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Casino Hits the Jackpot with a Watchfire Digital Billboard

A Pacific Northwest casino turned to digital billboards to integrate texting, Twitter, Facebook and other social-media platforms into advertising campaigns.

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A Yakima, WA casino wanted to draw more potential visitors from outlying regions – even in the market of a competitor, 150 miles away. The casino turned to Metro Outdoor LLC of Phoenix to help devise a strategy in which billboard viewers could text the word “Jackpot” to be entered to win $1,000.
Initially, Metro Outdoor thought the casino was too far away to draw reactions. However, Metro Outdoor is a customer of Watchfire Digital Outdoor (Danville, IL), an LED-sign manufacturer, and, through Watchfire Digital Outdoor’s director Darrin Friskney, it soon learned what Watchfire’s Ignite Online software and RSS feeds could accomplish. Metro decided to try a three-month trial on a 10 x 30, 19mm digital billboard.
Ignite Online offers web-based access and the display of RSS feeds of news, sports scores, stock quotes, weather forecasts, etc. The software, which is included in the purchase of any Watchfire board, can create complex advertising schedules, including dayparting, multiple ads per advertiser, time/temperature readings and counters. Automated diagnostics continuously scan the billboard and send an automated, immediate email to report problems.
The casino also worked with another company to manage the texts, create a database of the texters and use that database to market promotions back to them via text campaigns.
Metro Outdoor ran the campaign exclusively on this board so results could be directly tested. The casino’s three-month trial proved so successful it signed a two-year lease on Metro Outdoor’s digital billboard.
Friskney wants customers to think differently about outdoor advertising. “Digital billboards offer increased flexibility and interactivity that can attract other advertising opportunities that wouldn’t be possible with static billboards,” he said. “Digital billboards are changing advertising and marketing. Customers can display different content than before. If the forecast calls for rain, and the board runs the forecast, the board could also run an ad for an auto dealership for window-wiper replacements. Or a sunny-weather forecast could be accompanied by specials on convertibles.”

 

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