Thursday, February 25, 2010

By Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A billboard along the Parkway West shows the first tweet by Brianne McLaughlin, a Robert Morris University student and a goalie for the U.S. women’s hockey team at the Winter Olymics in Vancouver. Lamar Advertising sold the billboard space to the university.

To any confused, neck-craning drivers on Pittsburgh highways who swear that Olympic goalie Brianne McLaughlin actually tweeted them from a billboard — relax.

While it’s true you probably have spent too much time thinking about the Winter Olympics, you were not hallucinating.

Robert Morris University, hoping to turn a shot at Olympic gold into a marketing moment, is using high visibility ads fit for the social networking age to honor Ms. McLaughlin, a campus undergraduate and the No. 3 goaltender on the USA women’s hockey team, which plays Canada tonight for the gold medal.

Robert Morris recently bought rotating billboard space from Lamar Advertising at four locations: Parkway West between the Carnegie and Green Tree exits; Parkway East near the Squirrel Hill Tunnel; Grant Street, Downtown; and Reedsdale Street near the Rivers Casino.

On Wednesday, it added a link to Ms. McLaughlin’s twitter account, http://twitter.com/briannemcl. Her first words to the motoring public: “Last practice before the big game … making it a good one.”

Her Vancouver trip is letting the school highlight its Division I hockey program.

How often the senior nursing major from suburban Cleveland tweets “is up to her — whenever she decides to and has time,” said school spokesman Jonathan Potts.

And yes, she’s aware that any spur-of-the-moment thought posted to the Web site will become part of Pittsburgh’s commute. “She’ll exercise whatever judgment she feels is necessary,” Mr. Potts said. “She’s an excellent student and a responsible adult.”

Bill Schackner:bschackner@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1977.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10056/1038460-123.stm#ixzz0hLKBezpN

I LOVE THIS IDEA FOR DIGITAL BILLBOARDS! – Call us and lets give it a GO! – I think it’s a Home Run (Pun Intended)

Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 09:44PM – ORIGINAL POST

The Los Angeles Dodgers recently teamed up with Channel 1 Media to create a terrific customized online campaign to engage fans prior to the start of the 2010 MLB season. The two parties created a really cool campaign that enables fans to create their own billboard… in a matter of seconds. The initiative, designed to drive fan interest and ticket sales, is a turnkey piece that can be implemented by teams from all leagues.

The campaign is really simple, yet very interactive and fun for consumers. The best part is the fact that it ties directly back to the Dodgers’ terrific “This Is My Town” billboard messaging campaign from 2009 and truly lets fans be a part of the action. Channel 1 Media and the Dodgers also did a great job building in social media functionality to help the campaign go viral (see the Facebook, Twitter, and email functionality on the last picture below).

Check it out at http://channel1media.com/dodgers/2010/

FairCityNews.com | Feb 24, 2010

Magic beans are used to form an advertising message along HWY 65
Springfield, MO—A local outdoor advertising company has engineered a breakthrough technology in billboard advertising: magic beans. Lamar Advertising Company has acquired the rights and patented the process for planting the mysterious seeds under an existing structure, which then produce an advertising message.

“The outdoor advertising industry has been investigating new technologies for some time now. We’ve done electronic message boards, digital displays even transit advertising and vehicle wraps, for a long time there was no new innovation until now,” said Newton Younger, a research and development manager for Lamar.

“We began looking at the past to reengineer a new take and found that magic beans could be genetically altered to produce consumer friendly messages. All we have to do is plant the beans, recite a quick spell and boom, two weeks later instant advertising,” said Younger.

Lamar has retrained their employees to care for the beans and instructed them in the planting and application of spells, which was a hard transition for at least one long-time billboard worker in the field. “I was around when we had a bucket and a brush and had to paste the paper to the frame, now alls I gots to do is say the right thing and use the right bean and we’re done,” said Hank Freuly, a billboard production specialist.

According to Lamar, most employees have successfully completed the training process, however, Hank continues to curse while administering the spell, which produces vulgar and abrasive results.

“Once we were putting up a board for a church and Hank was really nervous and frustrated and said ‘Jesus these *freakin’* beans are *freakin’* *freakin’* with me,” said Jerald Bowser a co-worker, “We went to lunch and came back to find a rather unflattering message had been produced. Something like ‘Jesus is ‘effin with you, ya bean ‘effer!’ These spells are very sensitive.”