A thing of pride or just vanity: Tech firms on the Nasdaq billboards

Aarthi, a full stack developer from Chennai-headquartered Freshworks, a SaaS company which was recently listed on Nasdaq after a billion-dollar IPO, was in for a pleasant surprise when her face was displayed on probably one of the most globally recognised places – the Nasdaq billboard at Times Square, New York.

A frontend developer at Atlan, Shivansh, expressed similar sentiments when he, along with his colleagues, featured on the same Nasdaq billboard.

A lot of company representatives are proudly flaunting their company being displayed on the digital billboard, especially at a time when a lot of them are looking at going public. While it is the ultimate seal of validation, being shown on the 10,000 square feet space on the tower that is 120-feet tall, it makes one wonder, what qualifies a company to feature here? 

It turns out that one just needs a few dollars to go up the billboard. While it takes about USD 5,000-50,000 per day to advertise a billboard at Times Square, the cost of advertising on the Nasdaq billboard is approximately USD 250 per hour, a relatively smaller price to pay for the whole vanity affair.

The fact that it is a digital billboard helps because, unlike traditional hoardings, in digital advertising, one ad is not displayed for the entire duration. They are run by time slicing, and advertisements are sold in slots starting from 15 seconds, and Nasdaq allows a minimum buy out of two-hour slots, as this report explains. This means that multiple companies can advertise in the same space. It is beneficial for all the parties involved.

Source: Times Square

These advertisements help many unicorns that are rearing to go public, gain public trust, and become global brands. It is an iconic location in Times Square, which is a growing tourism and high traffic area, averaging 360,000 pedestrians per day (before the pandemic). 

It offers incredible visibility opportunities for businesses, making it one of the most valuable public advertising spaces in the world. Nasdaq’s billboard is particularly famous, and many companies have used it to announce their legendary moments in history.