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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

When the Images Are Truly Moving

Motorists passing Antelope Valley Transit Authority buses this month will see something never allowed before in California – digital advertising in the lane next to them. The authority has started a five-year pilot project testing digital signage on the sides of buses. It is working with the California Highway Patrol to determine if they are a distraction to drivers. “Our feeling is digital billboards are no more distracting than a regular billboard. If it pays for itself and makes a profit, why not?” said Wendy Williams, public information officer for the Authority, which covers northern L.A. County with a fleet of 75 buses operating 13 local routes and three commuter routes to Los Angeles. Four buses are being outfitted with $50,000 Digital Bus King signs made by MultimediaLED, a Corona firm that also installed them for a line serving the University of California, Irvine and a South Carolina transit agency. The first route to display the advertising is a commuter line from the Antelope Valley to Century City. The signs are capable of showing moving images, but the pilot study is only allowing text, which will scroll or change on surface streets but will remain static on the freeway. (Freeway adjacent digital billboards already are strictly regulated to not distract drivers.) The law firm of Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris was the first to sign up as an advertiser. The digital sign will be used in conjunction with an advertising wrap that covers the entire bus. One sign will read “Injured? We can help” and then flip to the firm’s phone number. Digital advertising on public buses had been banned throughout California until a change in the law enacted last year by then-state Sen. Steve Knight, R-Lancaster. He sponsored the legislation at the behest of the authority and AroundAV Transit Media, a Tarzana ad agency that works exclusively with transit agencies. “You can reach people when they are on the go, and it is effective to showcase a brand,” said Ely Sorkin, chief executive of AroundAV. The digital ads will come at a premium. A format combining the digital sign and full wrap will go for $20,000 to $22,000 a month, Sorkin said. By comparison, a full-wrapped double decker bus that plies the tourist areas of Los Angeles can go for $17,000 to $19,000. Traditional bus exterior ads are far less expensive at $400 to $500 a month. Dave Etherington is chief strategy officer with Titan, a New York firm that designs advertising for bus and rail agencies. He said bus digital ads are starting to show up as the technology improves. Titan had tried digital ads in New York and Chicago in 2008 but dropped it because of the cost and poor resolution. “If you have a moving vehicle going into a part of town, you’ll have the ability to change the message (on the sign),” he said. “That opens the potential for automated advertising.” – Mark R. Madler

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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