Lamar Advertising #BillboardBrackets Campaign To Stream NCAA Scores (And Fan Tweets) To Digital Billboards

Lamar Advertising continues to innovate with the old school billboard. Last Fall, the outdoor company enabled the posting of holiday messages on its billboards from anyone using the #ThankfulThisHoliday hashtag. And earlier this month, their #UltimateSelfieCampaign, in partnership with Creative Chatter, posted images of people who made $25 donations.

Now, Lamar, working with the NCAA, has developed technology in-house that will display March Madness game scores in real time and in geographies specific to the college locations.

The opening game, between the Manhattan College Jaspers and the Hampton University Pirates, had game scores updated in the host market of Dayton, OH, as well as in New York, NY and Richmond, VA, the markets local to the two teams.

As the tournament progresses, the 68 teams’ local markets will be eliminated from the live score updates as their teams exit the tournament. As teams get eliminated, the billboards will mimic the concept of the brackets decreasing and markets with live scores will drop off.

A social element of the campaign will use the hashtag #BillboardBrackets with tweets using that hashtag streamed to digital billboards. Webcam shots of the tweets appearing on the billboards will be posted in a #BillboardBrackets photo album on Lamar’s Facebook page.

Of the effort, Lamar Director of Innovation and Digital Strategy Ian Dallimore said:[blockquote]“Some of the biggest moments in sports happen during the NCAA basketball tournament every year. We are excited to display live scores and tweets on our digital billboards for the #BillboardBrackets campaign. It’s a great way for us to showcase the flexible technological capabilities of our digital displays on a national scale, while keeping basketball fans engaged and informed in their respective local markets.”[/blockquote]

The campaign is being promoted on Lamar Advertising’s Facebook and Twitter pages”

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Steve Hall

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