Las Vegas, NV-- Call it the ultimate plasma TV – or the world’s largest drive-in movie. Whatever – since January 20, this larger-than-life 50-ft. billboard has played to six lanes of traffic inching down the NAFTA highway where Laredo meets Nuevo Laredo.
A sister billboard on the San Diego/Tijuana border has held 24 lanes of traffic captive since 2004.
Laredo is the number one inland port of entry between the United States and Mexico. With more than 4 million people a month, the San Diego/Tijuana divide is the busiest border crossing in the world.
Because cars must wait for up to two hours to get across, most people have little choice but to take in the sight, sound and motion produced by two LED display video boards, one billion colors, two ticker displays, a 23 mm. pixel pitch and a 140-degree horizontal viewing angle, all communicated in – pick your pleasure – English or Spanish.
Border Billboard company owner and CEO Jennifer Stefano says there are no other billboards in the U.S. like the two she operates. The company is headquartered in Las Vegas. “The only sign that’s comparable hangs above Times Square in Midtown,” she says, “but you can’t hear that billboard and you sure can’t text-message it.”
A typical commercial sells for $10,000 a month and plays 144 times a day – the same ad every 10 minutes. Most drivers see an ad at least four times before they make their way across the border.
The billboard is a hit with flirtatious young people who use cell phones to text-message one another across the 40-ft. amber ticker displays.
“Hola Senorita, in the dark green 1999 Ford Explorer with the California license plate ‘BAILADORA BELLA,’” writes one 19-year-old San Diego State University sophomore to a surprised but pleased pony-tailed teenager stuck in traffic near him. In sight of thousands of commuters observing the exchange on screen, the couple arranges to meet for a coke at a nearby MacDonald’s.
Spam software filters out “inappropriate messages,” that could make their way on the giant interactive sign, backed up by a human editor working behind the scenes.
What’s seen on the screen is not unfamiliar: Segments of CNN Headline News, the weather and Tejano recording artists are interspersed with commercials from Circuit City, Best Buy, Coca-Cola and Saturn. A special frequency radio station provides sound.
“We are capitalizing on the power of the $700 billion U.S./Hispanic market,” says Stefano. “Advertisers love our captive audience,” she says.
She says the company is expanding next to the El Paso/Juarez border. Within five years, Stefano expects to have a presence on all thirteen Texas/Mexico borders.
The four-year old company aims advertising at the 35 to 50 year-old demographic. Ad packages are based on how frequently the commercial is aired, not on the time of day it is displayed.
