June 2008

Digital LED Sign Brightens Landmark Advertising Site

Barry Real Estate Cos. brightens the Downtown Connector
with a digital LED sign on the same site that once encouraged Southern drivers to “Fly Delta Jets” and later provided the date and time to busy Atlantans courtesy of Heineken.

The first advertisers on the modern reincarnation of the sign include Allen Plaza, the W Atlanta Downtown Hotel & Residences, AT&T and Turner Broadcasting System. The sign flickered to life
at 6 a.m. with full-color, television-realistic imaging.

The LED sign features advertising exclusively for Allen Plaza and its tenants. Barry Real Estate Cos. has also reserved 10 percent of the sign’s time for public service ads and Amber Alerts when
needed to notify the public of a missing child.

The location has long served as one of the most popular advertising sites on American highways. Delta posted a billboard on the site once owned by the Boomershine Automotive Group Inc. until the late 1990s. Heineken posted a branded billboard on the site that displayed the date and time from 1999 until 2006, when the sign was removed to make way for construction at Allen Plaza.
The modern sign will continue to serve as an important landmark for the city. At 3,500 squarefeet, the sign is the largest freeway mounted electronic display in the country. It faces the Interstate 75/85 Downtown Connector, one of the top three most heavily traveled freeways in the country. The Georgia Department of Transportation logged more than 341,000 cars passing the
sign each day.

The sign is fully digital, which allows for messages to be displayed according to time of day and traffic patterns. Changes can also be made at a moment’s notice.