MarketingProfs

MediaBuyerPlanner: Advertisers are thinking outdoors more and more as TV, Radio, and Online categories deal with new technologies – like Tivo, MP3 players, and pop-up blockers – that help consumers bypass advertisements.
Recently, 1-800-Flowers.com bypassed the web and created an entire ad campaign for a particular product outdoors, The Financial Times reports. For the first time, 1-800-Flowers – which had only advertised online previously – put ads on buses, subway stations and across the urban landscape.
The company’s revenues were seven times higher in markets where the outdoor ad campaign was tested.
The Outdoor Advertising Association of America estimates that outdoor will be a $10billion business within the next five years. New tech advances, in part, are spurring growth: LED flat screens allow for a number of messages to rotate every few seconds which means advertisers can split the costs of digital boards; Clearer screens with high-definition image quality are also appearing; and Bluetooth-capable and text message-friendly billboards that allow viewers to download songs or video clips and learn more about an advertised product are also being deployed.
But the U.S. is still behind the U.K in outdoor advertising. One reason could be the lack of a uniform way of measuring viewership The Traffic Audit Bureau (TAB) is in the midst of creating such a tool but it will not be available until at least next year.
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