7 Interesting facts about Billboards you haven’t Heard before

We presume that we see over 1000 ads per day, and yet remember only about seven. With digital advertising added to the traditional marketing mix, the stats are perhaps even higher.
Let us consider that you travel only by your car, and even then, most of the times you come across billboard ads. Billboard ads are made in a variety of shapes and sizes. Not just that the ‘making’ of the billboards is an arduous job, but the placement/ distribution of the billboards is a tricky business, and only a seasoned outdoor media planner can take it up and deliver to perfection.
We have compiled some facts about billboards you haven’t heard before.

1. The First Known Billboard Becomes Visible 3,000 Years Ago

Billboards are one of the oldest formations of advertising. Thousands of years before the first newspaper was issued in England in the 1690s or the first radio ad aired on a New York station in 1922, an obelisk was set up in Thebes, Egypt, advertising a prize for the return of a runaway slave.
The fate of that poor slave is unknown, but the Egyptians realized pretty quickly that they have found an effective way to spread information. Soon, they began using obelisks to post laws, finding them a noticeable outlet to inform the general public about what was happening.
As in already, the only mass media available had been public assembly or word of mouth. These billboard forefathers called attention to the effectiveness of distributing their messages to many people at once.

2. Electronic billboards have done for at least a hundred years

You undoubtedly associate digital billboards with recent times. After all, the modern-day digital billboard appeared in the early 2000s. But its past goes back even further. Oscar J. Gude, an early billboard pioneer, put up one of the first electric signs in the world in New York City in 1904. The sign lit up, carrying a blinking message for Trimble Whiskey.
Gude saw an opportunity in the mass media capabilities of that intersection we know today as Times Square. Gude recognized the potential in the place, which was visible to theatergoers exiting Broadway shows every evening. The whiskey sign greeted them as they walked to the newly equipped subway station. People at the time said the flaming sign was visible up to a mile away, giving Trimble the flash and distinction it desired.

3. The World’s Biggest Billboard present in Madrid

Spain disclosed putting up a billboard ad that’s bigger than everyone else. At 5,265 this giant billboard is in the area of:
• 20 tennis courts
• An American football field
• A male hippo, in weight
The Madrid billboard outdid the previous record for the biggest board by about 265 square meters, according to Guinness. The board advertised the Ford Espana become visible on the side of the Edificio España. Upon the fulfillment of the campaign, Ford donated the material for the billboard to Apascovi Foundation, an employment center helping people with disabilities.

4. Times Square Billboards are visible from Space

Speaking of Times Square, did you know that the shine of the Times Square billboards can be seen from space? It’s unbelievable but True!
A member of the team from the Expedition 35 took pictures of New York City during a 2013 mission. The astronauts said they couldn’t recognize a lot of places, but they clearly located Central Park, a long rectangle in the middle of Manhattan, and the brightly lit Times Square billboards right beside the park.
5. Aromatic Billboards – The In Thing

Your senses govern your needs, and when you see things that appeal to you on billboards, you want to buy them. So if it works with one perception, why not with another? That was the thrust behind a unique, though ultimately not all that successful, the idea in 2010 when a grocery store in North Carolina delivered what’s believed to be the first scented billboard.

6. Majority of the People Notice Billboards

According to the industry rate, we may be exposed to up to 4,000 ads per day. That’s a lot of clutter, so cutting through it benefits any advertiser who doesn’t want to waste their money.
It’s quite an intriguing fact that even in this digital age, a lot of people see billboard ads. An Arbitron study found that 71 percent of people announce not just by seeing billboards but actually noting what’s on them. And more than half said they subsequently shared something amusing they saw on the board with another person.

7. The Costliest Billboard in the World

The most exorbitant billboard in the world belongs to Google for which they pay $2.5 million to rent the billboard since the board’s launch in New York City a few years back. The tech giant paid about $625,000 per week for the dealing — or, about 125 times the average cost of a billboard in New York City. Based on rule daily tailback of 300,000 people, some 9 million New Yorkers and tourists will see the billboard over its month-long rental.
One thing is certainly true about billboard ads, for more than thousands of years of advertising evolution (the Roman monoliths and Egyptian papyrus pamphlets) to our present times. Billboards have continued growing in its appeal of portraying the BIG Picture, creating an appeal like no other ad format on the target viewers. After all, who would have guessed when that first monument went up that one day, people would be seeing billboards from space?

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