Xplore Media sells both, so we have no reason to push you toward either. But the honest answer to “which should I buy” is that they solve different problems, and the wrong choice wastes money in ways that are not obvious until the campaign is over.
The fundamental difference
A static billboard is a space you own outright for the booking period. Your artwork is on it, alone, every second of every day.
A digital LED billboard is a share of a rotating loop. If the loop runs sixty seconds and your slot is ten, your creative appears for one sixth of the time — but it appears hundreds of times a day, and you can change it whenever you want.
Everything else follows from that.
Where static wins
Uninterrupted presence
Nobody else is on your board. For brand-building campaigns where the goal is for a message to become part of the landscape, that permanence matters. Commuters who pass it twice a day for three months stop seeing an advert and start seeing a landmark.
Cost over long periods
For campaigns measured in months rather than weeks, static is usually the more efficient buy per day of exposure.
Coverage where there is no power
Digital needs power and connectivity. Static does not, which is why static still reaches roads and rural corridors digital cannot. If your customers are in a parish without a digital site, static is the only option — look at the locations map to see where each network reaches.
Where digital wins
Speed
No printing, no installation crew. Artwork approved today can be live in days. For a launch, a fixture, a flash promotion or a reaction to something in the news, static simply cannot move fast enough.
Changing the message
This is digital’s real advantage and the one most advertisers underuse. You can run a different creative in the morning commute than in the evening. You can promote breakfast before ten and dinner after five. You can change the offer weekly at no cost.
Testing
Because changes are free, digital lets you test. Run two headlines in alternate weeks and see which moves enquiries. That is impossible on static without paying twice for production.
Night presence
An LED screen is at full brightness at 9pm. An unlit static board has effectively stopped working. In corridors with heavy evening traffic — New Kingston, Half Way Tree, the Knutsford Boulevard area — that is a large share of the audience.
A straight comparison
| Static | Digital LED | |
|---|---|---|
| Exclusivity | Total | Shared loop |
| Time to live | 1–2 weeks | 2–4 days |
| Creative changes | New print each time | Free, unlimited |
| Night visibility | Only if illuminated | Always |
| Dayparting | Not possible | Standard |
| Best for | Long brand campaigns | Promotions, launches, testing |
How to actually decide
Three questions settle it most of the time.
Will your message change during the campaign? If yes, digital. Paying twice for print to swap a static board is rarely worth it.
How long are you running? Under a month, digital almost always. Six months or more with one consistent message, static starts to look better.
Where are your customers? This overrides both. The right format in the wrong parish loses to the wrong format in the right one. Start from the map, not the format.
The case for both
The strongest campaigns we run in Jamaica use static for the always-on brand presence and digital for the things that change — the seasonal offer, the new branch, the event. Static holds the position; digital does the work that has a deadline.
Want a recommendation for your specific case? Tell us what you are trying to do and we will tell you which network fits.