The Takeaway
Jacobi ran promotion billboards across two campaigns to grow brand awareness and streams for his music. A four-day flight covered 29 digital boards in Florida and California and produced an estimated 148,320 impressions from 2,300 blips. A second campaign focused on Times Square, where the team could concentrate a smaller budget on a single high-visibility market.
Why Jacobi Turned to Billboard Advertising
Jacobi is an R&B pop artist from Alabama, now based in Los Angeles. He has opened for Monica, Chrisette Michele, and Marsha Ambrosius, shared the stage with Tyrese, played Malik in Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Farewell Play Tour, and been nominated for a 2020 Hollywood Music in Media Award in the R&B/Soul category.
Independent artists usually lean on Facebook and Instagram ads for promotion. Those channels reach fans who are already inside a feed. Jacobi wanted a channel that reached people who were not looking yet, and he wanted it visible enough to signal that his career was moving. Buying through Blip gave him a way to run in specific markets, on his own timeline, without the traditional out-of-home overhead.
How Jacobi Built His Billboard Campaign
Manager Mike Butler treated the first flight as a way to learn what an out-of-home program could do for an independent artist.
- Boards selected: First campaign: 29 digital boards in Florida and California, run for four days. Second campaign: a focused buy in Times Square.
- Creative approach: The headline was “What Lights You Up Inside,” designed to be easy to read and easy to remember, with the artist’s site as the destination.
- Measurement approach: The team watched streams starting the day the campaign launched, along with website visits and social follower growth.
- Learning cycle: After the first flight, the team pulled placements back to Times Square as a way to test a smaller, more concentrated market.
The Creative
The board carried a short line of copy and the artist’s name. For other artists planning their own artwork, Blip’s billboard design guidelines explain how to build a clean, on-brand design.
What Jacobi’s Campaign Delivered
The Florida and California flight produced 2,300 blips and 148,320 estimated impressions across 29 boards over four days. The team measured the campaign against streams starting the day it went live, website visits, and social follower growth. Jacobi’s team saw enough signal in those numbers to keep going.
The second campaign concentrated on Times Square, a market that would not have been financially accessible without a self-serve platform.
As manager Mike Butler put it, “once you start to see results in one area, even if it’s one click, continue to explore.” The pattern is a useful one for independent artists: run one broad-market flight, learn from the numbers, and then focus the next budget on the market that responded.
Just the idea of having a billboard is such good grooming. It puts you in that light of “he must be doing something cool.”
Mike Butler, Business Manager, Owner, IMAGEacg
Why This Campaign Worked
- Broad first flight: 29 boards across two states gave the team a range of markets to learn from.
- Short window: Four days is enough to see whether streams and site visits move together.
- Concentrated follow-up: A Times Square buy after the first flight tested one high-signal market with a smaller budget.
- Signals beyond dashboards: Streams, website visits, and social follows told a fuller story than any one metric.
What Independent Artists Can Take From This Campaign
Musicians and creators looking at out-of-home can use this pattern:
- Start broad, then concentrate: A first flight across several markets tells you where to spend the second budget.
- Track streams and follows, not just clicks: Boards tend to move the streaming numbers before they move the site.
- Give the audience a name to search: One headline and the artist’s name is enough for a driver to remember.
- Use marquee markets for signal, not scale: A Times Square placement lends the campaign visibility that supports press and industry conversations.
Run Promotion Billboards Like Jacobi’s
Pick your first-flight markets, watch what your streams and follows do, and put your next budget in the market that responded.
Frequently Asked Questions About Jacobi’s Billboard Campaign
How many billboards did Jacobi use?
29 digital billboards in Florida and California for the first flight, plus a follow-up campaign concentrated in Times Square.
How long did the first campaign run?
Four days, delivering 2,300 blips and an estimated 148,320 impressions.
How does an artist measure the impact of promotion billboards?
By watching streams starting the day the campaign launches, along with website visits and social follower growth. These usually move before any direct-response signal does.
Can an independent artist run a Times Square campaign?
Yes. Blip lets artists concentrate a smaller budget on a single high-visibility market without an agency.
How quickly can a Blip campaign go live?
Once the artwork is reviewed and approved, the campaign follows the start date and schedule you selected.