It always amazes me to see some of the creative ideas companies come up with to make better use of technology and the Web within their Offline or traditional advertising campaigns. Streamlining or automating any of your company processes, whether Online or Off, can save any business owner big bucks over time (allows for less employees on the payroll, saves time, easier to use, etc).

That’s why it didn’t surprise me one bit to hear that at least one savvy marketing company has now found a way to automate electronic billboards using Web-based software to create, upload and edit any of the billboard images, any time, giving full control to the advertiser. The marketing company and software creators also offer ongoing technical support and software assistance for around the same monthly cost as non-electronic billboards, that are not managed by software.

Many Online advertisers forget about more traditional forms of marketing like billboards and print ads and typical Offline advertisers are not used to harnessing the power of technology and the Web within their campaigns. So what happens when these two worlds collide? It means a whole new form of mixed Online and Offline advertising that utilizes the power of the Web and billboard advertising space.

The article I read reports that NY-based marketing agency, Advertising Advantage, is one of the first of it’s kind to launch this type of advertising program and it looks like to be going well for a number of the advertisers who have participated. One such advertiser, Dahlkemper’s Jewelry Connection, uses Advertising Advantage’s Web-based electronic billboard program to help promote their brick-and-mortar/website jewelry business. Dahlkemper’s has one retail location in Erie, PA which is managed and maintained by it’s two founders, Ed and Christine Dahlkemper.

The Dahlkempers use Advertising Advantage to help gather, create, and maintain all the necessary image files for the jewelry products, special announcements, sales and the store’s brand name. Once the image files are prepared, Advertising Advantage uploads all the files to a special Web-based software that manages ad content on Advertising Advantage’s leased electronic billboards.

People don’t view TV ads as much as they used to, and newspapers are going by the wayside, but when they’re driving in cars, we’re in front of them with billboard ads that change throughout the day.

Watchfire Digital Outdoor, the Web-based software creators, have managed a way to give each billboard it’s own unique IP address. The billboards typically scroll through electronic ads for roughly six advertisers at any given time. Each ad then rotates between the six advertisers and flashes each of the digital images for about 6 to 8 seconds before moving on to the next.

The delivery method and automated system aren’t the only benefits. The Watchfire Digital Outdoor software also gives advertisers total control of their campaigns and surprisingly costs around the same as traditional non-electronic billboard space. Advertisers can insert different ads throughout the course of each day to coincide with other promotions they are running. Either advertisers or their marketing firm has the ability to insert them on the fly through a web browser. The price is based on estimates of how many motorists view the billboards on any given day. The average cost for the advertiser is roughly from $2 to $4 per thousand ad impressions per month. The typical cost to advertise on a traditional non-electronic billboard is about $1,500 to create the image, plus $1,800 to $2,000 per month to rent the billboard space and doesn’t offer the same flexibility to change up campaigns as often. Advertising Advantage states that a typical web-based electronic billboard campaign, including several versions of an ad appearing at different times of day, can cost about $2,000 per month per billboard without any additional design costs.

Currently, there are about 450,000 billboards throughout the U.S. and about 600 to 700 are web-based. Watchfire Digital Outdoor expects to convert 500 or more non-electronic billboards to the web-based system this year alone. Although this is only one form of marketing campaign that has been put in place by Dahlkemper.com, it did help lead them to an increase in sales over the 18 months that they have been using electronic billboards.

We like to be on the cutting edge of advertising technology. The electronic billboard has become an important part of our marketing because of its flexibility and affordable cost.