• by Newswire Report , June 9, 2003

An Arbitron study has found that exposure to outdoor media for adults 25-54 is on par with the audiences of other media.

The findings were discussed Monday during the Outdoor Advertising Association of America's annual convention by Arbitron Inc. President/CEO Steve Morris. He said that outdoor locations on Interstate 85 reach nearly as many of the prime adult demographic as the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, the local metro daily newspaper. The reach for outdoor media in these locations exceeded the audiences of several other types of local media, including urban contemporary FM, WSB-TV late news, a smooth jazz FM station and the WAGA-TV late news.

Not only did Arbitron find that outdoor was now comparable to all other media, but it said that its ratings methodology can be used to complement traffic statistics, delivering measures of who the audience is, in terms of demographics as well as number. Arbitron also discovered that consumer travel patterns have a more significant impact on the audience delivery of outdoor locations than the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the neighborhood the billboard is located.

At the OAAA event, Morris said Arbitron plans to go much further than audience research with Arbitron Outdoors.

"We want to provide a multi-layered information service to the industry, designed to meet the shared needs of advertisers, agencies and the outdoor [industry]. We want to provide credible audience data, software that converts data into usable information that makes the medium easy to buy, and finally, thorough training so that you get the full value inherent in the information we have provided," Morris said.