression of movement."
-- see videos of lifetiles in action

Mirrors as Billboards

"The next time you visit the washroom in a London bar, you might find yourself face-to-face with the latest innovation in advertising – the AddMirror."
-- aka.tv

Measuring Digital Signage

Here are some tips on measuring performance of digital signage installations from WireSpring, an industry software and hardware provider.

Dogboards

Pulled out from the dustbin of my computer's hard drive is this BBC article dated 2002 on dogs as billboards.

Electrolux Billboard

I've got a sizeable collection of billboard pics sitting on my computer and I'll be posting some of them here, but I'm afraid I don't have too many details on the agencies behind them or any dates. Drop me a line (vedrashko.at.hotmail.com) if you know anything and want the justice served. This particular billboard is for Electrolux vacuum cleaners.

Instant Labeling Tape

"By "blacking out" elements of a 14-segment display font on the tape, all you need is a black permanent pen to create your own temporary signs, labels and installations."
-- via Make

Behind the Billboards

Stephen Gill photographs the other - dark and unseemly - side of the billboard business, one billboard at a time.
--AdLab

Mirage Motion Media Pseudo-Animated Billboards

A Canadian company Mirage Motion Media came up with a technology that creates an illusion of motion for static billboards.

Here's what they say: "Mirage motion panels work thanks to a psychological phenomenon known as persistence of vision. When your specially produced motion prints are backlit and viewed through a series of thin vertical apertures, viewers perceive uninterrupted moving pictures. It's the same effect that makes the lines between celluloid frames disappear when you watch a film in a theatre." A bit like the subway tunnel ads.

Upward-Looking Billboards

As more people use Google maps to find their way around, it probably makes sense to start buying up rooftop space so that your brand shows up on the images, like this Target store. The big problem, of course, is to figure out how frequently the aerial photos are updated. More Google sightseeing here; scroll down to "large type" category.

Billboard Ghosts

Meg at Advertising Ghosts collects and annotates pictures of old billboards painted on buildings.

Bluetooth Billboards In London

Maiden Group, which has handled billboard advertising for 80 years in the United Kingdom, and Filter UK, a company specializing in the transmitter technology, are installing billboards in Heathrow airport that "beam out text messages to the phones of people walking by to ask them if they would like to watch a video-clip ad on their phone's screen. The commercial, aimed at passengers in Virgin's first-class lounge, touts a new SUV, the Range Rover Sport." It's called Bluecasting.
--WSJ, NewScientist via MIT Advertising Lab


Earlier:
Bluetooth Advertising Stirs Controversy

Interactive Signage by Reactrix

Reactrix is one of the companies behind those interactive projections you begin to see in stores. "The Reactrix Media display technology—the Reactor—consists of a patent-pending hardware and software platform incorporating our proprietary infrared technology, an LCD video projector and a display surface. The system draws Reactrix Media content from our computers over a typical high-speed Internet connection and projects it onto the display surface, where consumers can interact with it."

Clinging Signage on Static Electricity

All Things Cling develop signage material that clings without the use of adhesives, relying instead on static electricity. In their own words, the material is "electrically charged, fully printable polypropylene film with an embedded electrical charge".
-- AdLab

Court TV Advertecture Billboard

Venables, Bell & Partners created this "advertecture" billboard for Court TV.
--Towleroad

"People Steal" Billboard

"People will take anything they can get their hands on. At least that's what TBWA\Vancouver demonstrated with its recent stunt for client Black Tower Security Services. The agency swathed a 10-foot x 20-foot billboard with grab-worthy household items like framed paintings, rugs, pillows and cookware on Friday, Feb. 25. By the end of the weekend all the items had been lifted, revealing the campaign's simple message: 'People Steal. Black Tower Home Security'."

Here's a video showing people steal.
--Media in Canada

Billboard on Scaffolding To Feature Building Behind It

"Part of the Edinburgh's most famous view is set to be dominated by a gigantic advertising banner featuring a detailed image of the buildings behind it.

The houses on Ramsay Garden, just next to Edinburgh Castle, are to be covered with scaffolding later this year as the owners carry out long-needed maintenance. The Big Advert Company is planning to produce a detailed picture of the buildings, one of the Capital's most prestigious addresses, which will then be hung on the scaffolding."
--Scotsman

Billboard With Aluminum Pegs

"The billboard is made of 12,148 aluminum pegs, varying in length from 1mm to 27mm. Each different length peg creates a different sized shadow. The different sized shadows create a greyscale image of a woman sunbathing, when the sun comes out." By New Zealand's Clemenger BBDO for Sunsense Sunscreen.
--Cannes Lions Outdoor Bronze, 2005

Lego Billboard

A Cannes Lions Grand Prix winner, this billboard was created for Lego by Ogilvy&Mather Santiago. "The billboard makes it look as if the building is built out of LEGO blocks, with four missing in the center."
--Design