New York’s Times Square is about to get one of the world’s largest advertising video screen billboards — and Google is its debut customer.

The screen is an epic eight stories high, runs an entire block, and is made up of a mind-blowing 24 million pixels. According to reports, Google snapped up the ad space the moment it became available and paid for an exclusive, long-term deal. The search giant will take over the screen on November 24, with an as-yet unrevealed campaign that runs through the New Year.

It’s not currently known exactly how much Google shelled out, but according to the owners of the megascreen, ad space costs an enormous $2.5 million for four weeks, making this one of the most expensive outdoor ads in the world.

It could be worth it, though. Not only has Google certainly got the money, but Times Square is one of the few places on Earth where ads are viewed as an attractive focal point of the area, rather than something to be ignored. In a recent survey, around half of respondents reported taking photographs of the signs, while 60% said they had spent more than five minutes looking at them.

Previous tech companies to go big with their ad campaigns include LG Electronics which recently paid for placement on a record-breaking, 820.2 feet-long billboard at King Khaled International Airport in Saudi Arabia.

Considering that Apple’s famous hammer-tossing Macintosh ad from the 1984 Super Bowl is widely considered to have kicked off a new era in boldly-placed tech advertising, with the right campaign Google might be able to do the same here for NY ads.

Source: New York Times