The art of the billboard, NFL Fox style

It went up in September. It was supposed to be a one-month run, until October. It's still up, and it's almost November.

Maybe because the billboard company can't find another business that wants a sign that includes goal posts.

A promotional campaign that led to Fox buying four billboards around the country -- including one for Southern California, located north of the 405 at Hawthorne Blvd., in Lawndale -- stands out for uniquiness in that you just don't see larger-than-life yellow end-zone posts with flags on the top sticking out and around a freeway-side ad.

"Or billboard with actual pads around the goalposts below," noted Eric Markgraf, the executive VP of Fox Sports Marketing Group.

Markgraf said doing this "mixed media" campaign was to stand out from the other new wave of digital billboards that need to be updated daily to make them relevant.

Billboards like this one were also put up to promote the "NFL on Fox" pregame show in New York, Philadelphia and Dallas. In each of those cities, the pad around the post matched up with the local teams -- Giants (not Jets), Eagles and Cowboys. It's also an NFC thing, since that's the Fox conference of choice.

"It's really the first time we've seen anything like it," said Markgraf, who worked with a company called New And Improved Media to do the buying and production. "In New York, we put it near the Holland Tunnel, and we were worried that someone might want to vandalize it. But we've had nothing but great feedback from it. People have noticed them.
Especially with the flags on the top. Very simplistic, not flashy."

Now that Fox has only paid for a month's worth of exposure, it'll be interesting to see how much they stay up -- based on the fact they probably can't be easily taken down.

Remember back in the summer of '07, when we drove around the city snapping our favorite sports-related billboards ... maybe we gotta revive that one soon.