Outdoor Advertising

Outdoor advertising or out-of-home (OOH) advertising can really grab your attention or get in your face. Advertisers have a wide choice of poster sites.

Roadside panels: Billboards are large outdoor panels for displaying ads. Giant banners or walls capes are hung on the front of buildings. Outdoor contractors also offer light boxes (illuminated panels), tri-face billboards (with rotating (sections allowing three different advertisements to be displayed in sequence) and strollers (signs displaying a number of posters, one after the other).

Street furniture: In 1962 Jean-Claude Decaux introduced the concept of advertising on bus shelters. Pedestrian panels are backlit – lit from behind – and normally located on streets in town and city centers.

Transit advertising: Taxis, buses, trams and trains can be wrapped in vinyl showing a company’s adverts. Ads can also be positioned inside or on the side or rear of a vehicle.

Ambient media: Adverts can be displayed on non-traditional media such as the back of a receipt from a shop or a travel ticket. The use of floor graphics is common in supermarkets and shopping centers.

Digital outdoor advertising: LED screens are used in similar sites to traditional billboards. Digital video billboards show short advertising spots (15, 30 or 60 seconds). Consumers can interact directly with some interactive advertising sites, such as bus shelters and poster panels, using their mobile phones.

Advertisers can buy a network of sites to target their consumers or to reach people in their geographical area, or catchment zone.

Eye-catching – attractive and noticeable – ads such as sonic posters (which include sounds), ‘smelly’ posters (including smells or odours) and lenticular posters (showing different images as you walk past them) can be very memorable.

Outdoor campaigns can be measured by opportunities to see (OTS) or coverage. The term approach specifies the distance between the points where the advertisement first become visible, to the point where it is no longer readable because it has passed out of sight.

Comprehension questions:

1. What is outdoor advertising?

2. What can advertisers do to target their consumers?

3. How can outdoor campaigns be measured?