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Survey says: Most Americans favor digital billboards

A new survey commissioned by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America suggests that a significant majority of U.S. adults think digital billboards are helpful, not dangerous.

September 28, 2010 by Christopher Hall — w, t

According to the findings of a recent survey, it seems most Americans believe digital billboards are actually helpful to drivers, and not a dangerous distraction, as opponents claim.

The new survey from Opinion Research Corporation suggest that 80 percent of U.S. adults believe digital billboards help alert drivers of important information, and that a similarly large percentage disagrees with efforts to ban billboards.

The poll, conducted in late August, confirms the acceptance of outdoor advertising in general and the newer, high-tech digital billboards in particular, says the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), which commissioned the survey.

"People know a good thing when they see it," OAAA president and CEO Nancy Fletcher said in the announcement of the survey’s findings. "They understand, sometimes even better than politicians and regulators, when something is good for their communities and their businesses. Clearly, they agree digital billboards are good."

The study also found that most respondents (63 percent) say they rely on billboards (digital and conventional) when they are traveling to learn about local attractions, lodging options and restaurants.

Also, according to the survey, the vast majority of people disagreed with negative statements about billboards. Seventy percent of people disagreed with the statement "I hate billboards," and 76 percent of respondents said they disagreed with efforts to ban billboards. More than 80 percent of young people supported billboards, the OAAA says.

"People appreciate and use outdoor advertising," Fletcher said in the announcement. "Those who advocate against billboards are out of step with the majority of Americans."

Such findings fly in the face of recent crackdowns on digital billboards across the United States.

According to a USA Today article published earlier this year, more than a dozen cities across the country have banned digital billboards, with still more communities enacting moratoriums on them as they await the results of a federal study on whether or not they distract drivers. At least two other cities and two states were studying moratoriums at the time of the story, according to the newspaper.

The USA Today article cites a 2007 billboard industry-financed study from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute that found that digital billboards aren't distracting, but also says a review of studies done for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials found that digital billboards "attract drivers' eyes away from the road for extended, demonstrably unsafe periods of time."

A more recent article from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, though, says digital billboards are multiplying across Milwaukee, and outdoor advertising companies appear poised to renew their push to install significantly more digital billboards around the country.

Both pro- and anti-billboard factions are waiting for the release of a federal study that has been monitoring the eye movement of drivers as they pass digital billboards, the Journal-Sentinel reports. But in the same article, OAAA spokesman Jeff Golimowski downplayed the study’s potential impact on the industry.

"The researchers have said unequivocally it will not be conclusive," he told the paper. "It will not have any policy recommendations attached to it."

The finding of the survey that people find digital billboards helpful to drivers and alert them to important information raises the question of whether or not people thought the questions referred to highway traffic information signs — the usually-LED signs that inform drivers of upcoming roadway congestion or Amber Alerts.

In the survey, Golimowski says, researchers referred just to "digital billboards," which necessarily entails what people believe digital billboards to be.

"In most news stories focusing on digital billboards, they’re referring to off-premises, CEVMS boards," he said via e-mail. "Hence, the researchers thought it fair to refer to digital billboards without additional explanation."

And while the OAAA stresses that it did not write the questions, conduct the research or have any influence on its results, others are not so quick to agree with the survey’s findings and say they aren’t surprised by the results of an industry-funded survey.

"Without seeing the survey questions or its methodology, I can’t comment on it specifically, but I’m not surprised that the results of a survey commissioned by OAAA would be favorable to billboards," anti-billboard group Scenic America spokesman Max Ashburn wrote in an e-mail.

Ashburn says the comments section of any newspaper article on billboards in the last couple years provide a better idea of what people think about billboards.

"I would say 70-75 percent of comments run negative toward billboards — whether for safety, aesthetic or environmental reasons," he wrote.

He points out that several states have banned billboards entirely, and at least one more has banned digital billboards.

"When the state of Maine celebrated the 30th anniversary of its billboard ban in 2007, several state legislators noted that at the time it was one of the few issues that brought people together across party lines and from all walks of life," he wrote.

Ashburn also pointed to several newspaper and magazine articles about outdoor advertising and billboard bans, including one that was enacted in 2007 in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"A recent article in the Financial Times reports that three years after the ban’s enactment everyone is happy with it — the residents, the businesses, and even the ad companies, who have been forced to come up with more creative ways to advertise, mainly through online and social media," Ashburn wrote. "So, regardless of what an OAAA-commissioned survey says, it’s clear that general public sentiment is anti-billboard and pro-beauty."

But if the marketplace is reflective of public opinion, others say, the new survey really does reflect reality.

"The survey results are consistent with the support for digital billboards that we are seeing in the marketplace," digital billboard manufacturer Watchfire Signs president and CEO Steve Harriott wrote in an e-mail. "Demand for product has been on the upswing this year. And the advertising community has embraced digital billboards too. Most of our independent operators report that their digital billboards are completely leased shortly after installation and demand for display space is strong."

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