Walk on by Web enabled LCD’s change outdoor ads

Posted by tom klein June 18, 2007

A 32 inch LCD HDTV can be yours at Wal-mart for just $597. Did you realize that these low LCD prices are also changing the outdoor advertising game?

Clear Channel’s Taxi Media has created a network of 32 inch LCD screens (connected by satellite) that ride around on top of Boston and New Orleans taxis. These taxi-top LCD’s don’t feature static ads – they can carry 5 or 10 second animations (the feed growth! candidate). What’s different here is the level of control. You can change the graphics on the fly or even run different ads on different streets or at different times, opening up opportunities for optimization (we mentioned the web equivalent in The dating game).

With rates running at $450 / month for a 20% sign share, are you taking advantage of opportunities to rethink digitally enabled outdoor?

This geo-targeting ad system (developed by Vert) uses GPS to identify the taxi’s location and a rooftop wireless modem to transmit up to the minute adjustments to the ads served by the ad-server network.

Consider how you could use such a system to optimize what you know about the effectiveness of outdoor ads. Combine more dynamic ads, geo-targeting, and variations by day-part and you have a rich opportunity for learning.

See the system on CNBC Contact Clear Channel Effective design for outdoor Clear Channel goes private