Twenty-four billboards scattered around Athens declare “100″ in regal boldface type against stark white backgrounds.

What could this “100″ mean? A cult is recruiting? A day of reckoning is looming? Someone forgot to hang an advertisement there this month?

“It’s unifying,” said Bailey Maxwell, a junior telecommunication arts and Spanish major. “I think it means people are coming together to advocate for something.”

Don’t get your hopes up. Neither conspiracy nor noble cause, the mystery of the “100″ billboards is uncovered – and it’s a marketing scheme.

The mastermind behind the billboards is Fairway Outdoor Advertising, which rents advertising spaces to companies trying to reach the Athens market. With the “100″ campaign, Fairway is quantifying its effectiveness in reaching 100 percent of the Athens-Clarke County market.

“The point is to demonstrate that outdoor advertising is the last real form of advertising that can absolutely penetrate the market,” said Marshall Henderson, Fairway sales manager.

Karen King, department head and professor of advertising and public relations, was hesitant to comment on the effectiveness of outdoor advertising without considering a number of relative variables.

“It all depends on what the company’s objectives are,” King said. “[Fairway] probably just wants to prove it’s possible.”

So why “100?”

“We wanted to capture people’s attention and curiosity, and it’s simple and memorable,” Henderson said.

Judging by a quick survey of a telecommunications class of 30 students, the idea rang true when nearly half the students were familiar with the billboards.

Barry Hollander, associate professor of journalism, said “100″ is memorable because it is meaningless out of context.

“It’s suspicious,” said Hollander. “That’s why it gets your attention.”

With two weeks left in the four-week-long campaign, Fairway started gradually identifying itself in March by slapping “snipes” on a few billboards that advertised the company’s Web site.

The site pitched Fairway’s “total market dominance,” or ability to reach 100 percent of Athens, to prospective companies.

But will the billboards catch Athens’ attention when other advertisements take the place of “100″?

Henderson said he urges the companies he works with to generate simplistic designs to maintain the curiosity factor of the “100″ campaign.

He also said he wasn’t sure yet what would replace
the billboards once the campaign ended.