Why do SF billboards hit different? | Hacker News Reader

Why do SF billboards hit different?

i’d be super curious to hear from a software marketer why you think the ads in sf are so aimed at tech companies/workers compared to other cities - to the point it makes up a part of the culture/vibe

there’s the very obvious point that sf is a dense city with lots of tech companies, with high purchasing power, startup culture, and so on, but i can’t recall seeing even one tech ad outside of sf. even major cities like paris or london seem to have extremely few

why? is there anything to it other than the above?

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Other airports do have ads for tech companies (Seattle comes to mind) but the concentration is significantly lower.

Billboards are primarily focused on brand awareness since you can't update them frequently and you don't have amazing targeting/attribution data. They're also hyper-geographic specific. For tech companies that means that billboards are most useful when targeting either a specific conference or when targeting people that can make sales decisions.

Sf's billboard space is heavily used by the tech industry because A) you've got a high concentration of consumers for your tech product (developers, marketers, operations, product managers, etc) B) you've got a high concentration of decision-makers in terms of director/VP/execs/consultants going through that airport who may end up making a final decision on your sales. C) you've got a concentration of investors in terms of VC, private equity, angel investors. This helps bring in interest for that next round/acquisition. For your existing investors this means that they've got something to brag about. D) hometown pride. Companies tend to put billboards near where executives travel through since it's a reminder of the work that the marketer is doing. It also helps with hiring and media reputation.

If you compare SF to NYC or Boston, those other cities have a much smaller amount of their workforce in tech (22% compared to 11%). This is especially true if you think about the number of people transferring at these airports. The concentration of customers just isn't there, which is why NYC ads tend to be more consumer driven.

In other big city you work in Finance tech or Industrial tech, and so on. The tech is always a servant of some other mission.

In SF and California more broadly everything else is subservient to tech. You work in Technology film or Technology agriculture or even the prized companies of Tech for Technology. That's why there are more billboards focused on technology here, it's because there is less reason to advertise a car, the big money is in moving technologies.

Houston has quite a few software company billboards. It’s just that in SF it’s 100% software billboards so it’s really noticeable.

A lot of developers in SF. It probably makes dev tool ads or tools that require dev to implement worth it.

I see tech ad throughout west coast in airport

It is targeting. Normal people outside of SF do not make decision like this

there's tons of tech companies outside of SF choosing to use Vercel or not just to make one example - esp big cities like London or Paris, there's some pretty targeted locations with i'd imagine relatively cheap ad spend

For [at least] the last year tech company in large EU city may not want american compynany f.e.

There not much else other than NYC and that is more regulated finance non-coin than tech; LA is influencer more then tech, any in between is irrelevant; .. trying to think other cities

Founders that make purchase decision also reside in SF. In other city such as "LA" the truly rich non-influencer do not live in LA, they will be in no advertisement suburb.

Interesting! You're probably right, I'd be curious if any marketers ever published any formal research on this topic :)

Its not just city alone either Additionaly Take a look at the ads and where they are placed around west coast airports !

Maybe noticed things like 'general purpose' ChatGPT ads in the middle of the terminal where the 'domestic travel public' goes and near Southwest gates, inference API token router style AI ads closer to the lounges and higher end airline gates.

Slightly different classes of ads around Delta One lounge in LAX, which is the highest end Delta lounge, compared to the ones next to Delta Sky Club for instance, even both are lounges

I've not travelled to too many places on the west coast except LAX and SFO [SF is my main goto] but I'll have a look the next time I'm around :)

Take your point re different classes of ads, it makes sense! I've not seen any ChatGPT ads here in Europe over the last few months - I'm travelling to London again next month so perhaps I'll see some there, I think one reason for that at least is that U.S. consumers have ever so slightly higher purchasing power and the adoption rate is still relatively low amongst the general population of the US of people who subscribe to the pro tier of any generative AI app.

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