Cape Town | Erik Warburg | erik@posterscopesa.co.za

Johannesburg | Carni Wilkens | carni@posterscopesa.co.za

This will allow the advertiser to tailor their commercial message to the onlooker.

A consortium of 11 railway companies launched the pilot project last month, and has since set up 27 intelligent displays in subway commuter stations around Tokyo.

The operator’s will not save recorded images.  However, they will collect data about groups of people, which will help advertisers learn what works best at which locations in the city and at what time during the day.

He went from an Austrian American bodybuilder to Mr Universe, turned actor-slash-model to businessman and most recently politician, serving as the 38th Governor of California.

Only he would consider the introduction of digital number plate advertising to cover the cost California’s deficit of $ 19 bn.

However there are mixed reviews on this as some people say that it will only result in chaotic traffic. Comments are being made in anger, such as “What about a car sticker? No electricity, no semiconductor technology required, no electronic waste at the end of life”. Others are very excited about the opportunity saying that it will really spark the interest of Designers, Sport teams, Bands, Movie companies and also news channels.

The electronic device would look like a normal number plate when the vehicle is moving but would switch to digital adverts when it has stopped for more than four seconds, in traffic or at a red light. The license number will remain visible at all times.

The best part is that it could be used to broadcast traffic issues and perhaps even suggest alternative routes. Perhaps one day it will become a communication device to let people know your thoughts for example your favorite Sports Team, or “I just got engaged.”

It is an exciting space that will revolutionize driving and outdoor, and if it covers a State’s debt at the same time, well then I would say that Arny has saved the day again!

The ‘everyone connects campaign’ was an initiative by TM to position themselves as the enabler of digital lifestyles, instead of just being a broadband provider. Posterscope Malaysia mounted the biggest TM campaign in 2009 (over 100 sites for one month rather than the usual 3 – 12 months required by the contractors). The key campaign objective was to ensure that the target area, Klang Valley, was a sea of orange (the theme colour for everyone connects), thereby encouraging consumers to download the “Through my window’ ringtone, which was derived from the theme song central to this campaign. There were a number of noticeable achievements.

This was the first time that there was a road block on digital screens ( in this case 2 of the biggest screens in the city over 2 weekends). It was the first time Bluetooth technology was used with big digital screens. This recorded the highest ever Bluetooth downloads for a campaign in Malaysia – over 80,000 in 2 weeks.

In announcing to the world that ‘YouTube’s Got TV’, YouTube wanted to communicate that people could now watch full-length TV programmes on it’s video sharing site. Working with them, Posterscope UK and Hyperspace created an interactive installation to give shoppers and media professionals in London a sneak preview of the service. 8 High definition LCD’s were installed into a prime retail location in London’s famous Carnaby Street right in the heart of Soho.

The linked LCD-based digital display featured touch-sensitive interactivity, allowing the audience to select one of 5 clips to watch.

Across a 5 week period the screen achieved almost 10 000 interactions and a whole raft of Flickr, Twitter and YouTube posts.

That is 5 753 incidents a day.

What do we do? Wake up, go to work and hope it doesn’t happen to us and then sit there all indignant and depleted when it does.

In America Government and law enforcement agencies have been quite proactive about catching the perpetrators partnering with outdoor advertising agencies. A most current example of the effectiveness of this is when Virginia drug suspect Edward Myricks saw his photo on a giant digital billboard he didn’t even bother trying to outrun or outsmart the police. He knew his luck had run out and promptly handed himself over.

“We posted his photo on billboards in Newark (after learning the suspect had traveled there), and when he saw the billboards he turned himself in on March 11,” Chris Allen, an FBI spokesman, said.

In 2007 they ran the first test with digital billboard to capture criminals and now they run these in more than 40 states. Chris Allen explains that it is a real force multiplier as you now have the countries eyes as opposed to 10 agents.

Some other interesting cases that were solved, the apprehension of a serial bank robber, he pleaded to  guilty to a robbery spree in Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana and Illinois.

Digital Billboards are outdoing TV and the internet in captures. Now isn’t that clever adspend!!!

- Justine Kettle, Posterscope OOH Planner

Billboard owner Lamar Outdoor in December approached the hotel with new technology that allows for interfacing with Twitter, enabling real-time updates to be displayed on the digital marquees. The billboards–one is located near the intersection of Flamingo and Paradise roads, the other near the airport at Tropicana Avenue and Swensen Street–do not display every tweet, just those that might be of particular interest to locals.

The hotel’s billboard tweets debuted just before Christmas. As the campaign ramps up, Director of Advertising Teresa Fry hopes to churn out at locals-oriented offers on a daily basis. “Not that we ever ignore locals, but we definitely don’t promote to them as much as tourists,” Fry says, “so this is a way to engage them and make them aware of some of our offers”

MGM Grand shares the billboards with at least six other advertisers at any given time, rotating every seven seconds.

The billboard comes with its own unique set of challenges. Conveying a coherent, meaningful offer via Twitter’s 140-character limit is challenging enough, but Lamar limits its billboard messages to only 100 characters. Complicating that is the fact that, while Twitter aficionados may understand the site’s jargon and shorthand, the billboards are read by countless people who have no idea what is being said.

The Twitter billboard effort will be reevaluated in April after a three-month trial run. If MGM Grand sees success, either from an uptick in locals business or a marked increase in Twitter followers, it may consider expanding the program by leasing the billboards on an exclusive basis.