• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, August 23, 2010

The out-of-home advertising industry saw total revenues increase 3.6% to $1.88 billion in the second quarter of 2010, according to new figures from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. This is the first year-over-year gain since the second quarter of 2008, when revenue grew 1.7%, and the biggest gain since the fourth quarter of 2007, when it grew 6%.

The medium's second-quarter results also exceed estimates for the year-over-year increase in total ad spending, predicted by Magna to rise 2% in the second quarter of 2010. Better still, the recovery appears to be gaining momentum, with monthly revenues up 7.1% in June, according to OAAA President and CEO Nancy Fletcher.

OAAA executives attributed the medium's success, in part, to the adoption of new industry-wide measurement standards promulgated by the Traffic Audit Bureau, with input from major OOH advertising companies, media buyers and advertising clients.

The TAB's "Eyes-on" standards provide a metric based on the audience's likelihood to see signage, based partly on visibility and travel surveys conducted with drivers and pedestrians.

The medium is also getting a boost from the rapid growth of digital out-of-home advertising. PQ Media predicts that total ad spending on DO networks will jump from $2.47 billion in 2009 to $3.8 billion in 2014, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.4%.

Stephen Freitas, OAAA's chief marketing officer, stated that "out-of-home companies invested in infrastructure and their medium and what you are seeing now are the dividends from that investment."