Advertising in the Great Outdoors.
February 27, 2006
An “old” medium shows new life as billboard advertising posts solid gains in 2005.
According to the latest figures released by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), the outdoor advertising industry grew by 9% in 2005, with total revenue totalling more than $6.3 billion, compared with $5.8 billion in 2004.
Outdoor media performance was strong across most of the top 10 advertising categories with the largest growth seen in the communications (31.8%), insurance & real estate (16.4%) and retail (11.7%) categories.
Ranked by total spending, local service and amusement was the largest category, with spending up by up 8.8% for the year.
“Outdoor advertising’s ability to effectively reach its core mobile audience while other media struggle to maintain audience share is one of the major reasons why more national brands are moving ad budgets to the outdoor medium,” said Stephen Freitas, CMO of the OAAA, explaining the rise. “Consumers are spending more time away from home where they are being exposed to increasingly more outdoor messages instead of in-home media.”
The year ended well, with the industry seeing total revenue 8.2% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2004.
