OOH Industry Vet Reviews State Of Times Square LED Boards, And Gives It A D+

April 22, 2022 by Dave Haynes

Out of home and display industry veteran Alan High periodically sends me an email with his industry impressions, and often his phone camera shots, from travels into New York City. He’d not been into Manhattan in 18 months, because you know why, and in his latest observations, says much has changed, and not all of that change is good.

The epicenter for Digital OOH in NYC is Times Square, of course, and the former ClearChannel OOH exec was dismayed by the level of construction there, and how that impacts ad screens.

“I’ve never seen so much disruption before, including blocking of some of the screens. This is not ideal, and I’m sure advertisers are not happy,” notes High.

High was also surprised by the state of some of the screens in what is about as high-profile and important as locations get in the US media landscape. His other observations:

On specific boards:

Overall, this is not the same Times Square I remember. Audience levels were about 1/3rd of what you would have seen two-three years ago. Maybe it will come back, but all the stakeholders need to step up their game if they want this to remain iconic for the  OOH industry. It’s anything but that right now.

If I was grading the overall effort right now, particularly with creative, I’d maybe hand out a D+.

  1. Neil Longuet-Higgins says:

    White is an easy colour to make look good if you have the latest technology, unfortunately most of these boards are either old tech that needs a refurb, or new boards that still use old technology. We have moved on from hot running, fan cooled cabinets years ago, but still see them going up, ours use 70% less electricity than most so they’re a no brainer for any CFO

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