digital message centers

[washme1]

I am considering the purchase of a digital message center to enhance my street sign. It would have two 5" lines of text, 8 feet wide. The message center plus new skins for my existing sign would cost about $15,000. Does anyone have history of converting to this type of sign and what kind of impact it had on revenues?

 

[I.B. Washincars]

If you put 5 lines of text on it you may be wasting your money. No one will read all of that text driving by. Do you have a traffic signal nearby that stops them long enough to read it?

 

[washme1]

It would have 2 lines of text 5 inches high and 8 feet wide. There is a stoplight 150 feet before my entrance.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Yeah, two lines is much better. As you can see, I couldn't get your three line post correct and I was sitting on my butt at home.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

It sounds a little high, as I think there is a lot of competition in that business now, unless it was 2-sided. I always look to the great ones - When McDonalds and Wal-Mart buy them,( it's a good idea that makes money.)
John

 

[smokun]

Here's A Better Option To Consider...

If you wish to create awareness of your site, why not make it what's called a "landmark location" by having people use the site as a common reference point as well as a must-look for drive-by traffic.

Studies show that animated time & temp signage gets the most viewer recognition. A requisite is to display very accurate information that the public gradually becomes reliant upon as a reference.

If you can achieve a time & temp... plus another rolling line of info, use it for public announcements, weather, birthday announcements, etc. It's a great community awareness feature.

Hope this helps...

-Steve

 

[MEP001]

5" text is very small. Look at the street address numbers on businesses, those are usually required to be 8".

 

[Eric H]

While there are statistics from the sign mfg/assoc that indicate time and temp signs attract attention I would NEVER put a temperature on a sign for a CW.

"OMG it's too hot to wash my car!"
"OMG it's too cold to wash my car!"

I drive by my competition all the time and look at his temp sign. A few days ago it showed 102 degrees (which I think was about 3 degrees too high according to my weepmizer). His bays were bone dry and one auto had a customer in it, no one at the vacs. I got to my site with 3 vacuuming, one washing and the other 3 bays had sopping wet floors. It was like that all day.

 

[pitzerwm]

What generated viewer ship on my sign was cute quotes, which I changed every week. People told me that they drove out of their way to read it. One that generated a little too much action was "Who says a man is just a vibrator with a wallet?"

 

[borumrm]

What generated viewer ship on my sign was cute quotes, which I changed every week. People told me that they drove out of their way to read it. One that generated a little too much action was "Who says a man is just a vibrator with a wallet?"

One that I saw at a carwash show a few years back that I thought was funny...

"XYX Corp....we cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you!"

Might be a good place to put the funny quotes we might use on the signs.

 

[washme1]

The message center is a two sided one and the price includes two new panels for my conventional street sign which are 5' x 8'. It does have the capability to display time and temp. There is a software included through the internet which provides a lot of different displays and artwork.

 

[Red Baron]

I'm moving my 5' x 8' sign 150' closer to the highway, putting on two new faces and adding two 2' x 5' lighted manual readerboards below. I'm spending $5,000 and would have had to spend $25K to get full color graphics displays. Juist couldn't justify that much, but mine will be dramatically imporoved.