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Absolutely.

Presumably it's the sudden jump on Jan 3rd onward here? If so seems like money well spent indeed.

I'd say most of the traffic came indirectly via press who covered the story, rather than the actual billboard itself. It's been done, and I don't think the press will cover the same story twice, so don't expect the same results DDG had.

I'm reminded of the only time Twitter ever spent money on marketing (SXSW 2007)[1]. They negotiated with the festival to put flat panel screens in the hallways. They paid $11,000 for this and set up the TVs themselves.

[1] http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-process-involved-in-launchi...