WORD… ON THE STREET
Billboard Gossip, Yes. Really?
By Brent Baer, Publisher, OOH Today and OOH Owner, baerboards
Every so often, somebody creates something that makes you stop scrolling and say: “Okay, that’s pretty clever.”
This week it was billboards talking to each other, again.
Not metaphorically. Literally. This time in the full beauty and magic of Digital screens.
A recent AI-powered experiment allowed digital billboards to react and respond to neighboring signs in real time, creating a running public conversation that unfolded right in front of commuters.
You can see it here:
https://share.google/koBf0HWh7q3QMgmzW
The technology is interesting.
The implication is intriguing.
For decades, advertisers have thought about billboards as one-way communication. Brand talks. Consumer listens. But what happens when billboards become participants instead of presenters?
What happens when one advertiser reacts to another? Sure its been done before like the photo example shared at the outset of this story. But that was static. This is real time digital messaging. What happens when campaigns evolve in real time? When outdoor advertising becomes less of a poster and more of a performance?
Before anyone starts hyperventilating, no, we’re probably not headed toward a future where every highway is filled with arguing billboards debating politics and pineapple pizza.
At least not yet.
Still, the idea highlights something important.
OOH continues to be one of the few advertising channels that can surprise people in the physical world. Not on a screen in their hand. Not buried in a feed. Out there, in public, where everyone can see it and talk about it.
Maybe that’s the bigger story.
Not that billboards are talking to each other.
It’s that people are talking about billboards again.
That’s gossip worth spreading.
— Word… on the Street