Digital outdoor boards provides instant messaging.

Digital has revitalized outdoor advertising. It has greater impact than traditional static outdoor and it allows multiple messages to rotate on the same unit. In addition, it provides immediacy – perhaps the most powerful benefit.

E! Entertainment recently purchased from Clear Channel Outdoor, 125 digital billboards in 20 markets to plug its weeknight ”E! News”, displaying breaking news alerts as it happens. Instead of a static message, E! is digitally posting breaking news on outdoor referring the viewer to the network’s nightly news show for more details. The message can be changed almost instantly as news breaks. The Los Angeles Times was perhaps the first to try such an effort as early as 2008.

So instead of one or two or three static messages, hospitals can use digital boards to deliver instant messages. True, a hospital doesn’t have continuous news to post on a digital board, but the capability certainly deserves some creativity.

Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama uses digital outdoor to post the picture of each new baby born in the hospital.

The board shows the picture of the newborn and its first name. Of course, parental approval is required and last names are not provided. But the result is not only proud parents and grandparents but also the branding impact the hospital gives its OB services.

It’s refreshing, as you drive down the road, to see the photo of a beautiful newborn baby. Not only does that give you that “feel good” moment, it also subtly communicates that Jackson Hospital is in the baby birthing business while positively branding their service.

This is just one way to use the immediacy of digital outdoor. There must be many others. Even public service announcements, like updates on the swine flu epidemic, could be effectively communicated using digital outdoor. Pardon the pun, but the sky really is the limit for digital outdoor boards.

Digital outdoor is not your Father’s outdoor, but as Jackson Hospital can attest, it sure can make a father proud.

Has anyone seen the new bus stops around San Francisco?  The latest bus stops from the SFMTA are designed by Lundberg Design, one of my favorite architecture firms in the Bay Area.  Having designed well-known chic spaces such as Larry’s Ellison’s modernist manse on Broadway and the Slanted Door Restaurant, Lundberg was asked by the city to design something pretty utilitarian for him – a bus stop.  But Lundberg’s bus stop was no ordinary one – this one generates power for the city using a solar-paneled roof co-developed with 3Form, Konarka Technologies and Clear Channel Outdoor.

The piece de resistance of the design is the red, asymmetric wave-shaped roof, which was modeled after seismic waves (kind of a sick joke for San Franciscan’s no?).  Besides being fun and daring, the roof, which is made of 40 percent post-consumer recycled polycarbonate and features integrated photovoltaic cells, generates enough energy to run itself plus enough to send some back into the city’s energy grid.  If you haven’t seen one yet, don’t worry – over the next five years the city plans to install 1,100 more.

Images courtesy of Interior Design Magazine

Jarkeuis Adside

Jarkeius was abducted by three unknown males during an early morning home invasion robbery.

Zachary Michael-Cole Bernhardt

Zachary was last known to be sleeping in his bed on the night of September 10, 2000. At approximately 4 a.m. on September 11, 2000, he was discovered missing, and is missing under suspicious circumstances. He goes by the nickname Zach. He has a scar under his chin, a scar between his eyes on the bridge of his nose, and on the right side of his top lip.

Bryan Dossantos-Gomes

Bryan was last seen in the area of Estero, Florida. He may be in the company of a heavyset White Hispanic female with long straight black hair, wearing blue jeans and a black blouse. They may be traveling in a dark blue or black two door Chevy Blazer or Ford Explorer with dark peeling window tint. The vehicle may contain a baby seat. The companion is armed and should be considered dangerous.

Trenton Duckett

Trenton was last seen in the area of Lady Lake Saturday afternoon. He was last seen wearing a shirt, blue denim shorts, and no shoes. Anyone seeing Trenton’s mother, or her vehicle in the vicinity of the Ocala National Forest or the Orlando area on Saturday or Sunday 08/26/2006 or 08/27/2006 is urged to call. Trenton is biracial; he is Asian and white.

Note: Father and son found, Amber Alert canceled