by TRC_Admin | Dec 7, 2022 | Advertising Industry, Billboards, Controversial, Interactive Advertising, Kiosk, Mobile Advertising, Technology
Photo: Adidas
“Adidas’ most recent campaign (quite literally) has legs…
To promote its specially-designed sweat-proof, ergonomic, wireless ‘Fwd-02 Sport’ earbuds for runners, developed by Zound Industries, M&C Saatchi Stockholm turned athletes from Stockholm Run Club into moving advertisements.
A series of lightweight billboards were designed by the agency, then donned by a cherry-picked team of elite runners who took to the most popular running routes in the Swedish capital. Each poster featured a QR code on the back that offered fellow runners a 50% discount on the headphones.
The catch? To get the discount, people had to keep up with the elites to get close enough to snap the code…”
— Rebecca Stewart, Adweek
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by TRC_Admin | Aug 29, 2022 | Advertising Industry, Billboards, Environmental
Photo: AV Magazine
“Switch off digital signs off at night to save energy. Government decrees that out-of-home advertising spaces, as well as display and LED signage in shop windows, are switched off from 10pm-6am to prevent an energy shortage from September.
The German government has ordered that analogue and digital out-of-home advertising spaces, as well as digital signage (displays and LEDs) in shop windows and neon letters on facades, must remain switched off between 10pm and 6am…
The EU’s gas emergency plan came into force this month, under which member countries have to save 15% on gas. Germany has a self-imposed target of 20%.
The measures come less than three weeks after Spanish shops and government offices were required to turn off digital signage displays and lighting after 10 pm, as part of the country’s commitment to reducing its gas consumption by 7%…”
— AV Magazine in Digital Signage
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Read related article “EU energy crisis explodes: Spain orders citizens to TURN OFF lights – UK could be next” here
by TRC_Admin | Feb 3, 2021 | Advertising Industry, Billboards, City Signs, Legal
Photo: Nate Smallwood, Tribune-Review
“The state Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with Lamar Advertising, finding that a large vinyl banner the company put on its Mt. Washington billboard nearly five years ago does not violate a Pittsburgh zoning ordinance.
The banner in question was placed over a previous electronic billboard overlooking the city in May 2016. It advertised Sprint, the telecommunications company, in black lettering over a gold-yellow background. The space now advertises Iron City Beer in large red letters on white.
The court, in a 4-3 opinion written by Justice David Wecht, found that the vinyl sign does not violate the zoning code cited by the city.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto once called the banner an ‘eyesore…’
The original billboard at issue was erected in the mid-1920s on a parcel of land owned by Lamar on Grandview Avenue. It is a concrete structure measuring 7,200 square feet and until May 2016 included a 4,500-square-foot electronic advertising sign. It has been used for local brands like Bayer, Iron City Beer and Alcoa.
Then, without approval from the city, Lamar placed the vinyl Sprint sign over the existing electronic sign.
A month later, the city issued a violation notice to Lamar alleging the sign violated two sections of the zoning code: one that bars the enlargement or addition to an already non-conforming sign (as the electronic one had previously been categorized) without approval, and another that requires the removal of an advertising sign when a business has been terminated.
In November 2016, the Pittsburgh Zoning Hearing Board heard testimony that the vinyl sign did not change the existing structure of the sign but increased the total advertising space from 4,500 square feet to 7,200. The board ruled against Lamar, finding that the alterations to the sign would change its structure. Further, it found that the changes required conditional use and site-plan approval under a previous court case involving Lamar in Monroeville…
The company appealed to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
The judge there reversed the zoning board, finding that it had exceeded its jurisdiction by “venturing beyond the two provisions under which [the city] had cited Lamar. The court also agreed with Lamar that it did not need a permit to change the Mount Washington billboard …”
Commonwealth Court, in August 2019, affirmed that decision, finding that because Lamar did not increase the size of the sign, there was no violation. The city appealed to the state Supreme Court, which heard the argument in September.
In the 14-page opinion issued Wednesday, the court said that the previous case involving Lamar’s attempt to transition 17 existing static billboards in Monroeville to electronic ones is not applicable.
