Out Of Home Advertising Trend

Outdoor advertising is getting a great deal of attention from marketers these days. While accounting for only a small proportion of overall ad spending, outdoor advertising, also known as “out-of-home,” is gaining share rapidly in both established and developing economies. Only online advertising is growing faster.

Advertisers have good reason for revisiting out-of-home communication. The combined effects of a number of trends have made consumers more mobile. Urbanization is increasing around the globe, and commutes between home and workplace are longer than ever, in terms of both time and distance. With TV audiences now fragmented across dozens of channels, television is not the preeminent reach vehicle it once was. Therefore, marketers who need to reach large numbers of people efficiently are reconsidering out-of-home opportunities.

Out-of-home advertising (also referred to as OOH) is essentially any type of advertising that reaches the consumer while he or she is outside the home. This is in contrast to broadcast, print, or internet advertising, which may be delivered to viewers out-of-home (e.g. via tradeshow, newsstand, hotel lobby room), but are usually viewed in the home or office. Out-of-home advertising products are divided among three primary categories: Billboards, street furniture and transit. OOH encompasses outdoor advertising but extends to the indoors as well (such as ads in malls).

The Out-of-Home (OOH) industry has pretty much standardized on three ‘advertising classifications” in order to further sub-divide and classify the sector:

· High Impact Sites
A terminology that covers "General Outdoor" and other high impact, large screens inside buildings, air and railway terminals etc. and mobile solutions.
· Retail
Typically high street retail, but also includes shopping malls and factory outlets – high street or out of town. It does not include certain in-store locations that are better described as captive (ie, hair salons).
· Captive Audience
These run in locations where the audience is stationary and remains in view of a screen, such as in transport (taxis, buses, trains etc.), for a period of time. This also includes in-flight advertising on seat-back entertainment systems, overhead storage bins and tray tables. This classification also includes a lot of "leisure" installations; typically installed in pubs, clubs, bars, casinos etc.
(Source: Out-of-home advertising - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

In fact, as digital, video and wireless technologies redefine the sector over the next few years, it will rank second only to Internet advertising in ad spending growth. "Outdoor advertising is bucking the trend," says Ben Macklin, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the new report, Outdoor Advertising: A New Look. "While other traditional advertising sectors are struggling to adapt to increasingly fragmented audiences and changing media consumption patterns, the out-of-home advertising sector is actually reaping the benefits of the evolving media landscape." Unlike TV or radio, out-of-home advertising is immune to channel or Web surfing and digital and video technologies are making the medium more compelling and effective.

eMarketer forecasts that out-of-home video advertising spending inthe US will total $2.25 billion in 2011, up from $1.26 billion in 2007. According to a new report from PQMedia, alternative out-of-home ad campaigns - digital billboards and video ad networks - are working better than marketers had hoped. According to the report, alternative out-of-home media spending jumped to $1.69 billion in 2006 and is expected to grow even more in 2007. The report expects 27.7% growth in 2007. The segment has seen double digit growth every year since 2001. Video advertising is expected to push the most growth in 2007; that segment showed a 26% growth in 2006. The falling costs of flat panel LCDs, combined with the emergenceof IP and wireless Internet technology are driving the out-of-home video advertising market.
(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS127782+02-Jan-2008+BW20080102)

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