Outdoor advertising recall: A comparison of newer technology and traditional billboards

Much of the research on outdoor advertising predates recent technological advances. This study updates past research and adds to our understanding of how new technology such as “smartboards” affects consumers' recall of outdoor messages. This study finds that smartboards produced the lowest level of aided recall. Two related factors, message consistency and repetition, may account for these findings. Recall may be related to repetition insofar as the smartboard rotated multiple advertisers at eight-second intervals, meaning each advertiser likely failed to achieve wear-in. The tri-vision board repeated multiple messages for one advertiser, adding to wear-in while reducing the chance of early wear-out.