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Supporting Michigan's Tourism Industry   Tourism  


Tourism is a significant job provider and revenue generator across Michigan. Billboards have long played significant role in growing Michigan’s $16 billion tourism industry. Each year hundreds of thousands of Michigan travelers are directed, informed and entertained by outdoor advertising.  In fact, about one in five Michigan billboards are used to promote tourism including advertisements for hotel and resort businesses, amusement venues, the highly acclaimed Pure Michigan campaign, destination cities and regions, and more.

Supporting Employers Large and Small
Year in and year out, thousands of Michigan businesses and organizations, large and small, employ outdoor advertising to reach their audiences. Outdoor advertising, remaining the most affordable advertising media, allows local businesses to compete with big companies on a small budget.

Significant Michigan businesses, industries and organizations that rely on outdoor advertising include:

  • Churches and religious organizations
  • Hospitals and health systems
  • Hundreds of auto dealerships
  • Insurance agencies
  • Internet service providers
  • Law firms
  • Local public school districts
  • Michigan community colleges
  • Michigan private universities
  • Michigan public universities
  • Newspapers, TV and radio stations
  • Telephone and cable TV providers

Supporting Public Safety in Michigan
Billboard companies have long been partners in public safety campaigns. Local, state and federal governments have turned to billboards numerous times to get their message out, especially when the message is relevant to drivers. In Michigan, public safety campaigns such as “Click It or Ticket” to increase seatbelt usage have received national recognition for their effectiveness, while Mothers Against Drunk Driving has utilized outdoor advertising to remind drivers not to drink and drive.

Recently, Michigan’s leading billboard companies joined together and agreed to volunteer their digital billboards across the state to help local and federal law enforcers when an immediate public message to the public could help save a life or avoid disaster. The companies committed to use their digital billboards (which can be updated remotely in a matter of minutes) to display information when AMBER Alerts are issued, and to broadcast the photographs and names of fugitives wanted by the FBI and local police when a suspect is believed to be in the area. In addition, the companies will work with state and federal officials if a disaster strikes to help inform the public and, if necessary, route traffic to safe locations.

Supporting Michigan Charities and Nonprofits
Michigan’s outdoor advertising companies are dedicated to providing the Michigan community with important messages of public awareness and have proudly joined hands with hundreds of nonprofit organizations to fight illiteracy, drugs, drunk driving, pollution, infant mortality, hunger, and crime. We are proud to contribute about 10 percent of our resources to successful and worthwhile causes that help so many Michigan citizens and organizations, such as:

  • AIDS Organizations
  • American Cancer Society
  • American Lung Association
  • American Red Cross
  • Animal Rescue Missions
  • Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts
  • Capital Area Humane Society
  • Catholic Social Services
  • Children's Trust Fund of Michigan
  • Festival of Trees
  • Food Bank Council of Michigan/Harvest Gathering
  • Habitat for Humanity
  • March of Dimes
  • Michigan Foster Parents
  • Ronald McDonald House
  • Salvation Army
  • United Negro College Fund
  • United Way
   
     
  Local Businesses  
   
     
  Health & Public Safety  
   
     
  Charities & Nonprofits  
   
     
     
     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
       
     
       
     

The modern billboard traces its roots to the stone tablets of merchants in ancient Egypt more than 4,000 years ago. The direct ancestors of these tablets, bill posters, appeared in the 1400s and became widely accepted throughout Europe.  Over the next several centuries, outdoor advertising means evolved along with technology, transforming from bill posters, to posted signs used frequently during the American Revolution and finally into a form still seen today as billboards.

Outdoor advertising reached Michigan around 1855. Within a few years technological advances added colors and dimensional qualities to the billboards. At the turn of the century, an increase in automobile use called for larger signs allowing larger print and lead to development of the poster panel, measuring 12 feet-by-25 feet, still the standard on local streets today.

Today's billboards combine new technology and ideas to continue to growth and adapt to the changing times. Most billboards now use a form a vinyl material easily recyclable after their run ends. A number of Michigan billboards are “rotating” signs. They are capable of changing between multiple advertisements on a single sign face by rotating panels like vertical blinds.

Perhaps the biggest advancement in billboard technology has come in the last decade or so the expansion of digital billboards. Today there are more than 100 digital billboards throughout Michigan. These signs are essentially large computer screens that can digitally display multiple advertisements. They can be updated remotely over the Internet to display up to the minute information.

Not only have these signs been advantageous for advertisers, but they can help carry emergency messages such as AMBER Alerts, inform motorists when a suspected criminal is in the area and even help inform the public in the event of an emergency. In fact, Michigan’s leading billboard companies have committed to work with federal and local law enforcement to display critical safety messages. Click here to find out more.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
       
     
       
     

Michigan billboards are regulated by federal Highway Beautification Act (HBA) of 1965, the Michigan Highway Advertising Act of 1972, and more than 1,000 local sign and billboard ordinances in effect across the state.

These laws and ordinances regulate the size, spacing, lighting, maintenance and even content of billboards. Under these controls, billboards are permitted only on land zoned for commercial or industrial uses. As a result, the number of billboards in Michigan is about the same today as a decade ago, and there are far fewer than in the early 1970s. In fact, Michigan Department of Transportation records show there are about 70 percent fewer outdoor advertising displays in Michigan than four decades ago.

The Michigan Highway Advertising Act was amended in 2006 to clarify the process by which billboard companies can trim trees and vegetation that grow to obstruct signs. The 2006 amendments also included “cap and replace language” to significantly limit the number of billboards in Michigan.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
       
       
       

© 2009 - Outdoor Advertising Association of Michigan
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