Digital outdoor is the fastest growing sector of the out of home market globally, but the sector needs to get a more effective measurement of who is looking at outdoor advertising campaigns and when.
According to PQ Media’s Global Digital Out-of-Home Media Forecast, key first-half indicators point to DOOH growth accelerating to 11.3% in 2014 on a global basis.
This growth is fueled by a dynamic combination of the global economy gaining momentum, two sporting mega-events in the Football World Cup and the Winter Olympics, the increased adoption of the format across product categories and rapid technological advancements driving innovation in the sector.
Asia-Pacific was identified as the largest of the four global regions in 2013, with aggregate revenues of $3.83 billion, fueled by surging growth in Australia and a strong rebound in Japan.
The US remained the world’s largest DOOH market, with $2.4 billion in revenues, followed by China at $1.9 billion. The injection of ad spending and new deployments ahead of the World Cup helped Brazil’s DOOH industry grow at the fastest rate, rocketing 42%, followed by Australia at 24%.
As networks expand and develop consumer exposure to DOOH is increasing, rising by 7% to an average of 14 minutes per week in 2013 with growth on track to accelerate to 9.5% in 2014.
Digital screens placed in proximity to purchase and in key consumer dwell time areas are becoming must-buys for brands because they reach on-the-go consumers, armed with wallet in hand with a combination of dynamic ads and real-time results.
However despite a strong growth trajectory and contrary to other markets, in Australia the digital out of home format is being largely ignored for within existing out of home measurement practices.
The stage is set to see a new era in audience measurement and accountability in the outdoor sector. To truly grow outdoor’s market share, OOH operators will need to embrace technological measurement advances even faster! It is now possible in real-time to measure audiences and more importantly engagement with individual panels or digital screens on a campaign level.
An analogue approach to outdoor cannot deliver a true account of measurement with dated processes of yesteryear relying on historical traffic counters and shopping centre foot traffic numbers that don’t take into consideration time of day, day of week or seasonality; and more importantly real time engagement on a campaign level.
With significant leaps in technology all outdoor companies should rise up and invest in greater accountability for advertisers. Current outdoor measurement is subjective and often uses dated methods of audience reporting. Static outdoor measurement does not reflect real time campaign successes in delivering eyeball numbers in high traffic flow locations.
It’s time to challenge our current thinking on audience measurement and prepare for a new era as the future of outdoor is digital with real time accountability.
Anthony Deeble
Val Morgan Outdoor
Managing Director