French Thoughts — Edition #2
If You Can’t Read It, It Doesn’t Exist
by Julie De Souza, Co-Founder, LED Truck Media
There is a quiet problem on highways like I-95.
It’s not inventory.
It’s not traffic.
It’s not even pricing.
It’s creative.
Drive for ten minutes, and you’ll see it: digital billboards filled with dense copy, small fonts, multiple messages competing for attention, all displayed to an audience moving at high speed, an average of 70 mph.
We call it “impressions.” But let’s be honest: if you cannot read the message, what exactly is being delivered?
Visibility is not the same as communication.
Seeing a billboard is not the same as understanding it. And on a highway, especially in places like Florida, where speed is not exactly a suggestion… the window of attention is extremely short.
One second, maybe two.
Three if you’re a passenger.
That’s the entire opportunity.
From an analytical perspective, this changes everything. Because the constraint is not space. It’s time.
And yet, much of the creative ignores that reality.
Too many words.
Too much detail.
Too much confidence that people are paying attention, but they’re not. They’re driving.
So the question becomes: who is responsible?
Is it the brand, approving creative that works in a presentation deck but collapses in motion? OR is it the media owner who accepts any artwork as long as the space is sold?
The honest answer is: both of them.
Brands want visibility. Media owners want to fill inventory. All reasonable objectives until they crash with reality.
Because in the real world, especially on highways, the audience is moving.
Even when the billboard is not.
That’s the fundamental misunderstanding.
Out-of-home is not a static medium. It’s a moving audience interacting with fixed placements under time constraints, or it’s a moving medium with a moving audience, and when the creative is not designed for that condition, the result is simple:
“The message doesn’t land.”
Which makes the impression… theoretical.
We talk a lot about measurement in OOH. About impressions, reach, and CPM, which I am glad we have them, but very little about comprehension.
An impression that cannot be processed has no value.
It looks good in a report.
It does nothing in reality.
So what should OOH creative be?
Simple.
Immediate.
Legible at speed.
Highway billboards are not websites. They are not brochures. They are not places to explain, they are places to signal.
A brand.
A product.
A date.
Nothing more.
This is where many campaigns go wrong. They try to say everything, and end up saying nothing.
I am emphasizing my thoughts on the billboard on the highway here because we are usually going at a high speed, but this applies across formats.
Whether static or mobile, the principle is the same: If the audience is moving, the message must adapt.
Not the other way around.
So before asking how many people saw the billboard, a better question might be:
How many people actually understood it?
About the French Thought
I am starting The French Thoughts from a simple feeling:
Everything started to sound the same.
Same tone, same ideas, same safe opinions repeated across the industry.
This space is different.
It’s a place to share what I see, hear, and experience in the OOH industry, as well as what I’m building as an entrepreneur in real time. Not from the outside looking in, but from being inside it.
Some thoughts are analytical.
Some are more instinctive.
Some might feel a little less “polished” than what you usually read.
That’s intentional.
The goal isn’t to be controversial.
It’s to be honest, even when that means saying things a bit more directly.
About LED Truck Media
LED Truck Media is a leading provider of mobile digital billboards, experiential activations, and hyper-targeted OOH solutions operating across the United States, Europe, and Australia. With advanced LED trucks and digital bikes, we deliver high-impact campaigns that combine mobility, visibility, and real-time consumer interaction. LED Truck Media partners with global brands, agencies, and organizations seeking innovative, measurable ways to reach audiences where it matters most. For more information, visit https://ledtruckmedia.com/services/experiential-advertising LED Truck Media is an advertiser with OOH Today
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