On average, a person spends about six minutes pumping gas and that is time Jeff Griffing can put to good use. The chief executive of out-of-home advertising firm AllOver Media Inc. is having custom-built video screens installed in 100 gas stations in Los Angeles and Orange counties that will show content from AllOver’s advertising clients. The San Fernando Valley has 20 of those gas stations, from San Fernando and Burbank in the east to Woodland Hills, Canoga Park and Chatsworth in the west. For AllOver, in Minneapolis, the high-definition screens are a way to take a humdrum experience at the gas pump and turn it into something more entertaining and positive, while allowing advertisers to get their message out. The screens will display custom local weather reports, news and lifestyle features. “For us it is new and unique for the market,” Griffing said. AllOver Media takes a consumer-oriented approach with its advertising to understand what will connect as people go about their daily lives. In addition to gas stations, the company puts advertising in convenience stores, movie theaters, on buses and trucks and on the sides of buildings. Griffing would not give the monetary amount that AllOver has invested in the Southern California project except to say it was “well north of seven figures.” Financial terms are worked out with the gas station owners who are looked at as partners in the venture, he added. The Los Angeles market is the first in the nation where AllOver is having the screens installed. The devices come with anti-glare protection so the content can still be viewed even in direct sunlight, Griffing said. AllOver chose gas stations in areas with high traffic volumes that attract a broad swath of the population. Ventura Boulevard, for example, has seven of the stations in Sherman Oaks, Tarzana, Encino and Woodland Hills. There are another three on Topanga Canyon Boulevard, a heavily traveled road in the west Valley. “These are the sought-after corridors where we get requests from advertising partners,” Griffing said. Moti Balyan owns a string of gas stations from Santa Ana to Santa Barbara, including many along Ventura Boulevard in the Valley. He has worked with AllOver Media previously on static advertising at his stations. In addition to the news and weather that plays on a loop shown on the screens, there is advertising for products available at the station stores. Balyan said that All Over Media has guaranteed him there will be an increase in business. “This is a way they are working with me to bring the customer inside from outside,” Balyan said. – Mark R. Madler