Digital Billboards to Reach 225,000 Daily Commuters Across from Port Authority Bus Terminal

NEW YORK, NY – Branded Cities Network (BCN) and SJP Properties have announced an exclusive representation agreement to sell digital advertising and integrated marketing campaigns on two full-motion digital billboards located at the southeast corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan at the new Eleven | X.

Each digital billboard, measuring 20′ x 60′ with 20’x 8′ returns, provides more than 2,700 square feet of visibility, and will be angled to oncoming traffic, maximizing viewability and impressions for clients.

An artist in California is replacing garish billboard ads with nature photos that blend almost perfectly into the surrounding landscapes-because they show the landscapes themselves.

Jennifer Bolande’s “Visible Distance/Second Sight” is gracing roadside scenes along Gene Autry Trail and Vista Chino in Palm Springs, California. When a viewer sees the outdoor posters from the right perspective, the large-scale images of the mountains in the distance align with the actual ranges, creating a striking juxtaposition of the virtual image and the real one.

Part of a broader “Desert X” exhibition in the area, it’s meant to redirect attention from the advertisement to the natural world depicted in it. It’s been done before, to a degree. As we pointed out in 2015, artist Brian Kane’s work in Massachusetts used trees and stars to similar effect.

More broadly, billboards seem to have become a popular medium for fine artists to commandeer in recent years, as they seek to grab drivers’ attention in the same way advertisers do every day, but to a purer end.

What might be most intriguing-or perhaps disturbing-about Bolande’s work, though, is that, at least in photos, they arguably look more real than the surroundings themselves. That might suggest an implicit critique of the heavily mediated world in which they appear, and the conditioning of viewers to it-or just be the unintended consequence of seeing reality, and its facsimile, filtered through yet another lens.

Motorists along Highway 99 in Modesto could have something new to look at – digital billboards.

 

The City Council on Tuesday will consider allowing these billboards along the highway. A city report says Vintage Faire Mall asked the city last year about allowing a digital billboard at the mall. That spurred the city to look into regulations.

Modesto has banned billboards for decades, and the few dozen in the city predate the ban. The report says in order to get a digital billboard, a company would need to remove four traditional billboards to reduce visual clutter. But a company also could enter into an operating agreement with the city for a digital billboard without removing other billboards.

When driving the cross-town freeway (Interstate 105), second-generation billboard owner Chris Zukin spots environmental progress, in lights. Zukin, general manager of Meadow Outdoor Advertising sees new more efficient, longer-lasting LED lights his company is installing on all its lighted billboards in Oregon and six other Western states.

“Paying it forward” to control future costs and reduce energy footprint, Zukin is making the investment to convert his billboard lights from high-wattage metal halide fixtures to dramatically more efficient LED lights. The upgrade, to be completed this summer, reduces energy consumption 65 percent. Zukin estimates an annual savings of more than 1.2 million kilowatt hours and $116,030 in utility expense.

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