• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 13, 2003

It's truly the oldest mass medium and it's one that is regularly overshadowed by other media, but outdoor advertising suddenly is a hot medium again. Thanks to new technologies, the emergence of new forms of place-based media and a fundamental shift taking place in media planning, out-of-home is undergoing both an expansion and a renaissance on Madison Avenue.

The biggest factor may be the radical shift from conventional media planning to so-called communications planning, which is placing a premium on how, when and why consumers come in contact with media and advertising messages. According to such "context" or "contact" planners, the proximity and timing of an advertising exposure and the consumer's mindset at the time of that exposure are emerging as critical factors in the communications planning process.

"Out-of-home is hot and place-based media is going to be huge," says Steve Farella, president-CEO of TargetCast TCM, one of crop of new communications planning boutiques.

Another factor driving the resurgence of outdoor is the prospect of new audience measurement technologies being developed by Arbitron and Nielsen Media Research, including a portable people meter, as well as a meter based on global positioning satellite (GPS) technology that could quite literally pinpoint a consumer's exposure to out-of-home media with a precision not currently available to print or even electronic media. Among other things, these GPS-based meters will be able to determine where a person is, what direction they're facing and how fast they are moving when they come in contact with out-of-home media.

The other big development is the expansion of the out-of-home marketplace. While clutter and fragmentation have become a common saw for big media like TV, radio and print, many planners still view out-of-home as static marketplace. And while conventional billboard advertising continues to be the mainstay, new forms of out-of-home media are quite literally creating new media shelf space venues planners may not previously have imagined.

Witness Manhattan's Time Square, one of the densest and most populated outdoor advertising Meccas anywhere on the planet. Who would have imagined a new outdoor medium would have cracked that seemingly over-saturated marketplace. But last Thursday a new outdoor medium suddenly and quietly began popping up along Broadway and Seventh Avenue.

This new ad medium, as it turns out, is a very old sanitation medium, trash receptacles and is likely one that may have difficulty overcoming the objections of some conventional media thinkers.

"Nine out of ten advertisers wouldn't touch it for the obvious reasons," says John Connolly, senior VP/out-of-home media at MediaCom and chairman of the outdoor media committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. "Why would anyone want to have their brand associated with garbage?"

But the folks at City Media Concepts, the New York-based company that developed these so-called ReceptaSigns, say their design makes it look more like an advertising kiosk and less like a trash receptacle. More importantly, unlike many traditional outdoor media options that depend on passive viewer involvement, consumers actually interact with the ReceptaSigns. That's the kind of engagement communications planners say they are looking for media to deliver.

"The knee-jerk reaction is nobody is going to want to put their brand on a garbage can. Having said that, you really have to see what it looks like. If it's clean and well-maintained and its in good locations, it might be right for some brands," says TargetCast's Farella, who says he hasn't actually seen the new ad receptacles yet.

Photos of ReceptaSigns are posted at www.citymediaconcepts.com and the company says New York is but a pilot test with the city's Department of Sanitation. Based on the response from Madison Avenue, the company plans to roll them out to highly trafficked areas of other major metros soon.

Where this and other new forms of out-of-home media ultimately go is a matter of imagination and technological feasibility. CMC has plans eventually hard-wire and illuminate the receptacles and with the cost of video technology coming down, it's not inconceivable that such media ultimately will have the kind of full-motion effect of conventional TV programming.

Chett Rubenstein, CEO of Connecticut-based CTtech Solutions, is developing such a plan using a network of low-cost digital displays. The plan is to initially rollout the so-called Digital Signage Networks in local retail establishments, as an alternative for other local media buys (newspapers, TV, radio). Ultimately, with enough market mass, Rubenstein envisions a national affiliate network of local retailers splitting DSN's inventory with national advertisers.

Ultimately, new electronic forms of out-of-home advertising are likely to converge with traditional electronic media, especially as the TV and radio expand into wireless and streaming media, a concept communications planners describe as "seamless media."