A U.S. presidential candidate from the early 20th century is often credited with the adage that “what’s good for business is good for America.” That candidate, Calvin Coolidge, had no idea how often his quip would be used and re-purposed. I have two variations.

 

First, considering that I live in Cincinnati, the headquarters of global giant Procter & Gamble, is the thought that “what’s good for Procter and Gamble is good for Cincinnati.” But what about this variation? “What’s good for electronic digital signage is good for Procter & Gamble?”

 

GOOD FOR DIGITAL NETWORKS, THEN WHAT?

Clear Channel Spectacolor is one of the leading out of home advertising companies, with major LED and “spectacular” installations in Times Square and other high-visibility sites. Alan High is the new division president, coming to the position from the Clear Channel Malls division, and before that, its Canadian operations. In short, here is a person that understands out of home advertising, including its newest iteration of digital displays.

 

Given this background, I was fascinated by remarks attributed to High that he made in May at a Scala Connected Signage conference (Scala is a veteran software provider for networked digital displays.) According to the online newsletter, Daily DOOH, High said that there are too few digital billboards to garner ad interest from global advertisers such as Procter & Gamble. (See the full article at www.dailydooh.com/archives/46583.) 

 

High is quoted as saying there are 2,700 digital outdoor displays in the United States, compared with a total of approximately 60,000 conventional billboards. “The big guys don’t buy much outdoor as it is, but they want national coverage.” He said for digital outdoor displays, the percentage of local advertising was 96 percent versus only 4 percent for national brands.

 

PROLIFERATION OR NECESSARY MASS?

Problem or opportunity? “Proliferation” is the word many opponents of digital billboards use when describing the continuing conversion. Is it the industry’s goal to increase the number of digital billboards in the U.S. by thirty-fold? By 15x? By 5x? And at what number of additional digital billboards does P&G finally become interested in the medium? 

 

These are important issues. LED technologies have transformed the billboard industry. Static printed images have moved onto electronic screens able to integrate ads also placed on smart phones, and interior digital displays, such as at supermarkets and sports venues. 

 

Some communities have attempted to leverage the placement of these new displays by agreeing to “swap” a set number of conventional displays for the right to operate digital boards. An outdoor company would agree to take down four static boards and install one digital display, as an example. 

 

Within this framework, how many more digital displays are going to go up in the U.S.? An additional 2,000? 5,000? More? And again, what is the number of digital displays that would draw the interest of P&G?

 

IMPACT ON THE ON-PREMISE SIGN MARKET

A second issue is critically important here, also: the fate of on-premise digital displays. After the billboard industry installs enough additional digital displays to make Procter & Gamble happy, what amount of spectrum, or more bluntly, community tolerance, would be left for on-premise users to deploy this incredible technology for business advertising and identification? 

 

I’ve always counseled, be careful what you ask for—surely a perspective worth noting here.

 

GOOD NEWS FROM MINNESOTA

Some good news comes from Minnesota: the state once again will use a “practical difficulties” standard for variances rather than the “hardship” standard that the state’s Supreme Court mandated almost a year ago, based on a case originally filed from a resident of Minnetonka. (See my column from the September 2010 issue of Sign & Digital Graphics.)

 

The court in Krummenacher v. City of Minnetonka found a deficiency in the state statute that ruled out a “reasonable use” standard for variances, leaving municipalities to grant variances only if “the property in question cannot be put to reasonable use if used under conditions allowed by the official controls.” By this onerous definition, variances nearly disappeared overnight. 

 

Municipalities looked to the state legislature for a remedy, which came about in May. The governor signed a new law eliminating the word “hardship” and providing for a revised standard of “practical difficulties” as follows:

 

“The property owner proposes to use the property in a reasonable manner not permitted by an official control;

 

“The plight of the landowner is due to circumstances unique to the property not created by the landowner; and

 

“The variance, if granted, will not alter the essential character of the locality.”

 

So flexibility in zoning controls returns to Minnesota municipalities—a good end and a spur again to economic development, and dare I say, additional on-premise signage.

 

SKY GLOW: WHAT IT MEANS

Short quiz: a community activist buttonholes you at a zoning meeting and wants to know why you are increasing the sky glow in her town with all these new-fangled digital displays, and how alarming this state of affairs is. So what is sky glow?

 

Ian Lewin, Ph.D., is the head of Lighting Sciences Inc., and the author of reports prepared separately for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, and the International Sign Association. In his OAAA report, Dr. Lewin notes that sky glow is measured in “sky lumens.” He notes:

 

“Sky glow is caused by lighting at night entering the atmosphere and being scattered by airborne particulates. Sky glow may result from the use of lighting fixtures that emit light above a horizontal plane so that it enters the atmosphere directly. The effect also is caused by light reflecting from lighted objects, such as a road surface, a building or a billboard.”

 

Additionally, and of significance, Dr. Lewin notes, “Significant sky glow is produced by multiple other sources such as ball fields, car headlights, floodlighted monuments and buildings, and other outdoor lighting sources.”

 

Without those other sources, he says that “roadways and parking areas produce 96 to 98 percent of sky lumens, compared to the 2 to 4 percent produced per billboard” in a typical urban square mile.

 

And by the way, and of even greater significance, new digital billboards produce even less sky lumens than conventionally-lit billboards that use external lamps, and because of the “characteristics of the billboard pixel design whereby light in upward directions is reduced in comparison to light sent below the horizontal in the direction of viewers.”

 

Maybe Procter & Gamble can get interested after all.