by Jane Bainbridge Media Week 09-Oct-07
Jane Bainbridge reports on how outdoor and digital are benefiting as the two disparate advertising media are increasingly being employed in unison.
Digital has been stealing the headlines over the past few months for being the fastest-growing medium. But outdoor has quietly been doing very nicely too, making two of the few media showing revenue and share of revenue growth in an ever-fragmenting marketplace.
Not only do they stand out as two media in the ascendancy - both showing year-on-year growth for the past 18 consecutive quarters - but they have also struck up an interesting symbiotic relationship.
So what is the secret of success for the oldest and the youngest media, and what makes them work so well together?
One major factor in outdoor's success - constantly referred to by those working in the industry as the "last broadcast media" - is simply that people are now spending more time out of home.
James Copley, client development director at Kinetic, says: "This medium is growing because of how consumers are spending their lives: they spend 51% more time out of the home compared with 1995 and that's set to increase by a further 25% by 2012.
"People are spending more time out of home than in-home awake. This is a big structural change in society, so the audience is growing for outdoor media. It also generally tends to be an attractive audience for advertisers: upmarket and young. There has also been a huge investment in infrastructure of this media opportunity recently - better sites, illuminations, bigger signage - so the advertising is looking more attractive to advertisers."
It is digital technology that has catapulted outdoor from its most basic paper, glue and paste brush image, to a medium that can rival any with its immediacy and mastery. Digital technology means outdoor sites are no longer fixed for week- long or longer periods. Advertising messages can be altered depending on the time of day or location, among other things. Moving images can create a dynamic and eye-catching ad in numerous locations and work especially well in stations and spots where dwell time is longer.
And developments such as Bluetooth, Global Positioning System (GPS) and quick response (QR) codes allow consumers to interact with outdoor sites in a way that they've never been able to before.
Bluetooth factor
Peter Charlton, sales director for CBS Outdoor, says: "There is an opportunity to use interaction. GPS technology is getting us to realise what's available at a location. LED screens on 25 London buses could change the message depending on where the bus is."
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