The Economics of Everyday Things
00:19:36 · Zachary Crockett, Dan Levi
[00:19:36] S4: This isn't the only way that technology is being leveraged by billboard companies. Traditionally, says Levi, billboards are what's called a one to many advertising medium. You set up in one spot and hope to get recognition through broad exposure to a lot of people. But advertisers increasingly want to reach a more targeted audience, and the billboard industry can help them, thanks to the location tracking data on the apps you use on your phone. [00:20:06] S5: Every smartphone has a unique identifying number on it. We don't follow individuals. We don't know anything about specific people, but we have the ability to understand the prior behaviors of those devices that we've seen. We look at the composition of the devices that we see going past that billboard. So if you have a coffee shop and you're trying to advertise to people who drink coffee at Starbucks, for example, We could show you two billboards, each of which deliver a million impressions a week, but one of them, half the audience has been seen in a coffee shop, and the other one is only 20%. And all things being equal, the one with half drinking coffee is the right one for you. We try and minimize the inefficiency of buying a Billboard by making sure that the highest composition of those lots of people align with who you're trying to reach.
00:20:06 · Dan Levi, Zachary Crockett, Anna Bager
[00:20:06] S5: Every smartphone has a unique identifying number on it. We don't follow individuals. We don't know anything about specific people, but we have the ability to understand the prior behaviors of those devices that we've seen. We look at the composition of the devices that we see going past that billboard. So if you have a coffee shop and you're trying to advertise to people who drink coffee at Starbucks, for example, We could show you two billboards, each of which deliver a million impressions a week, but one of them, half the audience has been seen in a coffee shop, and the other one is only 20%. And all things being equal, the one with half drinking coffee is the right one for you. We try and minimize the inefficiency of buying a Billboard by making sure that the highest composition of those lots of people align with who you're trying to reach. [00:21:02] S4: These advancements are welcome to advertisers, but billboards aren't without their critics. Since the beginning of the interstate highway system, if not before, people have complained that they're an eyesore. The nonprofit Scenic America has been fighting new billboards for more than 40, and billboards are outright banned in Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont. [00:21:28] S6: Not everyone loves a billboard, but most people don't mind them. [00:21:33] S4: In Anna Bager's opinion, billboards are actually some of the least intrusive advertisements in modern society.
00:21:33 · Zachary Crockett, Anna Bager
[00:21:33] S4: In Anna Bager's opinion, billboards are actually some of the least intrusive advertisements in modern society. [00:21:40] S6: Consumers more than ever, I think, have an appreciation of ads that are not interrupting what they're doing in the moment. You're watching television, and it interrupts what you're doing. We're surrounded by signage, but it's really not interrupting our journeys or what we're doing in the moment. It's just kinda there. You see it. You spend time with it. If you don't like it, you don't look at it, and you move on. And, you know, when you're sitting there on the highway in congestion, what else are you gonna do? [00:22:08] S4: Billboards are regulated by the Highway Beautification Act, passed in 1965 by president Lyndon B. Johnson. The act limited construction mostly to commercial and industrial areas and set in place standards for things like sizing and spacing.
00:22:08 · Zachary Crockett, Dan Levi
[00:22:08] S4: Billboards are regulated by the Highway Beautification Act, passed in 1965 by president Lyndon B. Johnson. The act limited construction mostly to commercial and industrial areas and set in place standards for things like sizing and spacing. [00:22:26] S5: That was originally intended to make sure that while billboards are an important part of the economy and the business, that the growth doesn't overtake the beauty of our country, and we don't have billboards every 10 feet along a highway. But then we're also subject to state, local, and individual municipalities, all of whom have signage ordinances. So the best way to illustrate this is most people think of Los Angeles as a city. For us, it's more than 70 different municipalities, each of which have their own signage ordinance. So something that could be allowed on one side of a road, if that roadway is a border into the other municipality, could be disallowed literally across the street. [00:23:06] S4: Companies like Clear Channel Outdoor also have to navigate all kinds of limitations around the type of content that can be displayed on a billboard.
00:23:06 · Zachary Crockett, Dan Levi
[00:23:06] S4: Companies like Clear Channel Outdoor also have to navigate all kinds of limitations around the type of content that can be displayed on a billboard. [00:23:15] S5: Either because the landlord says, you know what? I don't want political ads running on my property. I don't want to get involved in that. Or there are limitations on things like alcohol or cannabis or other kinds of restricted products that cannot be run on locations that are too close to schools, parks, playgrounds, houses of worship, things like that. We have landlords that have brand relationships. So there are certain categories that they say, I work with this brand. I can't have anyone else running on that location. So it's a very complicated matrix of what can and cannot run. [00:23:55] S4: It may not seem like that sometimes. Driving on a freeway near a city, you'll likely see dozens of billboards marketing everything from Apple computers to local strip clubs. But Dan Levi says that's part of what makes the industry beautiful. These days, he's happy to be a Billboard marketing guy. [00:24:16] S5: Having a media environment where you can tell your brand story effectively and creatively, where we also now have the data to help you understand not just did it work or not, but how is it contributing to your mix? It seems to me that that would be something that most marketers should be considering if not embracing.
00:24:16 · Dan Levi, Zachary Crockett, S8
[00:24:16] S5: Having a media environment where you can tell your brand story effectively and creatively, where we also now have the data to help you understand not just did it work or not, but how is it contributing to your mix? It seems to me that that would be something that most marketers should be considering if not embracing. [00:24:41] S4: For The Economics of Everyday Things, I'm Zachary Crockett. This episode was produced by me and Sarah Lilly and mixed by Jeremy Johnston. We had help from Daniel Moritz Rappson and Galvin Abawaji. And thanks to listeners Christine Nesselroth, Mariah Vandiver, and Kaylee Hall who suggested this topic. If you have an idea for an episode, feel free to email us at everydaythings@Freakonomics.com. Our inbox is always open. Alright. Until next week. [00:25:16] S5: We did a billboard on the Sunset Strip that snowed. You could drive past it or walk underneath it, and snow in Los Angeles would be falling from the billboard. [00:25:30] S4: The Freakonomics Radio Network, the hidden side of everything. Stitcher. [00:25:42] S8: It starts with a handshake. A word becomes an agreement. An agreement becomes a contract. A contract becomes bound by law. Today, Harvey, the AI platform designed specifically for legal work, is powering that next step. More than 200,000 lawyers and 80% of the AmLaw 100 are building with Harvey, accelerating review, sharpening negotiations, and more. Harvey. Learn more at harvey.ai. Harvey does not provide legal advice. Users should always independently review and verify any output from Harvey.