Van Wagner Reuters: Billboards get makeover

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Van Wagner Communications plans to overhaul 600
ad billboards in New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles in the coming
months, betting a boom in outdoor advertising will survive the U.S. economic
downturn.

The biggest privately held outdoor advertising company, Van Wagner will
spend between $3,500 and $5,500 on each billboard in hopes of creating a
look that's crisp and eye-catching, Chief Executive Richard Schaps said in an
interview.

All of the billboards will be fitted with a stainless steel apron across the
bottom, while roughly half will feature digital time and temperature displays.
New York, Boston and Chicago will see the new billboards this summer,
followed by Los Angeles early next year.

"Outdoor companies always try to make things look attractive," he said. "But
we got to the point where we don't like the way certain outdoor looks."
At the same time, he said digital displays should attract glances from drivers,
meaning more attention for the ads.

"People are creatures of habit. I'm guessing that the guy who exits the Long
Island Expressway will be looking up and thinking 'It's 7:02 today' or 'It's 7:15
today and I'm running late.'"

Schaps does not foresee adding any features to its standard billboards
beyond the time and temperature display.

"We talk about it as a picture frame," he said. "You don't want to take a
Rembrandt and make the frame too loud.

Though few would mistake billboards for timeless art, they are part of a
category that is among the hottest in advertising these days.

Spending in the category -- whose biggest names include CBS Outdoor
(CBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings
(CCO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) -- rose 7 percent last year to $7.3 billion,
according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America.

At the moment, the sector is growing faster than any other advertising
category apart from the Web.

Advertisers are drawn to billboards or signs on phone booths and bus stops
because they are almost impossible to avoid. Run a commercial on television
and there is the threat of viewers simply skipping it with a digital video
recorder; buy a radio spot and risk that a listener changes stations.

"We're a very intrusive medium," Schaps said. "In this day and age, it's tough
to gain consumers' attention. Outdoor can't be erased. It's always there."
Schaps concedes that a rough economy could undercut some of the
industry's growth, though he says outdoor should still hold up better than
other categories because it is less expensive.

"Obviously, we take a little bit of a hit," he said. "But generally in the last 30
years, outdoor weathers the storm of a down economy better than other
mediums. When an advertiser is looking to cut back, it will often wind up
throwing more of its money into outdoor."