In that instance, the court ruled against Lamar, finding that the transition to electronic billboards in Monroeville required significant structural alterations to the existing structures, ‘whereas its placement of the vinyl sign over the sign structure of the Mount Washington billboard did not require any structural alterations…'”
— Paula Reed Ward, Tribune-Review
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by TRC_Admin | Sep 30, 2020 | Advertising Industry, Controversial, Sky, Technology
Photo: UT Austin
“Want to leave a message on the moon’s surface?
A group of University of Texas students have a vision that could — at least in theory — make that a possibility someday.
The 10 UT engineering students devised a business plan to turn the idea into a moneymaker — and won awards for it at a NASA competition.
They pitched and provided the plan for building a rover that would carve messages or images onto the moon and capture pictures of those etchings, which in turn could be used for merchandising. While not visible from Earth, the etchings are intended to be permanent, the students said.
The idea for the project came when Brianna Caughron, the student team leader, was walking back to her apartment from class and noticed carvings on a sidewalk, she said.
‘I was like, oh my gosh, that could easily be done on the lunar surface. There’s the famous Apollo footprint from the Apollo 11 mission,’ she said…The business would charge about $10 per second for the time spent carving each image, an amount they settled on after polling other students informally and to make up for the upfront cost of launching the rover into space.
Overall, the entire process, including development of the rover, would cost $275 million to $300 million, according to Ali Babool, who was on the business and analytics side of the team.
The students expect to make up those costs and turn a profit by the end of the first year of lunar operations, said Caughron said.
If development started next year, the team has forecast that it could bring in about $610 million in annual revenue by 2026, with $450 million in profit. It used the tattoo market here on Earth as a model to come up with the financial projection…
Project LEGACI won in its category of commercial space development at NASA’s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage design competition, and it also received the Excellence in Commercial Innovation award…”
— Titus Wu, Austin American-Statesman
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by TRC_Admin | Sep 30, 2020 | Advertising Industry, City Signs, Historic, Placemaking
Photo: Robert Whitehead
“Building signs have grown into a $37.5 billion industry. Some have become so iconic they are peranent parts of the landscape, often standing in for their hometown.
Some signs have become so iconic, they are permanent parts of the landscape — and sometimes stand in for the cities in which they are found…
The boldness of Miami
Nothing captures the vibe of this Florida city like the pastel-colored Art Deco hotels and glowing neon signs along Ocean Drive on Miami Beach — all part of a historic district. Erected in 1935, the three-story Colony Hotel was one of the first of the properties to make its mark. Henry Hohauser designed the structure, in the streamlined style of the day, as well as its inverted-T sign. His boxy marquee allowed the name to be seen from both sides and the beach… Materials used in construction during the Depression weren’t of the highest quality, however, and by 1989 the marquee had to be rebuilt. Recently, the neon letters were painstakingly removed again before a new marquee made of galvanized steel was installed and the letters put back on.
The quirkiness of Los Angeles
The sign above Randy’s Donuts in Los Angeles can be seen by those flying in and out of Los Angeles International Airport.
The sprawling Southern California city is home to a number of “programmatic” signs — ones shaped like the products their businesses sell, designed to flag down passing motorists. The dimpled pastry atop Randy’s Donuts in the Inglewood neighborhood is by far the best known of the bunch.
Thirty-two feet in diameter, the doughnut can be spotted from the air by those flying in and out of Los Angeles International Airport. And if people haven’t laid eyes on it in person, they have likely seen it in movies, music videos and promotions.
The sophistication of Chicago
The Gothic-style letters of the Drake Hotel’s famous sign stand nearly 12 feet tall and have been perched on the roof of the landmark building in downtown Chicago since 1940.”
— Jane Margolies, New York Times
Great photos and more about additional cities and their iconic signs
by TRC_Admin | Jun 29, 2020 | Advertising Industry, Billboards
Photo: Mumbrella
“The newly-rebranded Out of Home Media Association of Aotearoa (OOHMAA) has launched a campaign to celebrate the strength of out of home as a broadcast medium as New Zealand’s restrictions reduce following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Out of Home Never Looked campaign is designed to be bold and eye catching…”
— Hannah Blackiston, Mumbrella
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