Browsing Tag

geography

Roadside Observations: Population moves and a sign of the times

So I was doing a little bit of travel over the holidays and got to see a good bit of the back roads country and survey roadside advertising. The quality, product mix and “vacancy rates” appeared to have changed from what I historically remember. Although I will say that promotional messaging for empty billboards is getting much better. The other interesting thing is the use of “shared space” appears to be up for billboards….

Billboards may be a bellwether for the state of the economy and represent a great part of the cultural landscape which I like to appreciate. I originally wrote myself a note on this topic last week, but was reminded of the concept by Vaguery on twitter, who in real life is Bill and blogs over @ Notional Slurry. Economic trends and perceptions of the economy impact individual, local and regional buying behaviors and how marketers appeal to buyers.

Vaguery’s tweet of “…considering the likelihood of any Michigander doing real five-figure cookery” seemed to align with billboards, data and articles I’ve been reading/seeing, such as the USA Today piece I read over my free continental breakfast the other day. So things are changing – spend patterns, the movement of people and general open market activities.

The USA article spoke of the current housing woes and how they impact population movement. “Michigan hard hit by cutbacks in the auto industry and other manufacturing sectors” has seen population decline and housing value declines ahead of the rest of the nation. This was unscientifically verified as I drove around and saw more for sale signs than I think I have ever seen.

At the most basic level, demographic changes impact market dynamics – specifically how people market and what they market.  With a more granular look at the population shift, by state, it becomes evident that Michigan and RI are seeing a different level of change than other markets.

 

 

With the change in the economy and population, the roadside marketing landscape has changed as well since general investment patterns change from all key constituents segments – government, national brands and local SMBs. This change appears to be visible in the current billboard mix being mainly casino oriented in Detroit – no longer automotive/manufacturing innovation related.   The overall billboard content also appears to be on a different level of creative quality as well, not just the type of advertiser. I was able to find the following billboard just outside Lansing in Portland, Michigan which is an example of the changing billboard landscape throughout Michigan.

 

 

 

 

I’m glad I’m not in billboard advertising with a weakening dollar, tempered consumer confidence and the apparent need for cheap pepper spray as a stocking stuffer.

December 29, 2007 by
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Where are you?

License Plate - Latitude and Longitude

 

[tag]Latitude[/tag] and [tag]Longitude[/tag] – a geographer I would guess – where are you?

November 16, 2007 by
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Spatially Relative: A community’s place…

 

So I’ve have had the opportunity this week close out “The Collectors”, a fairly disappointing novel actually, and get back to this quirky little book which has been in my bag for 5 months, “[tag]Bob’s Ichthyosaur[/tag]” by [tag]John Britt[/tag]. It’s one of those [tag]books[/tag] you would never buy, but somehow you have it in your bag. So, what the heck! Give it a read. So far a very intriguing [tag]fiction[/tag] read, which isn’t my typical Thriller fodder for air travel.
I met John randomly on holiday in Canada with my wife when taking our kid in for an ear infection at a rural hospital. After chatting about emergency room visits and general pleasantries – he gave us a copy of his book and I have finally gotten to it. Regardless of my slack reading habits, I ran into interesting run on sentence in the book which just make one think about how relative spatial relationships are….

“I would have to say our town is North, but not so far north that it’s [tag]north[/tag], or even central for that matter, being to far south for either. So you could say that its [tag]south[/tag] even where its north by most peoples reckoning, and [tag]west[/tag] from most places that matter to most people, but too far east to be west, so its not west either, even if it’s not east which makes it just about anywhere you might be going or might be inclined to go to for that matter”

Where’s your community? Where are you inclined to go?

The online excerpt from the publisher, which is essentially the teaser on the book jacket.:

In th lazy hazy days of old boys, life is a case study of human nature. They are there, the octogenarians and septuagenarians, retired men from farms and business that gather on benches outside of banks and the town halls to theorize on life. The old boys study the passage of rite of Bob, into the world of the old boys. Bob reluctantly falls into the old boy’s club, all the while searching for what is elusive. Into bob’s world enters an extinct forty-foot marine reptile, that lives in the local bay. To satisfy his curiosity, Bob begins his fishing venture determined to capture the elusive Ichthyosaur. A fishing story, an old man’s story, a story reserved for all of those men deserving of being anointed old. Each and every person is searching for their own Ichthyosaur.

While it might not be the typical thing you might read, you might give it a try and think about finding your Ichthyosaur. I am. I’ll let you know when I’m done.

November 6, 2007 by
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A Geographic content confluence… 25 Geographic Blog Topics

Gravity Model

I continue to notice that there are just not enough people blogging on geography or other concepts which are moderately academic in nature. To that end I have set forth to think of 25 ideas to stimulate the hidden geographers out there, who are also bloggers and have a desire to document a sense of space. Social commentary on a geographic concepts just might be interesting and so I have put together a list of items for consideration/stealing.

  1. What is the geographic distribution of the people YOU are following on Twitter?
  2. What is the most interesting place you found on accident while on a business trip?
  3. Determine the applicability of a “virtual” [tag]gravity model[/tag] and where a [tag]meme[/tag] started
  4. A virtual survey of barn types available of [tag]Flickr[/tag].
  5. Map YOUR 2001 Summer Tour with [tag]Widespread Panic[/tag]
  6. A content analysis of blog posts tagged as [tag]Georgia[/tag]
  7. Map the places you have visited on business via [tag]Google[/tag] maps
  8. Why I don’t ever want to go to [tag]Orlando[/tag] again for a conference
  9. Determine the geographic distribution of [tag]Technorati[/tag]’s [tag]top 100[/tag] blogs
  10. Does the core periphery model apply to blogs hosted by [tag]Harvard[/tag], with Cambridge as the core?
  11. Why the view at (insert venue) makes it the best place to see live music outdoors
  12. Contrast and compare the level of education associated with bloggers in [tag]Bezerkly[/tag], [tag]Madison[/tag], [tag]Ann Arbor[/tag] and [tag]Austin[/tag]?
  13. Where is the worst place to have a conference?
  14. What airport has the best localized representation of food stuff and gear?
  15. A geographic survey of Uncle Jay’s blog roll, by type, relative to the 2004 presidential red and [tag]blue states[/tag].
  16. What cities are all of your [tag]Grateful Dead[/tag] T-shirts from?
  17. How long must one travel to consider it a roadtrip?
  18. Where are the randoms from in your [tag]Facebook[/tag] network from?
  19. Where is the best show you NEVER went to from in your live music collection?
  20. Why the roads in [tag]Boston[/tag] made me late for my customer meeting – AGAIN!
  21. Where is the best sports stadium in the world?
  22. The different between avenues and streets in NYC
  23. Where is the best place to do nothing at?
  24. A survey of cities where you actually saw more than the airport, hotel and office/conference center
  25. What is the smallest city you actually flew to and why?

Do you have a hidden geographer?

A quick note of appreciation to 3 folks that I synthesized this from – [tag]Chris Carfi[/tag] (business travel posts), [tag]Chris Brogan[/tag] (conference twitter posts and 100 list) and [tag]Jeremiah Owyang[/tag] (meme following)

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October 27, 2007 by
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