Insights:Billboard business is going up

Digital marketing has been siphoning off dollars from traditional marketing vehicles
like television, radio and magazine ads for a long time.

More and more companies are shifting additional dollars to online marketing, mobile and social media efforts. Of course, this should come as no surprise.

Marketing dollars go where the people are and there sure are a lot of people online…like you, right now, for example.

But one traditional media format, one that is about as old and traditional as it gets, is actually growing.

Out-of- home advertising, which includes billboards, posters and
transit ads, has experienced 24 quarters of increasing revenue.

Growing more than a billion dollars in the last few years.

In the marketing world, outdoor advertising has always been considered a support
vehicle.

When limited to just a few words it is difficult to convey all the nuances of a brand, but it works darn well at reminding people of your brand.

This makes it an ideal companion to online marketing initiatives: reminding people about all the wonderful things they learned about you through other mediums.

It also gets seen during one of the few times people aren’t (or shouldn’t be – eyes on the road, please) online.

While this is great news for the outdoor marketing industry, they aren’t resting on their laurels. I’m sure most of you have seen more electronic billboards going up.

These allow for messaging to be changed weekly, daily even hourly.

The growth of electronic board locations is turning every corner of the U.S. into a mini version of Times Square.

When you combine better graphics, motion, more timely (almost real-time) updates and online integration with the immediacy of outdoor ads, it’s more than likely that outdoor marketing will be a continually growing traditional media outlet.