• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, October 5, 2010

While other media were muddling along in the first half of the year, with single-digit growth in total ad revenues raising tentative hopes for a recovery, digital out-of-home advertising revenues jumped 25%, according to the Digital Place-based Advertising Association.

According to the DPAA, this followed a 1% increase in 2009, standing out amid widespread declines in other media.

The DPAA estimated total revenues in the first nine months of 2010 exceeding $1 billion, basing this estimate on figures from Miller Kaplan Arase. It appears that the number does not include revenue from cinema advertising.

Susan Danaher, the newly appointed president of the DPAA, said the findings validated "the engagement of consumers with digital place-based media and helping advertisers understand its impact and justify increasingly greater investments."

The organization cited regular research reports, including Nielsen's quarterly "Fourth Screen Audience Report" and Arbitron's annual "Digital Place-based Video Study." It also used new research findings from MRI and Ipsos Mendelsohn, and forthcoming research from Simmons and Scarborough.

Separately, PQ Media, which publishes a regular Global Digital Out-of-Home Media Forecast, has estimated that total DO network ad revenues for categories including cinema, retail, office, entertainment and transit grew roughly 10% to 15% in the first half of the year, with cinema advertising in particular growing roughly 8% to 10%. This comes on the heels of a slight 0.9% decline to $1.37 billion in 2009, according to PQ Media.

The growth in DO revenues appears to be contributing to somewhat more modest increases in the out-of-home industry overall. According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, total industry revenues increased 3.6% to $1.88 billion in the second quarter, following a first quarter where they declined 0.7% to just over $1.3 billion.