Archive for December, 2006

I’ve been impressed with the improvements lately in digital billboards. They’re very bright and are begining to rival their rolled-on competitors in daylight. Of course at night they have no rival. Lamar has a video out showing off their technology, and it’s pretty impressive.

The Outdoor Advertising Association of America estimates there are 500 digital billboards on U.S. roads, compared to about 450,000 traditional billboards, so these are just getting started. They’re expensive, too, often costing 5-8x a typical billboard’s price. However, a digital display can generate 8-10x the revenue than a traditional billboard, according to the same group.

Now, however, it looks like chemically-altered billboards are starting to show their stuff, as shown in this article in the International Herald . I’ve not seen this in person, but a company known as magink has some pretty cool “organic” displays that are starting to make news. On their website they describe it as follows:

“magink’s full-color digital ink is based on environmentally-friendly materials. Using proprietary technologies, magink manipulates the ink molecules to generate all colors of the visible color spectrum, including all gray levels, to be exhibited in a wide color gamut.”

Now, imagine the ability to bid on the digital space like you can bid on Adsense. It’s not hard - I’m sure the media placements would be easy enough to price out, and reslolution and dayparting could be built into the pay-per-placement model.

Even my little eStarling frame (please come soon!) represents a big step forward in wireless programmable display units. This thing could be rented out with placements in high traffic queue areas such as coffee shops and such as-is!

Which expands the idea even further into all kinds of flat-display advertising options. Danny has often joked about display advertising on bathroom hand-dryers. Of course having a display available in the floor of the john isn’t far off, either. There are trucks with digital displays, too.

The top 20 outdoor brands (as of end of 2005) were:

• McDonalds Restaurant
• Cingular Wireless Service
• Verizon Long Distance Business & Res
• General Motors Corp Var Auto &Trk
• Anheuser-Busch Var Beers
• Nextel Wireless Services
• Warner BrosVar Movies
• Coca-Cola Var Soft Drinks
• Verizon Wireless Service
• Miller Var Beers
• Cracker Barrel Old Cntry
• State Farm Var Insurance
• Geico Auto Insurance
• Citibank Consumer Services
• Apple Var Computers
• Diageo Plc Var Beverages
• Sony Var Movies
• Coors Light Beer
• Starbucks Coffee Store
• Paramount Var Movies

So with all of these big brands getting the big spaces, there are surely lots of small to medium spaces that are untouched. These are the ones I think that a wide ad network would work well on. Targeting visitors by where they’re walking, what they’re waiting on, and so on, gives you a unique set of parameters.

I’m certain it’s around the corner. Literally.

Update: Bill Slawski posted an interesting article referring to a patent application related to display networks and Advertising on Billboards via the web.

And now, brought to you by Google Patents… I present a new twist … (music, please)

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me……

Twelve drummers drumming, (US Patent 361606)Eleven pipers piping, (US Patent 3151517)Ten lords a-leaping, (

US Patent 1513338 )
…(helmet recommended)Nine ladies dancing, (US patent 1374840)
…(can you say…ouch?)Eight maids a-milking, (

US patent 15629)
…(shudder for the udder)Seven swans a-swimming, (US patent 3120833)Six geese a-laying, (

US patent 4637647)
…(yeah, ok, this was a tough one)Fiiiiiiive golden rings, (US patent 2027060)

Four calling birds,(US patent 712595)Three French hens, (US patent 976160)Two turtle doves, (

US patent 4781597)
(hey, after you have the doves, you’re going to need to know how to preserve them!)And a partridge in a pear tree! (5695913)
(…practice your aim first with, like bean bags or something)

Happy Holidays!!!!

Homer Ledford was truly one of a kind. From the foothills he mastered the craft of building instruments (more than 6000 Dulcimers) that are cherished by musicians worldwide. I had the pleasure of enjoying his music (and his old-fashioned, wholesome jokes) in small picnic concerts in the parks near my home in Lexington. Homer passed away a couple of days ago, and with him a huge amount of talent. His band maintained a small website.

Listen to or Watch Homer on Woodsongs.

Homer Ledford was part of many lives and can be found in lots of books. You can find many Homer Ledford Productsonline especially his Dulcimer maker book.

Homer was recently laid to rest in Winchester, KY with over 350 people in attendence. A slide show of the funeral is here.

Hey, I know it’s not an SEO post, and this will probably keep me off the blogrolls of other search guys even longer, but I think its important to let people know about this. I will soon have wordpress and be able to tag my posts more appropriately.

Homer Ledford photos from Morehead State University and Kentucky Herald-Leader personalpost

In high school, I had one of the cooler jobs. I did darkroom and printing work at Silkworm Screenprinting in Murphysboro, IL. I worked with some rabid entrepreneurs including artist/entrepreneur Bob Cambers and photographer/entrepreneur Craig Williams. Bob now runs Silkworm, and Craig runs CommunityLink Publications creating various branding materials that promote local communities.

These were some of the coolest guys you could have worked for. We had a trampoline in the back yard over on Hortense Street and basically worked in closets - the darkroom was barely big enough to turn around in. It was my first “design-related” job and somewhere in there the entrepreneurial bug bit me. I remember once when Craig stayed totally calm when I cracked the bumper of his new Celica and dented another car while taking it “for a spin.”

So while my friends were flipping burgers, I was making lithographs, screening, printing and folding thousands of shirts from the 750-square-foot-basement. When I was with Silkworm it was just 5-6 of us, now, it’s a whole crowd - and Craig’s firm has over 50. I’m fairly certain there’s not a darkroom in sight.

So when your kid asks to work at a wierd place, keep in mind it might provide a lot more stimulation than the “more fries with that” or “welcome to Wal-Mart” gig will. Letting them be outside the box early could be just what is needed for a lifetime of deeply satisfying and unconventional endeavors.

You don’t need an invitation to get a gmail account now in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Egypt .

If you Google “RIP Gmail” you’ll see my previous post about how incoming spam killed my Gmail Account. And now, with unchecked outbound spam, Gmail is about to become the next hotmail.

Seth Godin’s point about how Gmail could have been the premium email system on the web came to mind. As he said, had they just thought it through - charged $1/year on a credit card, verified your identity, ticketed you for spam, they could have been the trusted source for email. I’d pay.

I just hope it will at least stay invite-only in the US. This doesn’t really prevent gmail spam, but it at least limits the velocity.

It’s that time of year again - the Internet Registry & Optimization Bureau is coming to town! Trouble… right here in river city! They’ve bothered three of my already-busy clients with this crap, so I thought I’d shove a post up the Google tree and tell them to FK themselves on behalf of everyone.

If you see the following on your fax machine I suggest you find yourself a real SEO as fast as you can, and by all means don’t send them your money. Anyone who has to resort to fake invoices via unsolicited fax on a bizarro domain name doesn’t deserve your business.

It would be poetic justice to send them a big-assed email attachment like this GIF with %256 high-res bills on it to their email address.

warning big file! (right click to save as)