Overview
Outdoor offers advertisers a mass but also targeted audience. It’s unavoidable, entertaining, and accountable... selling points that have made outdoor one of the fastest-growing sectors in media, second only to online.
Diversity
The range of outdoor and “ambient” media makes this one of the most interesting sectors in UK media.
Although outdoor's power as a broadcast medium makes it effective in mainstream product launches, the increasing range of new out-of-home opportunities also mean the medium can work particularly well for advertisers looking to position their product as a cool, aspirational, niche brand.
From ads on sandwich bags at City delis to messages projected onto the walls of major landmarks; from the posters at tube stations or on the trains themselves to the huge billboards at major sporting events or buildings under construction or at the roadside; each offers a unique audience and high profile visibility.
There's no real barriers - you don't have to switch on the TV, buy the magazine, own a PC... outdoor advertising is there working to seduce you as soon as you leave the house.
Click here for videos demonstrating how and why outdoor works...
There are 3 main types of outdoor media:
Roadside: 37.1% share
96-sheets, 48-sheets and right down to 6-sheets... billboards and other roadside poster formats give advertisers mass reach and good access to traditionally hard-to-reach young male audiences. Will anyone ever forget the phrase "Hello Boys"? Don't think would have had the same impact on the radio...
Roadside allows for great use of wit and surprise and the freedom of special builds lends itself to the most 'artistic' of advertising campaigns - when Madame Tussauds promoted the arrival of their Jonny Wilkinson model, rugby posts were added to a 48-sheet site outside
Twickenham, and bags of rugby balls were provided for would-be-Wilkinsons to demonstrate their skill - you could argue that it's not just television that delivers advertising that is entertainment.
Transport: 52.5% share
A wide range of opportunities from tubes to buses to airports, transport advertising often gets where other media can't reach and the opportunities for targeted campaigns are getting more and more sophisticated. Taxi drivers have been watched and analysed and sliced up into groups offering unique behaviours - those most likely to pick up commuters, or tourists, or shoppers... city or suburbs, or even airports... taxi drivers who work nights and have a captive audience of late-night revellers...
Transport advertising can also give longer "dwell times" than other media: whether you're stuck in a tunnel on the Northern Line or stuck in the departure lounge at Terminal 3, a clever and engaging advert could be stared at for a very long time!
Yell.com made great use of bus shelters by offering its search facility via interactive showscreens, effectively demonstrating the breadth of local expertise and information that it offers.
Retail & Leisure Networks, Point of Sale: 10.4% share
A wide variety of opportunities in health and leisure centres and sites in bars, night clubs, shopping malls, supermarkets and petrol stations, plus activity such as screens and trolley posters...
One of the key USPs of these types of media is that they often reach people when they’re already in "shopping mode", so are perceived as relevant and useful, providing an excellent trigger at or near the point of purchase.
Outdoor sites can be cost effectively purchased locally, regionally or nationally. It can therefore be used to make very specific announcements, such as "OPENING HERE SOON".
One of outdoor's most effective uses is as a reminder, keeping a product or service in the mind. For this reason, it is universally accepted as being a highly effective support medium, reminding the audience of other forms of advertising for the same product/service, e.g. press or television campaigns.
Innovative
Have you downloaded a movie trailer from a postcard rack in a bar yet? Or seen the huge window ad positions on major retail outlets that use the actual window to broadcast audio to passersby? Or maybe you’ve watched the news on the huge screen at Victoria station?
The outdoor sector embraces technological advancements and invests a huge amount in research and development to give advertisers innovative and compelling ways to broadcast their message.
Conversely, more and more "low-tech" devices are being dreamt up by advertisers desperate to capture a little attention in a loud, busy world... arguably many of these are PR stunts rather than strictly advertising as they rely press or TV coverage to succeed, rather than delivering audiences in their own right.
Read on...
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