Giant video on the Sunset strip not stopping traffic.

As the new Videotron on Sunset Boulevard officially opens for business this week, many might wonder how you can prop a giant video billboard beside a major thoroughfare without causing traffic tie-ups - if not serious accidents.

But traffic studies show that L.A. drivers, already exposed to blaring radios, cell-phone conversations and wall-sized billboards depicting semi-naked models, don't seem to mind yet another distraction.

The Videotron located near La Cienega Boulevard actually debuted more than a month ago, but up until now it has been running free commercials for various movie studios in order to test the system (as well as tempt potential customers). The paid ads were slated to start running Aug. 1.

The Videotron is similar to Diamond Vision screens at stadiums and sports arenas. But these screens are far less common as public billboards, largely because of the enormous expense that makes them economically viable in only a few places around the country. The Strip happens to be one of those places: in fact, the area will soon have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to video billboards.

Under the city's Sunset Specific Plan, four video billboards are allowed along the 2.5-mile stretch of Sunset Boulevard that runs through West Hollywood. And though they're still untried as an advertising medium, developers are ready to sign on for more.

L.A. got its first video billboard in 1996 with the opening of the appropriately named Sunset Strip nightclub, Billboard Live. At the time, the twin JumboTrons in front of the club were somewhat controversial, with the city Planning Commission agreeing to approve them only conditionally; the city ordered a traffic study to see if they were slowing the flow on Sunset or causing accidents.

The Billboard Live screens have since gone dark, and Billboard Live itself has changed its name to the Key Club. But the screens didn't die because of city interference. In fact, the traffic study showed they had little or no impact.

"It turned out that drivers, if they did slow down in front of the club, were more likely to be looking at the people going into the club than at the screen," said John Keho, senior planner with the city of West Hollywood.

As a result, Las Vegas-based Classic Media had a relatively easy time getting approval for its new Videotron. The same company is negotiating with the owners of the Key Club to revive its screens, and it also wants to operate a third screen being proposed for a planned retail/office development near the Videotron at the corner of Sunset and La Cienega.

Of course, if no one is slowing down to look, it may indicate that the screens are not very effective at attracting attention. A story in the Los Angeles Times pooh-poohed Classic Media's live broadcast of a Lane Bryant fashion show on the Videotron in late June, saying no one stopped to watch it.

Classic Media co-owner Randy Hollister counters that the board was only supposed to draw attention to a live Webcast of the event, and wasn't intended to stop traffic. He believes it's perfectly positioned near a stoplight to allow people waiting for the green to watch the screen.

"You'll find that these (video billboards) will start popping up all over, and you'll be able to buy them as a network in different cities," Hollister said. His company hopes to build such a network by putting boards in major media centers like New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

For now, though, Classic Media, which specializes in alternative outdoor media like taxi-top signs, bus wraparounds and wall-sized boards, will have to content itself with its single Videotron on Sunset.

The company is charging advertisers $35,000 a month for each of nine 30-second slots on the board, with a 10th slot that can be bought by the week for $12,500. Those 10 commercials run in a six-minute loop, with the sixth minute taken up by a free presentation showcasing the arts in West Hollywood, a concession demanded by the city.

Advertisers, most likely made up of Hollywood studios, will run TV commercials or movie trailers on the screen. Because there is no sound, visual text has to be added to the spots.

Olympic-sized account

July was a big month for L.A. ad agencies. After a fairly sleepy first half of 1999, TBWA Chiat/Day last week picked up the International Olympic Committee account, valued at $150 million.

That happened just a week after American Honda Motor Co. transferred its $150 million Acura account from Suissa Miller Advertising to Santa Monica-based Rubin Postaer and Associates.

The Olympics account represents something of a return to the past for TBWA Chiat/Day. Though Portland-based Wieden & Kennedy is lauded for taming the Nike brand into a powerhouse, it was actually the L.A. agency then known as Chiat/Day that first tied Nike shoes to major athletes and paved the way for the athletic shoe maker to dominate its industry.

During the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles, Chiat/Day mounted gigantic wall-sized billboards in downtown L.A. picturing well-known Olympic athletes, with no text but the Nike logo in the corner.

TBWA Chiat/Day's assignment for the IOC sounds a bit similar. The agency will promote the 2000 Olympics by spotlighting the athletes, using them to "brand" the games themselves - though agency spokesman Jeremy Miller says the campaign won't look much like the old Nike spots.

"It's more of a celebration of humanity," Miller said.

Assistant Managing Editor Dan Turner writes a weekly column on marketing for the Los Angeles Business Journal He can be reached via e-mail at [e-mail].