Recent subscriber? Here's some background about this newsletter. Was this email forwarded to you? Then you need your own subscription. Please tell the person who forwarded it that I said thank you! 

If you missed the last issue, much of it was written using AI.

I was driving to Oakland this week, heading north on Highway 101 in San Francisco.

Highway 101 from San Francisco to San Jose is one stretch in which billboard advertising has NOT peaked.

Silicon Valley tech companies buy billboard space to connect with a captive audience:

Executives, engineers, marketers and data scientists in their Teslas, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.

Sitting in stop-and-go traffic with nothing better to do than glare up at billboards (while catching up on podcasts).

Here are my ratings on some of the billboards I saw.

👉 “Talk to your developer.” (Twilio)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

If you never heard of Twilio, then this ad doesn’t mean a whole lot.

However, if you’ve heard of Twilio, this ad is quite elegant.

While the company has expanded to become a customer engagement platform, their original mission was around communications services.

They were used by developers to incorporate communications (e.g., SMS messaging) into applications. Twilio provided the link between the internet and telecom networks.

When you call your Uber or Lyft driver, that phone number isn’t the driver’s actual number. Twilio sits in the middle and lets you call the driver’s virtual number.

This ad tells us that Twilio (i.e., its application programming interface or “API”) is loved by developers.

Bonus points for being action-oriented (“Talk to…”).

This billboard has been on Highway 101 for 5+ years, so it must be working.

👉 “Cluck yeah” (Airbnb)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love a good pun, so Airbnb got two stars before I even started judging.

Earlier this year Airbnb announced a whole slew of new categories.

One of those is the “farms category.”

This billboard had a photo of chickens on it.

Yes, your farm could be an Airbnb. According to their website:

“Host your farm, earn extra income, and give guests a new appreciation for everything from animals to agriculture.”