Media Disconnect and Out-Of-Home Media

Consumers today are a fickle group and technology has helped force most consumers to a point of Media Disconnect. As consumers we love the connectivity that technology and our gadgets can offer us but we won’t stand for intrusive messages that are being fired at us point-blank on a daily basis. The American Consumer cherishes their freedom to use technology to screen out advertising messages that enter our homes, offices and automobiles via cable television, satellite radio and The Internet. Let’s face it, we love to record our favorite T.V. shows and watch them when it is convenient and fast forward through the commercials.

This Media Disconnect has created several opportunities as well as challenges for Out-Of-Home Advertising businesses. The next 10 years in advertising will be very interesting with many emerging media opportunities popping up but here are the top 5 reasons Out-Of-Home advertising will continue to yield the best results for the advertisers’ investment.

1. The Out-Of-Home industry is growing. At nearly $7 Billion per year and growing new competition is creating more opportunities and more competitive prices for advertisers. Increasingly, smaller advertisers are being introduced to the benefits of OOH and as their results grow so too will their advertising budgets.

2. The key players in the OOH Industry are better at getting results for clients. Progressive media companies know that getting and keeping quality advertising clients means getting the advertiser better results by adding more value to a campaign. The days of slapping up ads and crossing your fingers for results are over.

3. Targeting and Accountability are now built in features for high quality media companies’ media kits. Using demographic information, traffic counts, GPS tracking, real-time reporting and call tracking the OOH Industry can now find availabilities, compile data and execute more effieiently. Everyday more measurable data becomes available lending credence to the case that OOH produces results if used scientifically.

4. Advertisers today have more creative choices for OOH products that can target specific groups of consumers at specific times for measurable results. From General Markets to Ethnic and Lifestyle campaigns advertisers can efficiently direct messages to consumers with more accuracy. The OOH industry now incorporates thousands of choices ranging from aerial ads, buses, golf courses, public restrooms, mobile billboards, Segways, transit ads, wallscapes and a vast array of exciting media tools. Using two or more of these media tools in an integrated effort can add dramatic increase in response rates and the effectiveness of the advertising campaign.

5. Consumers see OOH has non-intrusive because it does not come into the home or personal space unannounced. It does not clog up a mail box and it is not something that has to be subscribed to, filtered, downloaded, deleted or tuned out. Quality OOH is placed strategically to perform when a consumer makes the choice to give the message attention. Because of its’ simplicity and presence OOH will continue to connect and re-connect brands with consumers.

This article was written by Bret Pawlowski, President of www.BrandsInMotion.com an Out-Of-Home Media company focused on bridging the gaps between billboard advertising, consumer promotions and in-home marketing. Copyright 2006 by Brands In Motion, Inc. All rights reserved.