• by David Kaplan , March 21, 2005

Quick: what medium saw total ad spending of $5.5 billion in 2004, an increase of 91 percent from 10 years ago? It might come as a surprise, but it's out-of-home--and a study from WPP Group's Mediaedge:cia suggests that it's likely to grow even more, compared to its more technological and broadcast rivals.

Nevertheless, agencies are going to have a difficult time trying to keep up and quantify the changes in the OOH category, said Joe Abruzzo, managing partner at Mediaedge:cia and director of its MediaLab research unit, who recently helped author an agency study on the medium's performance for 2004.

"Historically, it's been harder to capture the impact of outdoor media than other forms, such as TV, radio, magazine--mainly because its audience is defined while on the move," Abruzzo said.

Among the people on the move, certain demographics tend to notice certain kinds of OOH ads, Abruzzo noted. In general, young demos and men are more likely to notice ads, with men more likely to notice train, taxi, and bus shelter ads than women. At the other end of the spectrum, seniors are the least likely to notice and consider brands advertised on billboards.

In particular, OOH is also one of the least annoying forms of ads--only 26 percent of those surveyed in Mediaedge:cia's study said they were irritated by such ads. But in terms of annoyance, taxi ads are considered the worst of the lot (29 percent), with young people ages 15-24 most likely to find taxi ads bothersome (43 percent). Meanwhile, people in the West are most put off by billboards and posters (34 percent), and North Central consumers say that ads on trains rub them the wrong way.

As for the newer forms of outdoor media, such as interactive billboards or ones that feature some sort of video or audio, consumers haven't felt the impact yet, Abruzzo noted, with only 37 percent saying they've encountered these types of ads. Still, as long as they continue to keep the annoyance factor low, OOH is likely to increase over the next few years. It will be interesting if OOH ads can maintain that balance, he said.

"Out-of-home media is clearly growing, as spending is up and advertisers are showing increased confidence in the medium," Abruzzo said. "As newer forms of media come into the marketplace, it will be a challenge to measure the effects of each new form on consumers' brand perceptions and purchases."