Out of Home media (OOH) (Outdoor, posters, billboards in all their forms) remains a strong visual brand prompting last minute calls to actions for many household purchases. There is now a clear determination to make the medium more accountable, highlighted by the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) recent investigation into the OOH advertising market.
The growth of Digital Out of Home (DOOH) is undeniable. Despite overall investment in digital sites slowing during the recession, media owners are investing again. Digital campaigns are providing advertisers with increased flexibility - allowing day-part campaigns and shorter posting cycles.
In May 2010, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) launched an inquiry into the OOH advertising market. Stimulated by three factors: concerns raised by a now-defunct outdoor specialist regarding barriers to entry in the market; concerns raised by one or more local authorities regarding exclusive long-term contracts for street furniture; and responses to the OFT’s scrutiny of J C Decaux’s acquisition of part of the defunct Titan Outdoor’s inventory.
ISBA was invited to make early input to the process, and helped the OFT draft and circulate questionnaires. ISBA initially sent out questionnaires to the top 30 advertisers in the OOH market, followed by questionnaires sent to the following 30 advertisers.
ISBA members can find out more details here.
The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) has developed an online auction that allows brands to bid for outdoor advertising space for the London 2012 Olympics. A total of 4,000 advertising packages, available to buy at a fixed price, were available through the site.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) requires the provision of first options on OOH media in venue cities to be offered to partner brands for the Games period. In addition, legal framework is in place to prevent ambush marketing in the vicinity of venues.
ISBA members can find out more details
here.
With shifts in the OOH marketplace, roadside billboards are perhaps not as dominant as they were before because other media, not least premium digital and high impact sites, have come onto the marketplace. However, there is still no independent measurement of audience delivery. Advertisers are being asked to invest significant sums on these premium sites without sufficient verification or justification.
The OOH industry has been investing for several years in the development of a new measurement system under industry body POSTAR - revitalising its operations to embrace not only roadside but transit and retail media using new GPS technologies. Over six years, £15m has been invested between IPA Outdoor and the main Outdoor contractors.
ISBA members can find out more details here.
In January 2011, the Outdoor Advertising Association (OAA) relaunched under the new name Outdoor Media Centre (OMC).
While still retaining its role as a trade association, the Outdoor Media Centre is hoping the rebrand will help move its primary focus to the inter-media planning process at agencies and advertiser clients.
The repositioning of the trade association is timely with the bidding for OOH surrounding the Olympics and new audience research being made available at POSTAR.
As part of an industry wide response to the concerns about the commercialisation and sexualisation of children the OMC ensured that advertisers had the option of excluding sites within 100m of schools for campaigns that might be thought unsuitable for such a location. No 10 had commissioned Reg Bailey to look at a wide range of issues, some of which the advertising industry were able to take immediate action on following the advice of the Children's panel.