For motorists cruising down Wilmington city streets, a new eye-catching billboard is on display promoting area businesses. Beginning yesterday, digital billboards flashed advertisements on both College Road and Oleander Drive.

“If you haven’t seen it yet, it will be really obvious,” said Hap Willard of 360wilmington.com. Willard’s website is currently using the digital billboards to promote its 21 Days of Christmas campaign. In little more than 24 hours, Willard said his company has already seen a boost in web traffic.

“This is basically a giant HDTV. I can tell you, we’ve already felt (the advertising impact). Starting yesterday, we’re up 20 percent in two days.”

Willard explained the two distinct advantages digital billboards have over conventional vinyl billboards. The first is that multiple advertisers can use the billboard at once, engaging the viewer as the ads switch every eight seconds interspersed with public service announcements.

Advertisers can also change the ads without printing new artwork. This costs less and allows advertisers to present more variety in ad campaigns.

The two billboards are located on Oleander Drive near Independence Boulevard and on College Road near 17th Street. A third billboard is being installed on College Road near New Centre Drive.