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Marketers love the interaction with consumers, and it's easy to see why: the results are immediate and measurable. "For the advertiser, it really turns out-of-home into a direct-response mechanism," says Alasdair Scott of Filter in London, the firm that developed BlueCasting, the Bluetooth-based system used in the Absolut campaign. The rock band Coldplay used BlueCasting last summer to launch its album X&Y. During a two-week period, 20,000 people downloaded video clips and sample tracks directly from posters in London's main rail terminals. Fifty bus-shelter ads in Britain for the movie Alien vs. Predator prompted 500,000 riders to vote for who would win the celluloid battle by pushing a button on the signs. "That's what I call engagement," says Jean-Luc Decaux, a co-CEO of JCDecaux North America. This month the Paris-based firm will place ads with 19-in. LCD screens in five Chicago bus shelters, allowing riders to watch a movie trailer.
Entertainment isn't the only thing being advertised on digital signs. When Lancôme launched its new fragrance, Hypnôse, in France last summer on JCDecaux bus-shelter signs, cell-phone users with Bluetooth could download coupons for a sample. The supply ran out in three days. In the fall, British fashion retailer New Look used Hypertags, small electronic devices embedded in billboard panels that sent digital discount vouchers via infrared and Bluetooth technology to customers to spend immediately at nearby stores. Hypertag counts Procter & Gamble, Ford, Nike and Vodafone as clients. "It tends to be big companies who want to do exciting, above-the-line promotions," says Rachel Harker, one of the company's co-founders. And in Britain the line keeps getting higher, says James Davies of Hyperspace, the innovations division of the London ad consultancy Posterscope. On trial at the company's headquarters: a billboard that changes ads depending on the gender of the viewer. Davies says the demo, which takes a superficial body scan to tell male from female, gets it right 95% of the time.
The billboard as a medium is changing rapidly too, as outdoor agencies transform those once static boards into digital light-emitting-diode (LED) or liquid-crystal-display (LCD) screens that flash new images every few seconds. The dynamic screens allow marketers to fine-tune their messages to rush-hour commuters or soccer moms, depending on the time of day. Lamar Advertising, based in Baton Rouge, La., has converted 75 vinyl highway boards into digital LED displays at a cost of $300,000 to $500,000 each. "Advertisers can change their messages almost instantaneously," says Sean Reilly, Lamar's president and COO. Reilly plans to put up 200 of those smart boards before the end of the year. "This is truly the next revolution in out-of-home advertising," says Larry Steiner, vice president of development for Van Wagner, which owns the sign running the Absolut campaign.